NDIA Accountability Project

Submit an application to vary the participant’s

‹ PrevPage 1 of 10 · Source p. 527Next ›
Comments

FOI 24/25-1473 DOCUMENT 48

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments

Guidance in this document is not approved for use unless you view it in PACE.

This article provides guidance for all NDIA staff and partners to:

  • record the application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments
  • finalise and submit the application to vary the categories of impairments on the participant’s Notice of impairments
  • withdraw a Vary Impairment Categories case.

Note: the Vary Impairment Categories case will only work for participants that have a Notice of impairments. This only applies to participants who have submitted an access request from 1 January 2025 onwards.

Recent updates

17 March 2025

Guidance updated to include:

  • The following wording changes in PACE:

    • ‘Update Impairment’ case to ‘Vary Impairment Categories’ case
    • ‘Update Impairment’ tab to ‘Update Impairment Categories’ tab
    • ‘New or Updated Impairments’ menu to ‘Update Impairment Category Requests’ menu
    • ‘Remove’ impairment category to ‘end’ impairment category.

  • New categories of impairments can now be added against criteria the participant hadn’t previously met access for: disability, early intervention or both requirements.

  • Type should be left blank in section Create the Vary Impairment Categories case

  • Developmental delay shouldn’t be selected as an impairment category if the participant is a child who’s 6 years and older.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 1 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

Before you start

You have:

  • received an application from a participant or authorised representative to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments
  • discussed the Notice of impairments with the participant or their authorised representative to help them understand it.
  • received at least one piece of evidence with the application or have checked for evidence already on the Person Account. Use article What evidence of disability is required to check you have relevant evidence to upload.
  • confirmed the participant is asking to vary their Notice of impairments, and not a disability change. If the participant requests to update their primary and/or secondary disabilities, use articles Request a participant disability change and Add a new primary disability.
  • read and understood Our Guideline – Applying to the NDIS (external) section What happens after we decide? (external) and How do we weigh evidence of disability? (external).
  • determined which categories of impairments best fit the participant’s circumstances and that the Notice of impairments needs to be varied to reflect this. Use articles Descriptions of impairment categories and Impairment categories guide.

Note: impairments aren’t recorded under the categories of impairments in PACE. If a participant’s impairment changes but is within the same category or categories of impairments, you don’t need to vary the Notice of impairments.

Record application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments

Confirm the participant has a Notice of impairments

  1. Check whether the participant has a correspondence nominee or child representative. Go to the participant’s Person Account. Select Relationships, then Authorised Reps.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 2 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

Any child representative or nominee roles will appear here. For more information go to article Check consent, nominee, child representative or self-representation authorities.

  1. If the participant has a child representative or correspondence nominee, navigate to the representative’s Person Account. Otherwise stay in the participant’s Person Account.

  2. Select Documents tab.

  3. Open the participant’s access met letter.

  4. Scroll down to check a Notice of impairments is attached to the letter. This will include one or more of the categories of impairments:

    • Intellectual
    • Cognitive
    • Neurological
    • Sensory
    • Physical
    • Impairments relating to a psychosocial disability
    • Developmental delay.

  5. If the access met letter:

    • includes a Notice of impairments: continue to section Create the Vary Impairment Categories case
    • doesn’t have a Notice of impairments: categories of impairments can only be updated for participants that have a Notice of impairments. This only applies to participants who have submitted an access request from 1 January 2025 onwards.

    End of process.

Note: if the participant requests to update their primary and/or secondary disabilities, use articles Request a participant disability change and Add a new primary disability.

Create the Vary Impairment Categories case

  1. Select Cases.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 3 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

  1. Select New.

  2. Select Vary Impairment Categories, select Next.

  3. Complete the case information. Leave Type blank.

  4. At Case Reason, select Eligibility Reassessment.

    Note: you must select Eligibility Reassessment. This allows the access delegate to make an accurate decision based on the evidence provided. In some cases this will involve updating the category under a new eligibility criteria which the participant hadn’t met access for. The access delegate can’t do this if any other option is selected. This is a temporary workaround for PACE.

  5. Select Save.

  6. In the Request tab at Requested by, select who made the request from the dropdown list. You can only select Participant or Authorised Representative.

    Note: don’t select NDIS CEO. If you select:

    • Authorised Representative go to step 8.
    • Participant go to step 9.

  7. At Requestor Name select who made the request.

  8. If after reviewing the participant’s circumstances, you need to end all current categories of impairments to replace with new categories go to step 10. Otherwise continue to step 12.

  9. You can’t end all active categories of impairments in the Vary Impairment Categories case. Add the new categories of impairments that apply to the participant’s situation. Don’t end any categories of impairments.

    Note: after you submit the case, the access delegate making the decision will create a second Vary Impairment Categories case to end the relevant categories of impairments.

  10. At Describe the Request free-text field, include which categories the access delegate must end using this template, then continue to step 13:

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 4 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

is applying to vary their Notice of impairments, which requires the following categories of impairments updates: Add: . End: .

If the access delegate decides all existing categories must be ended and replaced, they must:

  • Add the replacement category or categories using this case.
  • Create a new Vary Impairment Categories case, after completing this one, to end the existing categories.

  1. At Describe the Request free-text field, use the following template:

    is applying to vary their Notice of impairments. Evidence suggests the following categories of impairments should be added/ended: Add: . End: .

  2. Select Save. The case status will move from New to In Progress. If this doesn’t happen automatically, refresh the page.

  3. At Evidence tab upload and link relevant evidence to the case. Use article Add and link evidence to a case.

  4. Select the Update Impairment Categories tab. A table of the participant’s Current Impairment Categories will display.

    Note: the Update Impairment Categories tab refers to updating the participant’s categories of impairments on their Notice of impairments.

  5. If you need to:

    • add a new category of impairments, continue to section Record the application to add a category of impairments
    • end a current category of impairments, continue to section Record the application to end a category of impairments

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 5 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

  • end all current categories of impairments to replace with new categories, start at section End all categories of impairments to replace with new categories of impairments.

End all categories of impairments to replace with new categories of impairments

There must always be at least one category of impairments recorded for the participant. You won’t be able to submit the application if you end all active categories of impairments.

  1. Make sure you’ve recorded a note for the delegate when creating the Vary Impairment Categories case. The steps for this are at section Create the Vary Impairment Categories case.
  2. Add all categories of impairments not already listed using section Record the application to add a category of impairments. If the access delegate decides that the previous categories of impairment no longer apply, they’ll create a new case to end those categories of impairments.
  3. After adding the new categories of impairments, continue to section Finalise and submit the application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments.

Record the application to add a category of impairments

You must add all categories of impairments that aren’t currently listed, regardless of which the participant has applied to add. This allows the access delegate to review all evidence and make a decision about which categories to add. They can’t add any categories that aren’t included in this request. This is a temporary workaround for PACE.

  1. In the Update Impairment Category Requests menu, select Add Impairment Category.
  2. At Eligibility Criteria select the relevant criteria from the drop down list.
  3. At Select Impairment Category select the relevant category to be added from the dropdown list.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 6 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

Note: if the participant is a child who is 6 years and older, don’t select developmental delay.

  1. Select Save.

    Note: you can’t add the same combination of impairment and criteria more than once.

  2. At Vary Impairment Categories a message will display that the impairment has been added.

  3. Repeat steps 1-5 and add all categories of impairments that aren’t currently listed on the participant’s Notice of impairments.

    Note: the access delegate is unable to add categories that aren’t included in this request. By adding all categories, the delegate is able to select which categories to add once they review the evidence for a decision. This is a temporary workaround for PACE.

  4. If the:

    • participant’s application requires ending a current category of impairments – but not all the current categories, continue to section Record the application to end a category of impairments
    • participant’s application requires ending all current categories of impairments, or the participant hasn’t applied to end any categories, continue to section Finalise and submit the application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments.

Record the application to end a category of impairments

If the participant’s application requires ending all current categories of impairments to replace them with one or more different categories of impairments, go to section End all categories of impairments to replace with new categories of impairments.

  1. Select End Impairment Category next to the relevant category of impairments.
  2. Confirm the eligibility criteria and category of impairments is the one you want to end.
  3. Select End impairment checkbox. Select Save.
  4. At Vary Impairment Category a message will display that the impairment category has ended.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 7 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

  1. If you need to add a current category of impairments, return to section Record the application to add a category of impairments. Otherwise continue to section Finalise and submit the application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments.

Finalise and submit the application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments

  1. At Update Impairment Categories tab, review the Update Impairment Category Requests menu. All of the categories of impairments you’ve recorded to add and end will show in this menu.

  2. Check if the correct categories added or ended are displayed. If you’re adding any categories of impairment, you must add all categories not already listed on the participant’s Notice of impairments, for the access delegates decision. Edit any that aren’t correct before submitting. Select Update to edit any of the changes recorded in the table.

    Note: if you’re making an edit to make sure a category of impairments isn’t added, in the Update Impairment Categories screen, select End Impairment Category.

  3. Select Submit. The case status will move to Pending Outcome.

    Note: at least one piece of evidence must be linked to the case before the request can be submitted.

Withdraw a Vary Impairment Categories case

Only use this section if you:

  • are an access delegate
  • need to withdraw the Vary Impairment Categories case and,
  • the case has the case status New or In Progress. Once it’s in Pending Outcome, you can’t withdraw the case, unless you’re an access delegate.
  1. Select the Withdraw Case button in the top right hand corner of the Vary Impairment Categories case screen.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 8 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

  1. Select a Closure Reason from the following options:

    • Administrative error
    • Agency initiated withdrawal
    • Participant requested withdrawal
    • Person deceased.

  2. At Closure Comments enter any information as required. This is optional.

  3. Select Confirm. A note will state the case has been withdrawn successfully.

  4. Select Done. The case is now withdrawn. End of process.

Next steps

  1. The case will go to the Update Impairment Routing Queue to be reviewed and a decision will be made by an access delegate. If the participant has restricted access applied, the case will route to the RA Participant Routing Queue.
  2. The access delegate will review the current Notice of impairments and make a decision to vary or not vary the categories of impairments on that notice. They’ll send a letter to the participant with the outcome.

Article labels

PACE user role names

No change.

Topics

No change.

Case names

No change.

Ownership

No change.

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 9 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

OFFICIAL

Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

Version control

Version Amended by Brief Description of Change Status Date
3.0 VFK746 Class 1 approval.

Noted that an access delegate can withdraw an Update Impairment case when status is Pending outcome.		 APPROVED 2025-01-14
4.0 VFK746 Class 1 Approval – progress to QA and publish

Update to link name from Add a new primary disability to Update the participant’s disabilities in section Before you start.

Note: Not published. Held back from scheduled publishing on 10 February due to further consultation being required. Rescheduled for 24 February.		 APPROVED 2025-01-28
5.0 IIW664 Class 2 approval. Updates to align with March 10 feature release.

Note: Release and publication rescheduled to 17 March due to BCP.		 APPROVED 2025-03-06

Submit an application to vary the participant’s Notice of impairments 516234967

V5.0 2025-03-06 Page 10 of 10

This document is uncontrolled when printed

OFFICIAL

Comments

Loading comments…

What kind of comment is this?
Add a comment