A new NDIS Rule: Plan Administration
The Government is proposing changes to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act) to establish a new Plan Administration Rule.
This new Rule will provide greater flexibility for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) in administering participants plans, and reduce the burden and red tape for individual participants.
You can read more about the legislative changes required in the NDIS Act to make this possible on the Schedule 1: The Participant Service Guarantee and Schedule 2: Improvements to processes pages.
You can read more about the new Plan Administration Rule below.
You can have your say on the Rule by making a submission.
On this page
What has led to the changes
As part of the 2019 independent review of the NDIS Act, Mr David Tune AO PSM, consulted with people with disabilities, their carers and families, and the broader community and found that planning processes were not as flexible as they could be. Many participants who made submissions mentioned the challenges and delays they faced in getting plans changed to fix even small administrative errors.
Some of these issues are due to the NDIS Act and Rules being inflexible about how and what can be changed in participants’ plans. While this was intended as a safeguard, the Government recognises that change is needed.
Read more:
- The NDIS Act review report for the full recommendations and the reasons for them
- A plain English summary of the NDIS Act review report
- The Government’s response to the NDIS Act review report
- Easy Read summary of the report, recommendations and response.
What is changing
The NDIS Act
The proposed changes to the NDIS Act enable the creation of a Plan Administration Rule.
These changes will be made through Schedules 1 and 2 of the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Bill 2021.
Read more about the Schedule 1 changes to the NDIS Act and Schedule 2 changes to the NDIS Act.
The Plan Administration Rule
The new Plan Administration Rule will build on the amendments in the Bill designed to make it easier for participants to change their plans and get a plan that best reflects their needs at a given point in time.
It will enable the NDIA to be more responsive to the needs of participants and sets out clearer policies on how the NDIA can help participants.
The new Rule will:
- set out the circumstances in which the NDIA can vary a plan without requiring a plan review or the creation of a new plan (recommendation 21 of the 2019 NDIS Act review). This will be particularly useful for participants who use assistive technology or home modifications, enabling them to seek further quotes for these supports and have them implemented without a full review of their existing plan
- set out the circumstances in which the NDIA will conduct a participant-or-CEO-initiated plan review (recommendation 20)
- set out when the NDIA may intervene in the market on behalf of a participant to help them access their NDIS supports (recommendation 17)
- set out the record keeping expectations for a person receiving NDIS funding (Note: this was not set out in the 2019 NDIS Act review).
As part of this reform process, the Plan Administration Rule will also transfer existing policy provisions that are in the current Plan Management Rule, relating to when a participant may be temporarily absent from Australia without impacting their NDIS funding and the manner in which NDIS amounts are to be paid.
You can read the following documents to understand the new Rule:
- The Plan Administration Rule PDF [452 kB] | DOCX [152 kB] |
Listen to PDF - Explanation of the Plan Administration Rule PDF [452 kB] | DOCX [152 kB] | Listen to PDF
You can have your say on the Plan Administration Rule by making a submission.