What the Participant Service Guarantee is
The Participant Service Guarantee was added to the NDIS law by the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Participant Service Guarantee and Other Measures) Act 2022. Some timeframes are written into the NDIS Act itself, and others into NDIS rules made under it.
The aim is certainty. You should know how long each step will take and what happens if the NDIA does not decide in time.
The key timeframes
These are the main limits that apply to participants and people applying:
- Access request: a decision, or a request for more information, within 21 days
- Starting your first plan: the NDIA must begin preparing it within 21 days of you becoming a participant
- Approving your first plan: within 56 days of the access decision
- Plan variation you asked for: a decision within 21 days, or the NDIA must tell you it needs more time, after which further limits in the rules apply
- Internal review of a decision: within 60 days of your request
- Changing a nominee you or your nominee asked to change: within 14 days
Newer timeframes from the 2026 reforms
- Unscheduled reassessment: since 27 August 2026, if the NDIA has not decided your request within 90 days, it is treated as refused
- High support needs plan variation: since 1 October 2026, the NDIA has 21 days to decide whether you are a high support needs participant, then a further 21 days to decide the variation, unless it tells you it needs more time
What happens if the NDIA misses a deadline
For some decisions the law treats silence as a refusal, so you are not left waiting forever. If the NDIA does not decide an access request, a plan variation request or an unscheduled reassessment request within the time allowed, it is taken to have refused. The NDIS Act says those deemed decisions are reviewed automatically.
For other steps, such as plan approval, a missed timeframe does not change your plan, but it is a breach of the guarantee you can complain about. Start with the NDIA's feedback and complaints process, and if that does not resolve it, contact the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
The Participant Service Charter
The Participant Service Charter explains what you can expect from the NDIA and its partners. It is built on five principles:
- Transparent: information and decisions that are easy to access and understand
- Responsive: responding to your individual needs and circumstances
- Respectful: recognising you as an expert in your own life
- Empowering: making it easy to use information and be supported to lead your life
- Connected: supporting you to access the services and supports you need
How to use the guarantee
- Write down the date you sent every request and how you sent it. Timeframes run from when the NDIA receives it
- Keep copies of emails and reference numbers, and note who you spoke to on the phone
- If a deadline passes, ask the NDIA in writing for a decision and mention the Participant Service Guarantee
- If a request is treated as refused, ask about the review that follows, and get help from a free advocate if you need it