Support Services (18 years +)

Making a decision means choosing what you want to do. Making decisions is an important part of being an adult. Making decisions helps us feel in control of our own lives and shapes who we are. You might not even realise it, but you make decisions every day.

Some decisions are small like deciding what to eat for breakfast, or deciding what colour shirt to wear. Some decisions are big like deciding to move out of home, or deciding what kind of job you want. It can be hard making decisions sometimes, but we hope that this section can help answer some of your questions about decision-making, and will also give you the details of places you can contact for advice and support if you need it.

Your rights when making decisions

No matter who you are, there are some basic rights you have when making decisions:

• You have the right to make decisions

• You have the right to talk to other people about your decisions

• You have the right to change your mind about decisions you’ve made

• You have the right to make decisions that other people don’t like

• You have the right to make decisions that are different to other people’s decisions

• You have the right to ask other people for advice or support to make your decisions.

Supported decision making

Sometimes it’s helpful to get advice and support from people you trust when making big decisions. This is called supported decision making. Supported decision making doesn’t mean someone makes the decision for you – instead they are there to support you while you make the decision for yourself.

You might decide to use supported decision making if you sometimes find it hard to make big decisions on your own, or you get stressed when asked important questions.

You can choose different support people for different decisions. For example, if it is a medical decision, you might choose your GP as your support person because they know all of your medical history. If it is a decision about moving house, you might choose a family member or support worker (or both) as your support persons because they know what kind of environment you like to live in.  And it’s important to choose support persons who will still let you make the final choice, and not make the decision for you.

Developmental Disability WA (DDWA) have a useful booklet that can help you and your support people plan for supported decision making:

DDWA Supported Decision Making

WA Individualised Services (WAiS) also have a booklet to help plan your supported decision making:

WAiS Supported Decision Making

Microboards

One way to do supported decision making is to set up a microboard. A microboard is a small group of people, usually family members and friends of a person with a disability, who form an incorporated organisation that supports the person in their decision-making. Microboards use a ‘person-centred’ approach, which means putting the person’s wants, needs and goals at the centre of the group’s decisions and actions.

A microboard can support you in finding and keeping a job, helping you organise your supports, help you make decisions about your NDIS funding, and so on. You can even get funding in your NDIS plan to help cover the costs of setting up your microboard.

You can find more information about microboards at the Microboards Australia website:

Microboard

Informed consent

When someone makes a big decision, it is important they give their informed consent. The term informed consent is often used in healthcare by doctors, and in hospitals. Informed consent means that a person fully understands the decision they are agreeing to, and has been given information about the decision, including any benefits or risks involved, before agreeing. For example, if your GP wanted to start you on a new medication, they need your informed consent first. Your GP would need to give you information about the medication including any side effects it might have, and they might tell you other important things like how much the medication will cost, so that you know enough to make an informed decision about whether you want to start taking it or not.

If you are ever being asked for your consent to do something but you don’t have enough information to make your decision, or you don’t understand the information that has been given to you, you have the right to say you do not consent. You have the right to ask for more information, or to ask for information in a different format (like an Easy Read booklet), and you have the right to speak with someone you trust such as a family member, friend or support person before you make your decision.

Legal capacity

Having legal capacity means having the ability to make a legally binding decision, including understanding information about the decision, as well as any benefits and risks. Some examples of legally binding decisions are getting married, signing a contract, voting, and giving informed consent.

For example, people under 18 usually do not have legal capacity because this is their parents or guardians’ responsibility. Some adults may not have legal capacity if they cannot make decisions about things on their own, like their medical treatment, managing their money or property, or making other big life decisions. Some adults may have legal capacity for some decisions, but not for others. Even if an adult does not have the legal capacity to make a decision, they still have the right to have their say in the decision-making process.

Guardianship

If an adult does not have legal capacity, usually they will have an appointed guardian. An appointed guardian is a person who makes decisions on the other person’s behalf. An appointed guardian is chosen by the State Administrative Tribunal, which is part of the Government.

An appointed guardian can be either a guardian, which is when the Tribunal decides who will be the person’s guardian and what decisions they have control of, or an enduring guardian, which is where the person with a disability gets to choose who they want to be their guardian and has a say in what decisions their guardian can make on their behalf. A guardianship order lasts for up to 5 years, then the order is reviewed by the Tribunal who decide whether to extend, change, or cancel the order. A guardian can be a family member, friend, or the Tribunal can choose the Office of the Public Advocate as the person’s guardian. The Office of the Public Advocate is an independent agency that supports people with disabilities who are under guardianship.

Guardianship is not very common, and it is preferred that someone who needs support in making decisions is done so by family members or friends. The Tribunal usually only makes a guardianship order as a last resort, like if the person with a disability is at risk of being abused, neglected or exploited because of their inability to make legal decisions.

The Office of the Public Advocate can give you more information about guardianship

Phone: 1300 858 455 or (08) 9278 7300

Email: opa@justice.wa.gov.au

or you can visit their website:  Public Advocate

Choice and Control in the NDIS

Having choice and control means the decisions you make are heard and respected. Choice and control is one of the terms used by NDIS to describe how your NDIS funding can be used flexibly to help you get the supports you need. NDIS describes choice and control as:

“NDIS participants having the right to make their own decisions about what is important to them, and deciding how they would like to receive their supports and who from.”

Some of the ways NDIS participants have choice and control are:

• Participants can use their core funding flexibly

• Participants can choose who they want to get supports from

• Participants can choose how they want to manage their funding

• Participants can ask for a review if they’re not happy with their plan

• Participants can get funding to help manage their supports Support Services

The NDIS website can give you more information about having choice and control with your NDIS funding and about making your own decisions:

NDIS Using Your Plan

Everyone has human rights. Human rights are the basic rights and freedoms that every human deserves. People with disabilities have the same rights as everyone else.

You have the right to:

• make your own choices,
• be treated fairly,
• feel safe,
• have privacy, and
• stand up for yourself if someone is treating you badly.

It’s important to know your rights so that you can speak up if you are being treated badly. This section will explain some of your rights, how you can speak up for yourself, and help you find places that can support you in speaking up for your rights.

Disability Discrimination Act

Discrimination means the unfair or bad treatment of a certain group of people because of their religion, race, gender, age, or disability. In Australia, people with disabilities are protected by a set of laws called The Disability Discrimination Act (1992). The Disability Discrimination Act makes it illegal for anyone to discriminate against you or harass you based on your disability. These laws also support equal opportunity and access for people with disabilities. Equal opportunity means getting the same chance as everyone else at doing everyday things like getting a job, going to a sporting event, catching the bus, going to school, and so on.

Unfortunately, sometimes the rights of people with disabilities are not respected or listened to. Some examples of disability discrimination are:

• a supermarket refusing to let you in because you have an assistance dog
• you go to watch the footy at a sports stadium, but you can’t get in because you use a wheelchair and the only way in is by stairs
• your boss making jokes about your disability to your co-workers

You have the right to speak up if someone is discriminating against you, treating you badly or harassing you. There are a few different ways you can speak up:

• If you’re being discriminated against at work, you can talk to your boss or upper management. Most workplaces have a policy, which is a document that tells them the best way to sort out the problem
• If you’re being discriminated against by a business or company, you can contact their head office to make a complaint and ask for them to fix the problem
• If you’re being discriminated against or harassed by a person or group of people, you should contact the police. The police will be able to support you to fix the problem.

If you have tried speaking up but the problem is still happening, or if the person you made a complaint to wasn’t helpful, you can contact the Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC). The AHRC is the government body that deals with human rights laws and protections in Australia. You can even make a complaint in Auslan or in another language if English isn’t your first language.

Human Rights Make A Complaint

Phone: (02) 9284 9600

The AHRC website also has a resource called ‘Know Your Rights: Disability Discrimination’:

Human Rights Disability Discrimination

Advocacy means speaking up about an issue that is affecting you or something that you feel strongly about, in the hopes of making changes. The main types of advocacy are:

• Self advocacy – where someone speaks up for themselves about an issue affecting them,
• Advocacy – where someone speaks up on behalf of someone else about an issue affecting the person. This is someone the person trusts, like a family member, a friend, or a paid professional advocate; and
• Systemic advocacy – when a group of people or an organisation speaks up about an issue in the hopes of making a big impact, and is usually over a long period of time.

To be a self-advocate, you need to know what your rights are, and how to speak up for yourself in a way that you will be listened to. When you stand up for yourself, try to:

• prepare for the situation: you could write down and plan what you want to say before you contact the place or organisation with the issue. You could also ask a person you trust, like a friend or family member, to look over what you’ve written and to offer advice
• clearly explain what the problem is: it can be hard, but try to stay calm when explaining the issue. Make sure you also tell them how the issue makes you feel, and why it’s important something is done about the issue
• have information with you that supports what you’re saying: like a section of the Disability Discrimination Act that supports what you’re saying, or written statements from other people who share the same issue
• be patient: advocacy can take time. Make sure to look after yourself, and speak to someone you trust about the way you feel if it helps you feel better.

Self-advocacy resources on the People with Disability Australia (PWDA) website

PWD Creating Success

Some examples of things you could advocate to change are:

• Places or organisations that won’t make reasonable adjustments to help support you, like providing forms in easy-to-read formats, or a person to help you fill them in.
• Buildings that are not physically accessible, such as no ramps or accessible toilets.
• When you feel you have been disrespected or treated badly by a person or people at an organisation who support you.

There are places that can support you with disability advocacy. Some places may provide advocacy services for free, and others are paid. The person that helps you with advocacy is called an advocate. Some things the advocate can help you with are:

• providing you with information about the issue,
• giving you advice on what can be done to resolve the issue,
• representing you or coming along with you to meetings held to resolve the issue,
• writing letters or contacting people on your behalf about the issue, and
• helping you make a complaint or with legal action about the issue.

SWAN is a free service and may be able to help you in some situations. We work with people with disability and their families to improve knowledge and understanding about the NDIS, mainstream, and disability services, and can attend meetings with you as an advocate if needed. It can be helpful to speak with a peer support organisation like SWAN before important meetings, to help you prepare. If you know more, and feel prepared, you will feel more confident in meetings.

Here are some other organisations that offer advocacy support:

Advocacy WA

4 Plaza Street, South Bunbury WA

Phone: (08) 9721 6444

Website: Advocacy WA

Sussex Street Community Law Services

29 Sussex Street, East Victoria Park WA

Phone: (08) 6253 9500

Website: Sussex Street Community Law

Albany Community Legal Centre

129 Grey Street West, Albany WA

Phone: (08) 9842 8566

Website: Albany Community Legal Centre

Midland Information Debt & Legal Advocacy Service (MIDLAS)

23 Old Great Northern Highway, Midland WA

Phone: (08) 9250 2123

Website: MIDLAS

You can also find disability advocacy services in your area using the Department of Social Service’s Advocacy Finder website:

Ask Izzy Advocacy Finder

Developmental Disability WA (DDWA) have some great information booklets about advocacy on their website:

DDWA Individual Advocacy

Easy Read advocacy information on the Women with Disabilities Australia (WWDA) website :

Your Rights (Easy Read)

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is an Australian government program that covers the costs of disability-related expenses. Western Australia has been part of the NDIS since 2018. The name of the government department that runs the NDIS is the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA). This section will talk about who is eligible for the NDIS, how you can apply for the NDIS, what types of supports can and can’t be provided by the NDIS, using your NDIS Plan, your rights as a NDIS participant, and where to get support if you’re not happy with your NDIS Plan.

NDIS Eligibility

To apply for the NDIS you must be:

• between 7 and 65 years old
• an Australian citizen or permanent resident
• have a permanent and significant disability.

How to apply

If you meet the criteria you can apply for the NDIS. This is called making an Access Request. To make an Access Request you can:

• Call the NDIA on 1800 800 110 and ask to make an Access Request application over the phone
• Go to the NDIS website and download an Access Request Form which you can find on this page:  NDIS Access Request Form.  When you have completed the form, you can email it to NAT@ndis.gov.au
• Call the NDIA on 1800 800 110 and ask to have an Access Request Form posted to you
• If you need support to make your Access Request, contact your region’s Local Area Coordinator (LAC) office. The organisation providing LAC’s for the South-West and Great Southern WA regions is APM. You can phone APM on 1300 276 522 or email lac@apm.net.au or you can visit one of the APM offices listed below.

APM offices in South-West and Great Southern WA:

APM Albany

108 Stirling Terrace, Albany

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

APM Katanning

Shop 8, 100 Clive Street, Katanning

(Open by appointment only)

APM Busselton

2/71 Kent Street, Busselton

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

APM Bunbury

Unit 1, 16 Victoria Street, Bunbury

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

APM Margaret River

Unit 14, The Village at Margs, Townview Terrace, Margaret River

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

APM Mandurah

Unit 1, 15 Sholl Street, Mandurah

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

APM Rockingham

5 Goddard Street, Rockingham

(Open Monday to Fridays, 9am – 5pm)

Supporting evidence

You will need to show the NDIA evidence of your disability when you make your Access Request. The types of evidence you’ll need to provide depends on your disability. Evidence may include assessments or reports from your GP, specialist doctors or therapists. You can find a list of the accepted types of evidence you’ll need on the NDIS website:

NDIS Disability Evidence

If you haven’t got any of the accepted assessments or reports for your type of disability, you will need to get your treating doctor to complete a NDIS Supporting Evidence Form or to fill in Section 2 of your Access Request Form. This information will tell the NDIA about:

• the type of disability you have
• the date your disability was diagnosed (if available)
• how long your disability will last
• available treatments (i.e., medications, therapies, or surgeries).

Your treating doctor will also need to show how your disability impacts your everyday life in the following areas, including a description of how each area is impacted:

• mobility/motor skills
• communication
• social interaction
• learning
• self-care
• self-management.

Once the NDIA receives your Access Request, they will decide whether or not you are eligible to access the NDIS. The NDIA will tell you within 21 days whether or not you are successful in accessing the NDIS. Sometimes the NDIA will ask you for more supporting evidence before they make their decision. If this happens, you have 90 days to provide the extra evidence from the date they asked you to. Once the NDIA receives the extra evidence, they have 14 days to make their final decision and let you know. If your Access Request is successful, your LAC will contact you to organise your NDIS planning meeting.

If your Access Request is not successful, your LAC may still be able to help you find some supports. There is also a list of support services on the NDIS website:

NDIS Supports

For more information about applying to access the NDIS, visit the NDIS website:

NDIS Applying For Access

Preparing for your planning meeting

If you are successful in getting access to the NDIS your LAC will contact you to organise your first planning meeting. Before your planning meeting it’s a good idea to think about what things you’d like NDIS to help you with and write them down. You should also write down any questions you’d like to ask the LAC about the NDIS. Have a think about:

• your interests: things that you enjoy doing
• your goals: what you’d like to achieve in the future
• your current supports: things that you already get help with
• your support needs: things that you would like to get more help with
• how you’d like to manage your NDIS Plan.

Booklet 2: Planning is a helpful booklet on the NDIS website that you can print out, fill in and take to your planning meeting. You can download it here:

NDIS Participants

Reasonable and necessary

The supports you get in your NDIS plan will depend on what the NDIA thinks is suitable based on your goals, your current supports, and your support needs. Not everyone will get funding for all types of supports. Supports must be ‘reasonable and necessary’ for the NDIA to fund them in your NDIS Plan.

To be considered reasonable and necessary, your supports:

• must be related to your disability
• must not include your day-to-day living costs, such as groceries, bills and rent
• must be value for money
• must be helpful to you and work well
• must not replace supports already provided for you elsewhere – such as assistance from family members, or supports already provided by another source of funding.

Supports you can get funded by NDIS

NDIS can fund supports that help you:

• work towards your goals
• increase your independence
• increase your participation in the community and the workforce.

This may include things like:

• A support worker to help you with daily activities such as going to the shops and doing housework, as well as help with personal care such as toileting and showering
• Someone to help you with house cleaning or gardening
• Nursing care if you have health-related disability needs
• Supported Independent Living options (such as residential support workers or overnight care)
• Transport costs such as taxi expenses or a community bus service if you can’t use public transport
• Assistive technology – this means things that are made or modified to suit your disability and help you function better, such as modified eating utensils and non-slip mats, communication devices and continence products
• Home modifications such as ramps or lowered benches and sinks if you’re in a wheelchair
• Support to access social and community events such as a support worker to transport you and assist you when going places like the zoo, an art class, or a camp
• Specialised driving assessments and driving lessons
• Therapy services such as a speech therapist, physiotherapist, behavioural therapist or occupational therapist (OT)
• Specialised programs or services that improve your ability and confidence to do everyday tasks, such as someone to assist you in becoming better at catching public transport, or someone to give you extra training or mentoring in the workplace
• Costs of plan management and support coordination (if required).

NDIS won’t fund:

• supports that aren’t related to your disability
• day-to-day living costs such as groceries, bills or rent
• medication costs or medical bills
• disability diagnosis or assessment costs
• education costs such as university or TAFE fees
• anything that is likely to cause harm to you or others.

For more information about what supports can and can’t be funded by NDIS, check out the websites below:

Supports funded by NDIS: NDIS website:

NDIS Funded Supports

What will NDIS pay for?: Leapin! website:

Leapin! What NDIS Pay For

NDIS funding explained: My Plan Manager website:

My Plan Manager – Funding Explained

At your planning meeting

Your planning meeting may be in-person or over the phone. Your meeting may take up to 2 hours. You can bring a support person with you if you want. Make sure you have copies of all your reports or assessments with you, as well as some I.D. (like your passport or Proof of Age Card), your bank account details (if you plan on managing your NDIS funds yourself) and your MyGov login details so your LAC can show you how to set up your Myplace Portal. The Myplace Portal is a way to keep track of your NDIS Plan and funds online. Your Myplace Portal will be linked to your MyGov account.

At your planning meeting, you and your LAC will talk about these things:

• your interests and goals
• your current supports and what other support you need
• how long your first plan will last. This can be from 1 to 3 years depending on what is happening in your life.
• how you would like to manage your plan and if you would like help with this (see the section below, Managing your NDIS funds).

All of these details will help your LAC create a NDIS Plan that best suits your needs. If there’s anything you don’t understand, ask your LAC to explain it for you.

At the end of the meeting your LAC will tell you the next steps, and give you their phone number or email in case you have more questions later. Once your plan has been approved by the NDIA, you will be sent a copy of it in the mail and you’ll be able to view it on the Myplace Portal.

There are 3 ways you can choose to manage your NDIS funds:  NDIA managed,  plan managed, or self-managed.

NDIA Management:

NDIA management is when the NDIA manage your funding. If you are NDIA managed:

• You can only use NDIS registered providers
• Providers send their bills straight to NDIA for payment
• Your providers cannot charge more than the price limits in the NDIS Price Guide
• The NDIA will do all of your book-keeping and records so you don’t have to worry about organising invoices or keeping receipts.

To find out more about being NDIA managed, check out the NDIS website:

NDIS NDIA Managed

Plan Management:

Plan management is when you have a provider manage your NDIS funds for you. These providers are called plan managers and they are trained in the financial and administrative parts of managing your funding. If you are plan managed:

• You can use NDIS registered providers OR your own choice of providers (anyone who has an ABN can be a provider)
• Your providers cannot charge more than the price limits set in the NDIS Price Guide
• Providers can either send their invoices to your plan manager for payment, or you can pay them then be reimbursed (paid back) by your plan manager
• Your plan manager will do all of your book keeping and records for you, but if you want to pay providers upfront then you will need to keep copies of invoices and receipts so you can be reimbursed by your plan manager.

Your LAC can help you find a plan manager, or you can look online. You can search for registered plan managers using the Provider Finder tool on the NDIS website, click on the link below:

NDIS Provider Finder

To find out more about Plan Management, check out the NDIS website below which also provides links to information in easy read:

NDIS Plan Management

Self-Management:

Self management is where you manage your NDIS funds yourself. If you are self managed:

• You can use NDIS registered providers OR you can choose your own providers
• Your providers are able to charge more than the price limits set in the NDIS Price Guide
• Your providers will send their invoices directly to you to be paid. You can use the online Myplace Participant Portal to make a payment request or fill in a payment request form to mail or email to the NDIS. When the NDIS receives the payment requests, they will put the money to pay the providers into your bank account. You can also choose to pay your providers first and then put in a payment request for reimbursement.
• You have to do all your own book-keeping and records, including keeping track of your spending and keeping copies of invoices and receipts
• You will need to open a separate bank account for NDIA funds to be put into.

To find out more about self managing your NDIS funds, check out these websites:

Self management: NDIS website

NDIS Self Management

NDIS Self-management vs. Plan management: My Care Space website

My Care Space – Self-Management vs Plan Management

You can choose to have a combination of management types if you want. For example, you can choose to self-manage part of your funds and have the rest managed by a plan manager. You also have the right to change the way your NDIS funds are managed at any time. To discuss changing the way your funds are managed, contact your LAC.

Support Coordinators

If you want help finding service providers and organising your supports, you can ask for support coordination to be included in your NDIS plan. A support coordinator can help you do things like finding suitable providers, making service agreements and service bookings, making sure you’re getting the best value for money from your plan, and help you prepare for plan reviews.

You can learn more about support coordination on the NDIS website:

NDIS Support Coordination

More NDIS planning resources

WA Individualised Services (WAiS) has created a series of NDIS Planning resources including Preparing to Plan cards, planning booklets and activities for you to fill in, a goal-setting plan, tips for your planning meeting, and more:

WAiS Planning

The Council for Intellectual Disability’s Can Funding get me a Good Life? workbook talks about changes to disability funding, how you can use funding, and how funding can help you get a good life. There are spaces in the workbook for you to write down your goals and what supports you’d like to get with your funding. The workbook is also available in simplified and traditional Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic:

CID Funding Workbook

Down Syndrome WA has created a useful set of fact sheets and workbooks to help you with NDIS planning. You can download the NDIS and Me: Steps to Planning in WA resources here:

Down Syndrome WA NDIS Resources

Using your Plan: Funding categories

Your funding will be spread across 3 support categories: Core, Capacity building, and Capital.

Core funds everyday supports, such as support workers, transport, and consumables.

Capacity Building funds activities and supports that build your skills and help you live more independently, like therapy providers, training or mentoring in the workplace, health and wellbeing services like dietician or personal trainer, and the costs of plan management and support coordination.

Capital funds assistive technology (AT) and home and vehicle modifications. To learn more about funding categories, check out the websites below: NDIS Services and Supports:

LeapIn! website:

Leapin! NDIS Services

Plan budget and rules: NDIS website:

NDIS Plan Budget

Changing your Plan

After you get your NDIS plan, the NDIS will check in with you sometimes to see if the plan is working for you. They may also ask if you need any help using the plan and if you think any changes are needed to the plan.

If you think changes are needed to your current plan you can talk to the LAC about this. They may decide to make some smaller changes to your plan which is called a Plan Variation or work with you on creating a new plan which is called a Plan Reassessment

You can also ask for changes to your plan at any time and do not have to wait for an LAC to contact you first. You may not be happy with the funding and supports in your current plan or you may want to change how the plan is managed. There may also be some changes in your life that mean your support needs have changed and you need to let the NDIS know.

Some of the changes that may mean your support needs have changed include:

• if the impact of your disability on your life has changed
• if you have started a new life stage such as school or work
• there have been changes in how you live your life, including your living arrangements.

For more information on changing your plan, go to this page:

NDIS Changing Plan

These are the ways you can ask for a change in your current plan:

• Phone or email your LAC: The LAC provider in the South-West and Great Southern WA regions is APM. You can call APM on 1300 276 522 or email lac@apm.net.au
• Go to your local APM office. Please see the list of office locations under the How to Apply heading above or use the search tool on this page: NDIS Locations
• Complete the NDIS Change of Circumstances form which can be downloaded on this page: NDIS Change in Circumstance (Please contact SWAN if you require assistance completing the Change of Circumstances form)

End of Plan Reassessment

The NDIS will contact you about 3 months before the Reassessment date in your plan to let you know this is coming up. They will talk to you about booking a Plan Reassessment meeting which could be face to face, over the phone or video call. They will also tell you what information you might need for the meeting which may include letters, assessments or reports from your service providers showing how they are helping you to work towards your NDIS goals. During the Plan Reassessment meeting, the LAC will ask you how your plan is working for you. To prepare for the meeting, you may want to think about some of the things in the list below:

• What worked well in your plan?
• What goals did you achieve?
• What didn’t work as well?
• Do you have any questions about how your plan is managed
• Would you like to change how you manage your funding?
• Do you have any new goals you would like in your next plan
• Have there been any changes to your situation?
• Are you expecting any changes to your situation? (e.g. are you planning to leave school, start or leave work, or move out of home). (ref: Changing Your Plan – NDIS website: NDIS Plan Reassessments)

After the Plan Reassessment meeting, your LAC will decide to approve a new plan or vary your current plan depending on what is happening for you. The LAC will work with you on this and help you understand any changes.

If the NDIS are unable to do a Plan Reassessment meeting with you before the end of your Reassessment date, your current plan will be automatically extended for 12 months. This means you will still have access to funding and your services will continue. The NDIS will provide additional funding to your plan if it is extended which you will use in the same way as before until you have a Plan Reassessment meeting.

For more information about Plan variations and extensions, click here:

NDIS Changing Your Plan

Internal Reviews

If you are not happy with decisions made by the NDIS including what is in your plan, you can ask for a review of these decisions which is known as an Internal Review. This is when another staff member in the NDIS, who was not involved in making these decisions, checks to see if the decisions were correct or not.

**Please note, a request for an Internal Review must be made to the NDIS within 3 months of receiving a decision from them in writing, which includes receiving your plan or the outcome of another decision that you are unhappy with.

These are the kinds of NDIS decisions that can be reviewed during an Internal Review:

• To deny access to the NDIS
• To decide you are no longer eligible for the NDIS
• To decide to approve your plan and the supports within it (which you may not be happy with)
• To not agree to a Plan Reassessment
• To not agree to a Plan Variation
• To vary your plan (and you are not happy with the changes)
• Decisions made about a Plan Nominee or Child Representative

If you are not happy with what is in your plan you can request a review of certain parts of the plan including:

• What funded supports are included in your plan
• How the supports are described in your plan
• How your funding is managed
• How long your plan goes for
• How your plan has been changed (if you are not happy with this).

These are the ways you can request an Internal Review of a decision:

• Complete the Request for a Review of a Decision form which you can download from this page:  NDIS Internal Review

• Go to your local APM office. Please see the list of office locations under the How to Apply heading above or use the search tool on this page:  NDIS Locations
• send NDIS an email with supporting evidence to enquiries@ndis.gov.au
• call NDIS on 1800 800 110

For more information about Internal Reviews including how to prepare for a review meeting, click on the link below:

NDIS Internal Review

If you need support filling in the Request for a Review of a Decision form, your LAC can help you. Once completed you can send the form by email to

enquiries@ndis.gov.au or by post to:

Chief Executive Officer
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601

Assistance with NDIS Reviews

Advocacy WA is an organisation in Bunbury that provides free disability advocacy services including assistance to request and prepare for an NDIS Internal Review:

4 Plaza Street, South Bunbury
(open Monday to Fridays, 8am – 8pm)
Ph: (08) 9721 6444
Email: admin@advocacywa.org.au
Advocacy WA

SWAN is also a free service, and we are able to assist in various ways, including understanding and preparing for an NDIS Internal Review. Click on this link to see what services we provide:

SWAN Peer Support

You can find more free disability advocacy services using the AskIzzy, Disability Advocacy Finder website:

Ask Izzy Advocacy Finder

External Reviews

If you’re still unhappy once you receive your NDIS Internal Review decision, then you can apply for a review by the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT). This is called an External Review because the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) is separate from the NDIS and has it’s own process and laws for making decisions.

If you want to apply for an External Review, you need to do it within 28 days of receiving your NDIS Internal Review decision in writing. It is free to apply for an External Review and you can find the information you need to apply on this webpage, including the downloadable application form: NDIS How To Apply

The AAT will send you a letter to confirm they received your application. They will also call you to talk about what happens next. If the AAT decides they can’t take on your External Review appeal, they will write to you and let you know. If the AAT decides to take on your appeal, you will need to organise a NDIS Appeals support person or legal support to help you. These services won’t cost you anything.

You can find a list of places that does NDIS Appeals support as well as more information about NDIS Appeals legal support on the Department of Social Services website:

DSS NDIS Appeals

If you want support or assistance with your External Review appeal application, please see the information under the heading “Assistance with NDIS Reviews” above.

Who to contact if you’re not happy with your service providers

You have the right to feel safe and to get good services from your NDIS service providers. The NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission is the independent agency that deals with concerns and complaints about NDIS service providers. They make sure that service providers are following the NDIS rules and guidelines, and have the power to investigate and give out penalties or ban any service providers that are doing the wrong thing.

To learn more check out the NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission website: swanautism.org.au/ndis-participant-rights

‘If you need to speak up, Speak to us’ is an Easy Read brochure about how to make a complaint to the NDIS Quality & Safeguards Commission:

swanautism.org.au/ndis-commission

Your rights as a NDIS participant

As a NDIS participant you have the right to be treated fairly and with respect. The NDIS Participant Service Charter is a document that explains what participants can expect from the NDIS. In the Participant Service Charter the NDIS says they want their service to be.

You can read the NDIS Participant Service Charter at the link below. It is also available in Easy Read and translated into different languages:

NDIS Service Charter

NDIS contact details

NDIA postal address:
National Disability Insurance Agency
GPO Box 700
Canberra ACT 2601

NDIS Contact Centre:
Ph: 1800 800 110 (Monday to Fridays, 8am to 8pm)
Email: enquiries@ndis.gov.au
Website: NDIS Home Page

Online feedback form:
NDIS Contact Feedback

You may be able to get certain entitlements because of your disability. An entitlement is something that benefits you. This could be money from the government, discounts on some types of bills and on entry to certain places, or access to special programs or services that are for people with disabilities. This section talks about the different entitlements you may be able to get, who can get them, how to apply for them, and where you can get more information.

Centrelink

Centrelink is the name of Australian government’s welfare department, which is part of Services Australia. Services Australia includes Centrelink, Medicare and the Child Support Agency. Centrelink helps people by paying benefits called pensions or allowances, and discounts on certain programs and services, called subsidies

Services Australia Centrelink

MyGov

MyGov is the online portal for Services Australia. If you get Centrelink or have a Medicare card you can use MyGov to do things like apply for and keep track of your Centrelink payments and submit Medicare claims. When you sign up for a MyGov account you get your own login details and password, so all the details on your MyGov account like your address, phone number, and bank account details, are kept safe and private.

You can also link your MyGov account with any other government services you use, like the Australian Tax Office, NDIS, JobSearch, and My Health Record, so you can keep track of all your different services in one place.

To learn how to get your own MyGov account go to the Services Australia website:

Services Australia My Gov

Disability Support Pension

The Disability Support Pension (DSP) is a Centrelink income support payment for people with a permanent disability or condition that makes it difficult for them to work. Not everyone with a disability or condition can get the DSP. To get the DSP, you need to meet Centrelink’s ‘medical’ and ‘non-medical’ rules. The ‘non-medical’ rules include things like your age, whether you’re an Australian citizen or permanent resident, and your income and assets. To meet the ‘medical’ rules, you must be able to prove:

• your condition will last more than 2 years
• your condition is fully diagnosed, treated and stabilised: fully diagnosed means you have evidence of an official diagnosis from a medical professional, and fully treated and stabilised means you have received medical treatment for your disability, but it has been decided by the treating medical professional that your condition or disability will not improve over time if the treatment is continued
• you have an impairment rating of 20 points or more: an impairment rating is a score that Centrelink gives you based on how much your disability affects your ability to do everyday tasks. They decide this score after looking at all the information you give them, like your diagnosis letter, doctor’s reports, and any other documents that show how your disability affects you and comparing these to their Impairment Tables. The impairment tables help Centrelink decide whether you qualify for DSP or not, and whether your disability is considered ‘severe’ or not.
• you meet Program of Support rules, if these apply to you: A Program of Support is a program for people who have an impairment rating of 20 points or more but are not considered to have a ‘severe’ impairment. Programs of Support are run by Centrelink’s job provider agencies, and they will help you do things like looking for work, and support you to do training that will help you find a job. A person wanting to get DSP must have been in a Program of Support at least 18 months before they will be approved for DSP.
• your condition will stop you working at least 15 hours a week in the next 2 years.

The amount of DSP you get depends on a few different things including your age, how much you earn if you have a job, whether you have a partner or not and how much they earn if they have a job, if you have any kids, and how much any assets you own are worth. To apply for DSP you can either:

• complete an online claim form using your MyGov account
• download the claim form from the Services Australia website, then either email or post it back
• go into a Centrelink branch and ask for a claim form, then either email or post it back
• phone Centrelink’s Disability, Sickness and Carers line and ask for a claim form to be posted to you, then either email or post it back.

You will need to be patient, because it can take anywhere from a few weeks to several months for Centrelink to assess your DSP claim. For more information about the Disability Support Pension you can visit the Services Australia website:

Services Australia Disability Support

The Disability Resource Centre (DRC) also have a really helpful booklet all about the Disability Support Pension called ‘DSP and Me’ available on their website:

DRC Advocacy DSP & Me

If your claim is rejected, you have the right to make an appeal. This means asking Centrelink to reconsider your claim. Sometimes Centrelink may agree that they made the wrong decision the first time around and decide to approve you for DSP. If you want to make an appeal, it must be within 13 weeks of receiving the claim rejection from Centrelink. For information about making an appeal, you can check out the Review and Appeals section on the Services Australia website:

Services Australia Centrelink Review

Support Services

If you can’t get DSP, there are some other payments you might still be able to get from Centrelink:

• JobSeeker: an income support payment for people aged 22 or older who are looking for work, or are sick or injured and unable to work or study for a short time
• Youth Allowance: an income support payment for people between 16 and 24 years old who are looking for work, studying or are sick or injured and unable to work or study for a short time
• Austudy: for people 25 or older who are studying or doing an apprenticeship
• ABSTUDY: for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people aged 16 or older who are studying or doing an apprenticeship
• Rent Assistance: for people aged 16 or older who live out of home and pay rent or board
• Mobility Allowance: for people aged 16 or older who don’t have an NDIS plan and are either working, studying or looking for work, and need help using transport because of their illness or disability
• Health Care Card: a concession card that gives people aged 16 or older a discount on medications that are on the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme (PBS) as well as the ability to use bulk billing GP services and access to the Public Dental Service. Bulk billing is where Medicare covers the cost of your doctors appointment so you don’t have to pay anything.

Pensioner Concession Card

If you are approved for the Disability Support Pension, you will also be given a Pensioner Concession Card. A Pensioner Concession Card gives you the same benefits as a Health Care Card, plus discounts on:

• utility bills (electricity, gas and water)
• car registration fees
• council rates (if you own your home) and dog registration fees
• public transport costs
• Vocational Education and Training (VET) course costs
• Ambulance fees.

Many businesses and places of interest such as the Zoo, the WA Museum, some sporting venues, cinemas and so on also offer discounts for people with a Pensioner Concession Card. You will have to show them your Pensioner Concession Card to get the discount.

For more information about Health Care Cards, Pensioner Concession Cards, and other government concessions and discounts you can check out the Concessions WA website:

Concessions WA

Companion Card

The Companion Card is for people with a significant permanent disability who require a carer to be with them at all times when going to community venues and activities. The Companion Card gives the carer free entry to the venues and activities that they are attending with the person with disability.

It is free to apply for a Companion Card. You can find out how to apply and how to use the card at this website:

WA Companion Card

Payments for Carers

There are also payments you may be able to get if you are a parent or guardian, or a carer for someone with a disability including Carer’s Allowance and Carer’s Payment. You can find details of these payments and how to apply for them on this page:

Services Australia Carer Payment