New NDIS Plan Cut Your Supports? How to Ask the NDIA for an Internal Review (Before the 3 Months Run Out)

The NDIS changed on 1 October 2026, and a lot of participants will open a new plan in the coming months and find less in it than they expected. If you think the NDIA got your decision wrong, you can ask it to review that decision, but only within 3 months of receiving it, and the request works far better in writing with your evidence attached.

This guide covers which decisions you can challenge, how the timing actually plays out, and what a review request needs to say. If you want the request drafted for you, Claim Done’s NDIS Internal Review Request turns your answers into a clear letter to the NDIA that you review, approve and lodge yourself.

Why this matters right now

Parliament passed the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill on 19 August 2026, and the Governor-General signed it the next day. The NDIA’s own page on the new NDIS laws sets out what is changing and when.

Two changes land on participants first. Support budgets for social, economic and community participation supports and for improved daily living skills are being reduced, starting from 1 October 2026 when a plan is reassessed or a new plan is approved, and from 1 February 2027 when a plan is renewed. Help with eating and drinking, education supports, employment supports and disability-related health supports are not affected by that reduction.

The other is plan reassessments. Only participants, plan nominees and child representatives can now ask for one before the scheduled date, and the NDIA has 90 days to decide whether to reassess once it receives the request.

So the next round of plans will arrive under new rules. Some of those plans will be right. Some will not, and the people holding them need to know exactly what they can do about it.

Which NDIS decisions you can ask to be reviewed

Not every NDIA decision is reviewable. The NDIA’s page on how to request a review of a decision lists the common ones. You can ask for a review if the NDIA decides:

• you are not eligible for the NDIS
• you are no longer eligible
• to approve your plan, including the NDIS supports it funds
• not to do a plan reassessment
• not to do a plan variation
• to vary your plan
• you need a plan nominee or a different child representative.

The same page says plainly that budget reductions are not a reviewable decision. Read those two lines together. Arguing against the October reform itself goes nowhere in an internal review. Arguing that the plan the NDIA approved does not fund a support you need, and showing the evidence for it, is exactly what a review of a plan approval exists for.

If you are unsure whether your decision can be reviewed, call the NDIA on 1800 800 110 and ask. Do that early, because the clock is already running.

The 3-month limit, and how the timing really works

The NDIA says to ask for a review within 3 months from the day you received the decision. That is the day it reached you, not the day you finally read it properly or the day you got the reports together. Write the received date down now.

Here is how the stages stack up, using the figures on the NDIA and Tribunal pages:

1. Up to 3 months to ask the NDIA for an internal review.
2. The NDIA aims to finish within 60 days. If it asks you for extra documents, you have up to 28 days to send them, and you can ask for more time.
3. 28 days after the internal review is completed to ask the Administrative Review Tribunal for an external review.

Put those together and something useful falls out. If you wait until week 12 to lodge, then wait another two months for the outcome, five months have passed since the plan arrived, and you may have been living on a plan that does not fit for all of it. Lodging in the first few weeks costs you nothing and buys you months. The 3-month limit is the latest you can ask, not a target.

There is also a backstop. The Administrative Review Tribunal says that if the NDIA has not completed its internal review within 90 days of your request, the Tribunal may be able to review the decision without waiting. Keep a copy of your request and the date you lodged it, because the Tribunal asks for that copy.

Review, reassessment or variation: pick the right door

People lose weeks by asking for the wrong thing. The three routes do different jobs.

Internal review is for when you think the decision was wrong on the information the NDIA had, or should have had. Your situation has not changed; the decision has.

Plan reassessment is for when your situation has significantly and lastingly changed, for example your ability to do daily activities, or your living, education, work or informal support arrangements. The NDIA’s plan reassessment page says it needs a completed request form from you, your nominee or child representative, plus recent evidence, which usually means within 4 months of the request and after your current plan was approved. A provider cannot ask on your behalf.

Plan variation is for smaller, short-term or urgent changes, and the NDIA says participants can still ask for these.

If the NDIA refuses a reassessment or a variation, that refusal is itself on the reviewable list. So a “no” to a reassessment request is not the end of the road; it is a decision you can ask to have looked at again.

What a strong review request says

The NDIA tells you what helps it review a decision. Tell it what decision you were expecting, why you think it should make a different decision, any information you already gave that you want reassessed, and whether you will send new evidence.

That maps neatly onto a short letter with five parts:

• The decision. What it was, the date on the letter and the date you received it. Quote the NDIA’s own wording if you can.
• What you asked for. The support, the hours or the item, in specific terms. “Personal care, 10 hours a week” beats “more help”.
• Why the decision should change. How the disability affects daily life, what happens without the support, and anything the NDIA did not consider.
• The evidence. Each report or letter by author and date, with the new ones marked as new.
• The decision you want instead. One clear sentence the reviewer can say yes to.

Two things weaken requests more than anything else. The first is anger at the system in place of facts about the person; the reviewer cannot change the law, only the decision. The second is evidence that describes a diagnosis but not its effect. A report saying someone has a condition helps less than one saying they cannot shower or dress without help, how often, and what goes wrong when the help is missing.

How to lodge it with the NDIA

You can ask for an internal review in any of these ways, according to the NDIA:

• call 1800 800 110
• submit an enquiry with your evidence through the NDIA service hub
• post a letter with your evidence to Chief Executive Officer, NDIA, GPO Box 700 Canberra ACT 2601
• visit a local office in person
• send the NDIA’s own request for a review of a decision form.

A phone request is valid, but a written one leaves a record of exactly what you asked for, when, and what you sent with it. That record matters twice: if the NDIA goes quiet past 90 days, and if you end up at the Tribunal, which asks for a copy of your internal review request.

Family members, friends, a local area coordinator, an early childhood partner, a nominee or a child representative can help you ask. The NDIA says you need to let it know they have your permission.

If the internal review goes against you

You then have 28 days after the NDIA completes the internal review to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal. The Tribunal says there is no application fee for reviewing an NDIA decision, you can apply online, by phone on 1800 228 333, by email, by letter or in person, and you can represent yourself.

The Tribunal will want your contact details, the date you received the NDIA’s decision, a copy of that decision, brief reasons why it is wrong, a copy of your internal review request, and any new information. If you miss the 28 days, you can ask the Tribunal in writing for more time and explain why; the NDIA gets 14 days to object.

Notice how much of that list your internal review letter already covers. A well-built first request is most of the work for the second stage.

Let Claim Done draft the request

Claim Done’s NDIS Internal Review Request asks you plain questions: what the NDIA decided, when you received it, who is making the request, what you asked for and the reason the NDIA gave, why a different decision should be made, your evidence, and the decision you want instead. It then drafts a clear, structured request addressed to the NDIA, with each piece of evidence listed.

You review it and approve it, then download it and lodge it yourself through the service hub, by post or at a local office. It checks the received date against the 3-month limit before you pay, and if the NDIA has already done an internal review, it stops and points you to the Administrative Review Tribunal Application instead. It is a flat fee with no subscription; the current price is on the pricing page. Claim Done is not a law firm.

If a new plan has landed and something you rely on is missing, do not wait for week 12. Start your NDIS review request on Claim Done, answer the questions while the decision letter is in front of you, and have the request ready to lodge today.

Frequently asked questions

How long do I have to ask for an NDIS internal review?

The NDIA says to ask within 3 months from the day you received its decision. Count from the day the letter or message reached you. Lodging early is better, because the NDIA aims to take up to 60 days to finish the review.

Can I ask for a review of an NDIS budget reduction?

The NDIA says budget reductions are not a reviewable decision. A decision to approve your plan, including the supports it funds, is reviewable. If a support you need is missing from an approved plan, frame the request around that support and the evidence for it, and ask the NDIA on 1800 800 110 if you are unsure whether your decision can be reviewed.

What is the difference between an NDIS review and a plan reassessment?

An internal review asks the NDIA to look again at a decision you think was wrong. A plan reassessment is for a significant, ongoing change in your situation, needs its own request form and recent evidence, and can only be requested by the participant, a plan nominee or a child representative. A refusal to reassess is itself a reviewable decision.

What happens if the NDIA does not finish the internal review?

The Administrative Review Tribunal says that if the NDIA has not completed an internal review within 90 days of your request, the Tribunal may be able to review the decision without waiting. Send the Tribunal a copy of your internal review request with your application.

Does it cost anything to take an NDIS decision to the Administrative Review Tribunal?

The Tribunal says there is no application fee to apply for a review of a decision made by the NDIA. You generally have 28 days after the internal review is completed to apply, and you can ask in writing for more time if you are late.