Document 12 FOI 25/26-1985 OFFICIAL

The contents of this document are OFFICIAL.

Explain a plan change decision

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 understand who explains a plan change decision and how they do this.

Recent updates

10 November 2025

Guidance updated to advise:

content about explaining decisions has been added here from article Discuss a plan change request
an enquiry case must not be linked to a closed plan change case
we have a new article Action a request to explain a decision.

Before you start

You have:

read and understood Our Guideline – Changing your plan (external)
read and understood article Consider a request for personal information
completed all tasks in article [Make a plan change decision](https://example.com) or Make a separated decision.

If you weren’t the decision maker and you’ve been contacted by the participant or their authorised representative to further explain a plan change decision, you need to use article, Action a request to explain a decision.

Explain a plan change decision

Every plan change decision must be explained to the participant by the decision maker. This explanation may be about:

an overall plan change decision
a sub-decision which relates to part of the plan change request.

Depending on the decision, you may need to explain:

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why their plan change request wasn’t approved
the decision to vary their plan instead of reassessing their plan
why you decided not to change the fund management type
the NDIS funding criteria related to their reasonable and necessary supports. To learn more, go to Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external).

Explain an overall plan change decision

From the Person Account, select the Decisions tab.
Select the relevant Decision Name. The case type will be Plan Change.

Note: this will open a new tab.
From the Justifications table, select the hyperlink at Justification Number.
On the Details tab, use the information to explain the overall plan change decision.

Note: you can’t add an explanation to a justification after it’s been created.

Record the plan change decision explanation

From the Details tab where you’ve just used information to explain the decision to the participant, go to Case.
Select the hyperlink to open the case.
Log an activity to document this discussion. You can do this even if the case is closed. Use article [Log an activity or internal note](https://example.com).

Note: don’t link any enquiry cases to a closed plan change case. PACE will automatically close enquiry cases linked to this type of case overnight. The enquiry won’t be received or actioned.

Explain a decision on part of a plan change request (sub-decision)

From the Person Account, select the Decisions tab.
Select the relevant Decision Name. The case type will be Plan Change.

Note: this will open a new tab.
From the Sub-Decisions table, select the hyperlink at Decision Name.

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From the Justifications table, select the hyperlink at Justification Number.
On the Details tab, use the information to explain the sub-decision on the plan change request.

Note: you can’t add an explanation to a justification after its been created.

Record the plan change sub-decision explanation

From the Details tab where you’ve just used information to explain the decision to the participant, go to Case.
Select the hyperlink to open the case.
Log an activity to document this discussion. You can do this even if the case is closed. Use article [Log an activity or internal note](https://example.com).

Note: don’t link any enquiry cases to a closed plan change case. PACE will automatically close enquiry cases linked to this type of case overnight. The enquiry won’t be received or actioned.

Explain impact on plan funding

When funding is exhausted or soon to be exhausted

Explain to the participant or authorised representative that:

you understand they don’t have much funding left in their plan
when we approve a plan, we provide funding for the length of that plan
this means they won’t be able to access more funding until their next scheduled plan reassessment date.

When there’s funding available but a change to the existing model of support is needed

Explain that if they continue to use their funding at the current rate, their funding is likely to run out before their scheduled reassessment date. We have some tools to help participants manage their budgets. They can go to our website and use:

These tools can show them how many NDIS supports can be purchased with the funding in their plan.

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Explain that:

the early childhood partner, local area coordinator, support coordinator or registered plan manager may be able to support them to understand how to manage their remaining funding until the scheduled reassessment date
any supports they use beyond the funding in their plan will remain their responsibility. Providers can’t be paid by the NDIA for supports when there are no funds left in the plan.

Explain review rights

You can explain the review rights available to the participant or authorised representative. To learn more, go to Our Guideline – Reviewing our decisions (external).

Review rights for a plan change decision made within 21 days

After you’ve explained your decision and the reasons for it, tell the participant or authorised representative that this is a reviewable decision. This means that if they don’t agree with the decision to not vary or not reassess their plan, they can ask us to review our decision.

This is called an internal review. The Reviews Branch manages internal reviews. A delegate who didn’t make the original decision will complete the internal review and decide if the decision was right.

They’ll receive a letter which explains how they can request an internal review of this decision. There is more information about reviewing decisions available on the NDIS website (external).

The participant can talk to their early childhood partner, local area coordinator or support coordinator for more help with this process.

Review rights for a plan change decision made after 21 days

Explain to the participant or authorised representative that:

when we receive a plan change request, we have 21 days to make a decision
if we can’t make a decision within 21 days, the request is automatically taken as not approved. When this happens, we automatically review the decision. This means that one of our staff, who wasn’t involved in the original decision, takes a look and decides if the decision was right
when the internal review is complete, we’ll contact them to advise if the original decision to not vary or reassess their plan is correct

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this decision is a reviewable decision. This means that if they don’t agree with the decision, they can ask the Administrative Review Tribunal – ART (external) to review it. We call this an external review
they’ll receive a letter which explains our decision and how they can request an external review if they don’t agree with the decision
they have 28 days from the date you made this decision to ask the ART for an external review of this decision.

Next steps

If your decision was not to vary or reassess the plan, you need to book a discretionary check- in for the participant with their my NDIS contact.

This is important because it will help:

reduce risks and add safeguards for the participant
the my NDIS contact to review the participant’s situation
check for any changes in the participant’s risk profile
decide if any further action is needed.

If there is no check-in already booked, make an appointment in 2 weeks, a month or a suitable time to check-in with the participant.

To learn more, go to article Book, change or cancel a check-in.

Article labels

PACE user role names

Delete: Planner Delegate

Add: All NDIA staff and partners.

Topics

No change.

Case names

No change.

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Ownership

No change.

Version control

Version	Amended by	Brief Description of Change	Status	Date
3.0	JS0082	Class 1 Approval Updated guidance to include link for new scripting article Discuss a participant’s plan change request.	APPROVED	2024-06-19
4.0	CS0074	Branch Manager approval obtained	APPROVED	2025-05-15
5.0	AHB706	Class 1 Approval Updated to: * relocate guidance on explaining a decision from article, Discuss a plan change request * explain that an enquiry case must not be linked to a closed plan change case * include new article, Action a request to explain a decision.	APPROVED	2025-10-27

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