How you become a participant
While your access request is being decided, the NDIS Act calls you a prospective participant. You become a participant on the day the NDIA decides you meet the access criteria: the age, residence and either the disability or the early intervention requirements.
The NDIA must tell you in writing the date you became a participant and whether you met the disability requirements, the early intervention requirements or both. It also gives you a notice of the impairments your access is based on, which matters later because plan funding is linked to those impairments. Your first plan is made after this.
What being a participant gives you
- A plan with funding for reasonable and necessary supports linked to your goals
- Choice and control over who provides your supports and, depending on how your plan is managed, how you pay them
- The right to ask for a review of reviewable decisions, such as your plan or a refusal to vary it
- The right to appoint, or be supported by, a nominee if you need one, with supported decision making preferred first
- Access to the NDIA's partners, such as local area coordinators and early childhood partners
Your obligations
Being a participant comes with a few responsibilities that have grown with the 2026 reforms:
- Spend your funding in line with your plan and only on NDIS supports
- Tell the NDIA about changes in your circumstances that could affect your plan or your eligibility
- If you are self managed, keep records of NDIS payments for 3 years, a rule in place since 27 August 2026
- From 1 December 2026, make sure claims are made within 90 days of each support, by you or your plan manager
- Respond to NDIA requests for information, as long periods without contact can affect your status
When participant status ends
Under section 29 of the NDIS Act, you stop being a participant if you die, if you start accessing permanent aged care for the first time after you turn 65 (other than through a specialist aged care program), if your status is revoked, or if you withdraw.
You can ask to withdraw at any time. The NDIA must explain the consequences and give you a cooling off period of at least 90 days to change your mind before the withdrawal takes effect.
When status can be revoked
The NDIA can revoke participant status if it is satisfied you no longer meet the residence requirements, or no longer meet the disability or early intervention requirements. It can also revoke status if you cannot be contacted after reasonable attempts (at least 5 attempts over 3 to 4 months, including one in writing if your preferred contact is not), or if your plan has been suspended for at least 90 days.
If the NDIA asks for information or reports while considering this and they are not provided within 90 days or a longer period it allows, it may revoke status, unless the delay was reasonable. A revocation is a reviewable decision, so you can ask for an internal review.
What changes from 2028
Nothing changes about who can be a participant until 1 January 2028. From then, access is based on a standardised assessment of functional capacity, and current participants are reassessed against the new criteria over 3 years. You will be told well in advance. Children 8 and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs who apply from 2028 will be supported by Thriving Kids instead.
Separately, from 1 April 2027 participants begin moving to new framework plans, where your budget is set from a support needs assessment. That assessment sets your budget; it does not decide whether you remain a participant.