Your complete guide to the NDIS changes.

What’s changing in the NDIS in 2024?

The federal government is rolling out NDIS reforms, starting with some significant changes from Thursday 3 October 2024.

There are new rules that cover many aspects of the NDIS including:

• How eligibility is assessed
• The supports that can be funded by the NDIS
• How plans are managed
• How funding is allocated and needs to be spent
• Requirements for information gathering for eligibility reassessment.

The government says most participants won’t notice any changes until a new planning framework is introduced next year. 

It has reassured participants that the purpose of the NDIS will not change and that it will continue to fund disability related support.

How the new legislation will affect people on the NDIS.

New total budget amounts.

From 3 October 2024. This will apply to all new NDIS plans issued after 3 October.

Plans issued after 3 October 2024 will have a total budget amount instead of individual line items. This means you’ll see a total amount for all supports in your plan. This is known as total funded supports.

This change makes it easier to know how much funding you have and how long it needs to last. You can’t spend more funding than what’s available in your plan.

As part of this change, all new plans created after 3 October 2024 will be for 12 months. Longer plans will be reintroduced in the future.

Plan management decisions.

From 3 October 2024. May apply to people who use a plan manager and people who self manage their plans.

The NDIS will be able to change the way your plan is managed if you, your nominee or your plan manager are not using your funding in line with your plan.

New claims and payments framework.

From 3 October 2024 and 3 October 2025.

A new claims and payments framework provides more detail about how and when NDIS funding claims can be made.

From 3 October 2025, claims must be made within two years of providing the support. For the first 12 months after 3 October 2024, the NDIA will honour all claims made for supports provided before the law came into effect.

Here’s an example of what that might look like:

‘Jason’ submits an invoice on 1 October 2025 for a service that is on the ‘not an NDIS support’ list that was delivered 2.5 years ago. In this circumstance the claim can be submitted to the NDIA.

However if he submits the same invoice on or after 3 October 2025, it would not be able to be submitted to the NDIA. This is because the service was delivered more than 2 years prior.

Note: No matter when an invoice is received or submitted, the new legislation rules around excluded services apply to any and all claims with a service on or after 3 October 2024.

We will keep you updated on this as we learn more.

Requests for information and revoking your plan.

From 3 October 2024. 

The NDIA can request specific information, or require you to do certain things like undergo an assessment, if it’s reviewing your status as a participant.

If you do not comply with the request within a reasonable time, the NDIA may revoke your access to the NDIS.

New planning framework.

Implementation timing to be confirmed.

There will be a new planning process that will explain how people can access the NDIS, how needs are assessed, and how flexible budgets are created. Because of changes to the legislation, plans will be built differently in future.

The new laws introduce ‘old’ and ‘new’ framework plans as part of the transition to a new process for setting budgets.

Old Framework Plans.

From 3 October 2024.

Anyone who gets a new NDIS Plan from 3 October will have what is called an ‘Old Framework Plan’. 

These will be different to current plans in the following ways:

• They will be no longer than 12 months
• Plans will include a total funding amount for all supports instead of individual line items
• New plans will show a total budget amount. They make clear the total funding available in your plan and how long the funds need to last.
• Supports may be categorised into one or more groups 
• You may be able to request a payment outside of your funding in exceptional circumstances.

A participant will continue on an ‘old framework plan’ until rules are developed and the new planning framework begins.

New Framework Plans.

12-18 months away.

New Framework Plans will not be available until after the new planning framework is prepared. But we do know some things about them.

• All people on the NDIS will eventually move to a New Framework Plan.
• Plans will include a flexible budget, informed by a support needs assessment. The NDIS will arrange the assessment.
• Plans will include ‘funding periods’ that define how often you can access a portion of your total budget amount or funding component amounts. This means you may get a longer plan, such as a three year plan, with three funding periods of one year each. Unspent funds will rollover between funding periods within the same plan. 
• The NDIS will only add more funding to a plan in very specific situations such as in a crisis or emergency.

Impairment notices.

From 1 January 2025

An ‘impairment notice’ is a new type of document issued by the NDIA that says you have a permanent disability or significant impairment. It will list impairment(s) that meet the disability and/or early intervention requirements.

From 1 January 2025, all new NDIS participants will receive an impairment notice. People already on the NDIS will receive an impairment notice when they transition to a new plan.

The notice will include details about whether you meet the disability or early intervention pathways and the categories of impairment met. Any supports purchased with your NDIS funds must meet the new definition of NDIS supports and relate to the impairment listed on your impairment notice.

This change recognises people with disability who have the same ‘diagnoses’ may have different support needs.

Impairment categories.

The NDIS impairment categories are:

• Intellectual
• Cognitive
• Neurological
• Sensory
• Physical
• Impairments attributable to a psychosocial disability.

One or more categories may be listed on your impairment notice.

Impairments and your NDIS Plan.

Impairments will be directly linked to funding decisions. Your planner will refer to the impairment notice before deciding on your NDIS funding.

From 3 October 2024, for people already on the NDIS, the planner must by law reference the person’s impairment when making plan decisions. Disability advocates have expressed concern about this change for several reasons, including doubt about whether the NDIS has complete and up-to-date information about impairments for current participants.

Varying an impairment notice.

If your impairment notice is incorrect, you can ask for a variation, such as adding other impairments. This process has yet to be defined. You will need supporting information and documents.

Accessing the NDIS.

From 3 October 2024. Applies to all NDIS access requests after this date and existing participants whose eligibility is being reassessed.

Access decisions.

The new rules mean prospective participants will receive more detailed information about their ‘access decision’ when they first become a participant.

When you provide all the necessary information, the NDIA will decide if you can access the NDIS. You will receive a letter that explains this decision, called an ‘access decision’.

Participants will know how they have met the access requirements for the NDIS, either via the disability requirements, the early intervention requirements, or both.

Disability requirements.

Disability requirements have been updated:

Existing: Disability requirements previously stated that the person “is likely to require a support under the NDIS for the person’s lifetime”.

New: Disability requirements now state that the person is “likely to require an NDIS support under the NDIS for the person’s lifetime:

Early intervention requirements have also been updated:

Existing: Early intervention requirements previously stated that early intervention supports must be likely to benefit the person by reducing their future needs for supports in relation to disability.

New: Early intervention requirements now state that early intervention supports that reduce future needs must be NDIS supports.

These changes clarify that a person should only access the NDIS if they require supports which are NDIS supports.

This makes it clearer when a mainstream system that is not the NDIS is responsible for providing support. This change will impact people applying to access the NDIS and existing participants whose eligibility is being reassessed.

New access requests for revoked participants.

If you have your status as a participant revoked and request a review of that decision, you cannot make another access request until your review is complete.

Changes to reasonable and necessary supports criteria.

From 3 October 2024.

The new NDIS legislation introduces additional criteria under reasonable and necessary.

Existing: Supports purchased by NDIS funds must meet all the reasonable and necessary criteria:

• Related to your disability needs
• Help you pursue your goals
• Help improve economic and community participation
• Value for money
• Effective and beneficial
• Takes into account what is reasonably expected for families and communities to provide
• Most appropriately funded or provided through NDIS.

New:

• In addition to the above, the support must be necessary to address the needs of the participant arising from the impairment that met the disability requirements. This means that every support purchased with your NDIS funds needs to be directly connected to the impairment that gains you entry to the scheme. There are some exceptions which we expect to know more about in the future.
• The words ‘most appropriately funded or provided through the NDIS’ will be replaced by ‘the support is an NDIS support for the participant’. You will recall that there will be a new definition of NDIS supports which is what the legislation is referring to here.