Changing your plan

The NDIS is designed to give you the supports you need to build your skills, maximise your independence, and help you pursue your goals. If your situation and needs change, your plan may also need to change. 

You should tell us about any changes in your life so we can make sure you are getting the right NDIS supports

We will work directly with you each time your plan needs to be changed.

You don’t have to wait for your check-in to tell us about changes to your life. You can ask us to change your plan at any time. 

You can do this by talking to your my NDIS contact, support coordinator or recovery coach about what has changed. They will explain what kind of new information we need to help decide if we can make changes to your plan.

The information we need will depend on the reason you’re asking for changes.

We’ll look at the information and evidence you give us, the changes you’re asking for, and how the changes work with the rest of your NDIS plan. 

We'll talk to you about how you might be able to use the flexibility in your current plan to meet your needs.

When we consider changes to your NDIS plan, we need to make sure that your plan works together as a package of supports external website that relate to your disability. The changes you ask for need to be the kinds of supports we can fund external website.

A plan variation external website is a small change to your current plan. When we do a plan variation, we only make changes to part of your plan. 

Small changes we can make include: 

• your goals 
• the information about you, including your contact details
• your plan reassessment date 
• the way you manage your funding component amounts.
• providing funding for short-term NDIS supports when your situation changes suddenly 
• crisis or emergency funding because of a significant change in your NDIS support needs.

We can make this change while we prepare for your plan reassessment.

In a plan reassessment external website, we replace your plan with a new one. 

We'll do a plan reassessment when:

• your life changes and your plan no longer meets your need
• the plan reassessment date in your plan is coming up and your NDIS support needs change.

If you have a plan reassessment for changes to your plan, your my NDIS contact, support coordinator or recovery coach will help you prepare.

Your my NDIS contact can help with explaining:

• the kinds of information and evidence you’ll need for your plan reassessment
• how to go about gathering this information and evidence
• the plan reassessment process.

An NDIA planner will review the information and evidence you provide for your plan reassessment. The NDIA planner will consider what NDIS supports are related to your disability, will help you to pursue your goals, increase your independence, and help you work, study and join social activities.

Learn more about how we develop your NDIS plan.

Read more about how and when we can change your plan external website in our guideline.

If a participant plan is not reassessed before its end date, we will automatically extend the plan for a further 12 months. We call this a plan continuation. We previously called this a plan auto-extension.

A plan continuation means that instead of getting a new plan, your current plan will continue.  

If your plan is working for you, we will continue your plan if we haven’t completed a plan reassessment with you before it expires.

When your plan is continued, the value will be adjusted in line with indexation.

When indexation is applied to your plan, the total budget is adjusted based on the NDIA Annual Pricing Review, where the Agency adjusts the value of some types of budgets.  

In most situations, participants don’t need to do anything for their plan to be continued. Your NDIS funding will continue to be available. We will notify you by letter and in the my NDIS participant portal if your plan has been continued.  

Your automatically extended plan will be the same length as your current plan, or up to 12 months.  It will have indexed funding amounts in your core and capacity building budgets as your previous plan.  

You can speak to your plan manager, support coordinator or my providers about what your plan auto continuation means for any current NDIS supports you receive.

In some cases when a plan is due for reassessment soon, we will reach out to you to schedule a check-in. We may schedule a check-in for participants who are children and young people or participants being managed by specialist NDIS teams.  

At your check-in we will check if your current plan is working for you. At the end of the check-in your my NDIS contact will recommend to either continue your plan, or they will book in a plan reassessment.

If no changes are required at your check-in, your my NDIS contact will recommend a plan continuation. An NDIA staff member will then review this and decide if a plan continuation goes ahead. If a change is required, then a plan reassessment will be booked.

These options will be discussed with you at the check-in.

As we continue to move more participants to our new computer system, more NDIS plans will be indexed.  

If your plan doesn't meet your needs, we are here to help resolve any concerns.  

If you haven't heard from us and have been waiting to request changes to your plan, you can call us on 1800 800 110. 

If we decide not to change your plan, we’ll explain our decision. We’ll talk to you about your review rights external website and offer a plan implementation meeting. 

A plan implementation meeting is a chance to work with your my NDIS contact and discuss how your current NDIS supports can work better together to make the most of your plan. 

You can ask for an internal review of our decision. Learn more about internal and external reviews of our decisions external website in our guideline.

Amendments to the NDIS Act about how the NDIA should manage changes to participant plans was passed by the Australian Parliament in March 2022. This means there are now two ways we can make changes to your plan.

Learn more about the next step in the NDIS participant journey.

To learn about how we can change your plan, you can read our factsheet and use our checklist external website:

• changing your plan
• checklist – changing your NDIS plan.