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What evidence of disability is required?

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What evidence of disability is required?

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

This article provides guidance for a local area coordinator, early childhood partner, or access delegate to understand:

  • who can provide evidence of disability
  • what evidence does the NDIA require
  • how to check evidence
  • what to do if the applicant lives in a remote region.

Recent updates

3 October 2024

Linked article title changed from ‘How to complete the access request case form’ to ‘Complete form in the access request case.’

Updates to improve accessibility and consistency with related articles.

Before you start

You have:

Who can provide evidence of disability?

A person’s treating professional must provide disability evidence.

Evidence provided by treating professionals – such as medical reports – needs to consist of genuine, original documents. The information must also be specific to the person applying.

Before accepting evidence from a treating professional, you should read the article Check treating professional details.

What evidence does the NDIA require?

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Anyone applying for the NDIS needs to have evidence of disability, regardless of what NDIS support they are asking for. A person’s evidence needs to show they meet all of the disability requirements.

The person should provide this evidence with their application. This could be either when they first submit, or during the eligibility check stage.

You can’t submit the access request case until you have evidence of disability from the person.

How to check evidence

Before the person’s NDIS eligibility decision can be made, you need to check that the person’s disability evidence:

  • Is from a treating professional registered with AHPRA (the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency). Use article Check treating professional details.
  • Provides enough information to show if the person is eligible for priority application decision. Use article Request priority eligibility decision.
  • Records any requests for an exemption. Use article: Log an activity or internal note.
  • Demonstrates that the person has a condition from List A (external), List B (external) or List D (external).
  • Shows if the person meets all 5 of the disability requirements. Use article Understand disability requirements.

If the evidence does not show each of the above, the applicant will need to provide additional evidence.

What if the applicant lives in a remote region?

The NDIA makes some exceptions to the evidence requirements for people living in remote regions of Australia. In such regions it may be difficult to provide evidence – or even obtain it in the first place.

When you support applicants who live in very remote communities, you must record information about their:

  • local health service
  • consent for the NDIA to talk to the local health service
  • local community connection contact

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  • Council and/or Department of Social Services contact in the area.

To be eligible for an exemption, the person must live in a Remote or Very Remote location. This would mean an ‘MM6’ or ‘MM7’ region, under the Modified Monash Model (external). If this is the case, you should talk with your team leader about the application. They can help you consider options and alternatives for the person’s circumstances.

Next steps

  • If you are completing an access request case, continue following the guidance in article Complete form in the access request case.

Article labels

PACE user role names

No change.

Topics

No change.

Case names

No change.

Ownership

No change.

Version control

Version Amended by Brief Description of Change Status Date
1.0 EMN960 Draft approved by Publishing Approver (EL2) APPROVED 2022-09-07
3.0 EMN960 EL2 Review and approval APPROVED 2023-10-13
4.0 EMN960 EL2 review and approval to QA and Publish APPROVED 2024-02-06

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Knowledge Article

For Internal Use Only

Version Amended by Brief Description of Change Status Date
5.0 IIW664 Class 1 (SG EL2) approved
Updates to improve accessibility and consistency with related articles.
Linked article title changed from ‘How to complete the access request case form’ to ‘Complete form in the access request case.’		 APPROVED 2024-09-25

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