Your child’s NDIS plan: what to do if your circumstances change

NDIS plans and changes in your circumstances

If your child has an NDIS plan, it’s important to let the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) know about changes in your child’s or family’s circumstances.

Here are some examples of the changes you need to tell the NDIA about:

Your child gets a new diagnosis.
Your family’s ability to care for and support your child changes.
Your child’s living arrangements change – for example, you move house.
You get or claim compensation for an accident or illness related to your child’s disability.

The NDIA needs to know about changes like these in case your child’s NDIS plan needs to change.

For example, if you move to a rural or remote part of Australia where disability services are more expensive, the funding in your child’s plan might need to increase. Or if your child’s diagnosis changes, your child’s plan goals and support needs might change. This means the funding in your child’s plan might also need to change.

Tell your NDIS local area coordinator (LAC), NDIS early childhood partner or NDIS support coordinator about changes in your circumstances. They can explain what you need to do next and help you with the process.

Telling the NDIA about changes in your circumstances

There are two ways to let the NDIA know about changes in your child’s needs or family’s circumstances.

The first way is to complete a change of circumstances form.

The second way is to ask for an NDIS plan review. You can do this by:

contacting your LAC, early childhood partner or support coordinator
calling the NDIA on 1800 800 110 and speaking to an NDIA representative
going to an NDIA office and speaking to an NDIA representative
sending an email to: enquiries@ndis.gov.au
writing a letter to:
Chief Executive Officer
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601

After you tell the NDIA about changes in your circumstances: what happens next

There are two things that could happen after a change in your child’s needs or family’s circumstances:

The NDIA will say that your child’s plan needs to be reviewed. You can keep using your child’s existing plan while the plan is being reviewed.
The NDIA will say that your child’s plan doesn’t need to be reviewed. You can keep using your child’s existing plan.

Your child’s plan needs to be reviewed: what happens

If the NDIA says your child’s plan needs to be reviewed, your LAC or early childhood partner or an NDIA planner will contact you to arrange a plan review meeting. This review will ensure your child’s plan is meeting your child’s changed needs.

Your child’s plan doesn’t need to be reviewed: what happens

If the NDIA says your child’s plan doesn’t need to be reviewed, you can keep using your child’s existing NDIS plan. You can use the funds in your child’s core supports budget differently to suit changes in circumstances, as long as you’re still using the funds in line with your child’s existing goals.

The core supports budget allocates funds to four categories:

Consumables – everyday use items like continence aids
Daily activities – help with daily living tasks like getting dressed and showered
Social and community participation – support for taking part in activities
Transport – support for getting to activities or appointments.

You can use the funds in these categories to pay for supports and services in other categories, except for transport.

Here are some examples of how you can adjust funds in the core supports budget to adapt to changed circumstances:

Your child no longer needs continence aids. You could use the funds allocated for continence aids in the consumables category for extra support in another category, like social and community participation.
Your child no longer needs as much support to get dressed and showered. This means you don’t need to spend as much on one-on-one support at home in the daily activities category. You could use these funds to pay for support for your child to join a community gymnastics class in the social and community participation category.

When you’re thinking about changing how you spend the funds in your child’s core supports budget, you need to consider the following:

Will changes to your child’s supports still help your child to reach the goals in their NDIS plan?
Will new or different supports still give you good value for money?
Is there enough money in the plan for new supports?
Is the new support something that should be funded by the NDIS and not another government service?
Is the new support safe? It shouldn’t cause harm or put your child or other people at risk.

Your child’s NDIS plan has three support budgets – core supports budget, capacity building supports budget and capital supports budget. It’s a good idea to talk with your LAC, early childhood partner or support coordinator if you need help understanding how these budgets work.