NDIS fact sheet | Steps in the review process

1. Apply for a review of a decision

You can apply to the Administrative Appeals Tribunal (AAT) for a review of a decision made the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) by filling out an application form and attaching a copy of the decision you want us to review. If you want someone to represent you during your review, you can give us their contact information on the application form.

If you need help with accessibility, such as an Auslan interpreter or large print documents, please let us know when you lodge your application.

Before you apply to the AAT for a review, you must have applied to the NDIA for an internal review. If it has been 90 days since you asked the NDIA for an internal review and you have not received a decision, please send us a copy of your internal review request with your application.

You can ask for help with your AAT review from a disability advocate, your local Legal Aid office or a trusted family member or friend.

2. Once we receive your application

We will check your application to make sure we have all the information we need. We may:

• ask you to provide more information
• contact you if you do not have a representative, to tell you about our review process, and talk about any help you might need to participate. We can’t give you legal advice, but you can contact us if you need help understanding the process
• be able to help by giving you some ideas about where you can get legal advice, a disability advocate and other help
• ask you to go back to the NDIA and lodge an application for internal review if you have not already done this.

Once we have your complete application, we will send a copy to the NDIA. The NDIA will send you and us the T-documents (s37 documents) usually within 28 days. The T-documents include a copy of the decision made by the NDIA and all documents relevant to the AAT’s review of the decision which the NDIA have.

3. Directions hearing

If necessary, we may organise a directions hearing to deal with any early issues that come up, such as:

• whether we can give you an extension of time, if you made your application more than 28 days after the NDIA issued its reviewable decision
• considering any requests for a confidentiality order to protect your privacy
• deciding whether the AAT has the power to review the decision
• working out if there are any urgent issues that may need to be dealt with more quickly.

4.   Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR)

ADR refers to processes used to resolve disputes. We work with you and the NDIA to identify the issues and see if any agreement can be reached before going to a hearing.

Statement of Issues

You will usually receive a Statement of Issues from the NDIA. This is a summary of the matter written by the NDIA for the AAT. It lists some of the history, important documents and legal criteria.

The Statement of Issues may also contain suggestions from the NDIA about evidence you may wish to consider obtaining to help your case. You are not required to respond to the Statement of Issues before the case conference.

Case conference

You will usually have to attend one or more case conferences in person, by telephone or by video using Microsoft Teams.

A case conference is an informal, private meeting arranged by the AAT to talk about your case. It is attended by you, your support person or representative, a representative from the NDIA and an AAT conference registrar or AAT member. The first case conference usually takes between 60-90 minutes.

Conciliation

You may need to attend a conciliation. This is an informal, private meeting conducted by an AAT conference registrar or AAT member. It is a final effort to help you and the NDIA reach an agreement. Conciliations usually last from 2 to 3 hours, but they can go longer. A representative from the NDIA with the authority to settle the matter must attend.

Early Resolution

A matter can be resolved early if you decide to withdraw your application or if you and the NDIA reach an agreement.

5.   Hearing

If your matter cannot be resolved through ADR you can choose for an independent AAT member to make a decision about your matter at a hearing. The hearing is an opportunity for you, and the representative of the NDIA, to present information and arguments to an AAT member about the decision under review. 

Before the hearing, you may need to attend a directions hearing before an AAT member to discuss any issues and prepare the matter for the hearing.

We may require you or the NDIA to send us certain documents before the hearing. We will tell you what documents you may need to provide and when you must provide them to us and the NDIA.

The decision

After considering all the evidence, the AAT member will make a decision. The decision may be given to you at the end of the hearing or later on.

The AAT member can decide to:

1. affirm the decision of the NDIA – this means the NDIA’s decision does not change
2. vary the decision of the NDIA to change it in some way
3. set aside the decision of the NDIA and replace it with a different decision
4. set aside the decision of the NDIA and remit it, that is, send it back to the NDIA with instructions for the NDIA to make a new decision.

We will usually give you the reasons for the decision at the time we tell you the decision but you can ask us to give you written reasons if we gave the reasons verbally.

If you don’t agree with the AAT’s decision, you can appeal to the Federal Court of Australia within 28 days of receiving the decision.