When you meet with an NDIS partner to find out about disability supports, or apply to the NDIS, we will ask for documents that prove your identity.

We will also ask to check your identity documents if you are a child representative, nominee, or authorised representative.

Confirming your identity is one of the ways that we protect your privacy, by making sure we only discuss your information with the right people.

What identity documents do I need to provide?

Identity documents are documents that tell us who you are. They include information like your name, address, date of birth and a photo of you.

To confirm who you are, we need to see 3 different identity documents. Your my NDIS contact can help you work out what documents you need, or to find another way to prove your identity. 

We need 1 birth or arrival document.

This is a document that shows when you were born or arrived in Australia, like your full birth certificate, your passport or your Australian Citizenship Certificate.

We need 2 documents you use in the community.

These are documents that show you live in the community, like a Medicare card or a bank card with your name on it, or a utility account with your name and current address.

You can learn more about the identity documents we use in the Proof of Identity Fact Sheet. 

How do you check my identity documents?

We check your identity documents in 2 ways: 

  • We need to check you’re the person that the documents belong to. We complete a face-to-identity check to make sure you’re the person in the photo identity.
  • We also need to make sure your identity documents are real. The quickest way to do this is to give us consent to use the Document Verification Service (DVS).  

To do this, we’ll ask you to:  

  • Show us the original documents, in person or by video call. 

  • Let us record your document details, and the way we checked them, on our secure computer system.

What is a face-to-identity check?

Completing a face-to-identity check is how we can tell you are the person the documents belong to. We can do this in person or during a video call. 

In a face-to-identity check, we will: 

  • Check you have the right identity documents, and that they are the original versions. 
  • Check each document to make sure the personal details and signatures match. 
  • Look at your face and compare this with your photo identity. We make sure your features match the features on the photo.

What is the Document Verification Service (DVS)?

The Document Verification Service (DVS) is a national secure online system. Australian, State and Territory government agencies, including the NDIS, use the DVS to make sure identity documents are real. 

We use the DVS to check identity documents given to you by Australian, State and Territory agencies. We won’t use the DVS if you don’t give us consent, but it will take us longer to finish checking your identity. 

If we can’t check your documents using the DVS, we’ll need to keep a copy of your identity documents on our computer system.  

When will you confirm my identity?

For most people, we only need to check your identity documents once. We will normally do this the first time we meet. But if you change your legal name, we need to confirm evidence of this change in a document. We’ll update your record with the new documents and your legal name.

We will also check who you are each time you, your child representative, authorised representative, or nominee contact us. We’ll ask for three pieces of personal information we have recorded, and then check that this matches the information on our secure computer system. This is how we check we’re speaking to the right person.

Although we already have controls in place to protect participant information, NDIS participants can ask for extra protection and privacy measures on their information. We call this restricted access.

You can request restricted access by calling our National Contact Centre or talking to your my NDIS contact or NDIS partner.

Once you have restricted access, NDIA staff and partners who have permission to access your information can support you and help with any enquiries you may have.

Read more about why and how we ask you for information, what we do with it, and how we keep you information safe in our privacy and information guideline.

Factsheets

To learn more about how we check your identity and giving consent to share your information or let someone else do things for you, read our factsheets on:

  • confirming your identity
  • understanding consent
  • nominees
  • child representatives.