Individual Advocacy and NDIS Appeals Team
SCIA has an individual advocacy and NDIS Appeals team based in Sydney and Northern Rivers, New South Wales that provide assistance for people with disabilities and neurological conditions.
Our individual team covers all of New South Wales, and our NDIS Appeals supports people living in Greater Sydney and the Northern Rivers.
We help with:
- Centrelink related issues
- Service provision complaints
- NDIS reviews
- Housing and NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT)
- Discrimination and rights in supported employment
As well as this, our team assists in family advocacy, such as parent or carer with a child, or an adult child, who has a disability.
If you would like to contact our team for further information fill in our Policy & Advocacy – Request for Service.
NDIS Appeals
The Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) reviews decisions made by Australian Government agencies, departments and ministers.
ART can review a range of areas including, but not limited to, decisions made by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Before our team can assist lodge your application online. There is no charge to apply at the ART if the person applying has a disability for an External Merits Review. Please read the information below carefully so we can best equip you.
The ART uses three different stages of meetings to review a decision:
- Case Conference
- Conciliation
- Hearing
The ART will try to bring you and the NDIA to an agreement at each stage before the review proceeds to the next stage.
- Stage one – Case Conference
There is often more than one Case Conference. The first Case Conference is an informal meeting between a representative of the NDIA, yourself, your lawyer (if you are legally represented), your advocate and an ART Registrar. You can expect a discussion about the evidence that you have submitted and why the NDIA may want further clarification or evidence regarding the extra supports being requested or for your access request.
They may suggest that you have an independent assessment by an impartial assessor to help the NDIA to understand your disability and functional capacity. The NDIA will pay for these assessments.
The same parties attend the second Case Conference, where the results of the assessments will be discussed and the updated position of the NDIA. The NDIA may then request further information. The ART Registrar will help you and the NDIA reach an agreement if that is possible. If you can reach an agreement, the ART Registrar will record it in writing in a document called the Terms of Agreement. This is a legal document that replaces the internal review decision.
If agreement cannot be reached during a case conference, the ART will discuss with you and the NDIA whether the case should proceed to the Conciliation stage and then a Hearing, or whether to proceed straight to a Hearing. Alternatively, they may provide you with specific questions for some of your treating practitioners to answer. The NDIA will generally pay for these reports. It is also advisable to lodge a statement of lived experience from the applicant and a carer statement from any carers, as supporting evidence.
- Stage two – Conciliation
Conciliation gives both you and the NDIA the opportunity to discuss the issues and information from each point of view, and to consider ways to reach a compromise agreement. Conciliation is normally scheduled four weeks after the last case conference. Again, an agreement at this stage will be recorded in writing in a Terms of Agreement.
If you and the NDIA cannot reach an agreement, or only reach a partial agreement about some parts of your application during Conciliation, a Terms of Agreement will be drafted outlining what has been resolved and then the remaining issues in dispute will proceed onto a Hearing.
- Stage three – Hearing
A hearing is adversarial in nature. The NDIA will be represented by a barrister and a lawyer. You can apply for Legal Aid representation, but if this is unsuccessful you may need to represent yourself or your NDIS Appeals advocate can also assist you or represent you.
At the hearing you and the NDIA will present information, call expert witnesses such as health specialists, Dr’s and OT’s etc and make arguments about your case.
The Tribunal Member will make a decision that is binding on you and the NDIA. If possible the Member will give their decision at the end of the Hearing. If a decision cannot be made at the time of the Hearing, the Member will give you a decision within 60 days of the Hearing.
The outcome of an External Merits Review can be:
- The internal review decision made by the NDIA becomes final decision, or
- Changes are made to the NDIA internal review, or
- The NDIA internal review decision is cancelled and a new decision is made, or
- The NDIA internal review decision is cancelled and the case is sent back to the NDIA to make a new decision.
Request for Service
Before you request service from our Individual Advocacy and NDIS Appeals Team please make sure that you have confirmation from the Administrative Review Tribunal (ART) accepting your request and confirmation of a first case conference date.
To ensure that we can get a better understanding of your Appeal, we would appreciate it if you could please provide us with the following documentation (if relevant):
- A copy of your Internal Review Letter
- If you have already lodged your application to the ART, the acknowledgement letter from the ART confirming that they have received your application form to start your NDIS Appeal
- Any correspondence that you may have received from the ART relating to your application for this Appeal including:
- Case Conference Date notification.
- T documents (this is a large bundle of documents which includes all the reports you have submitted to the Agency since this review started).
- Respondent’s details: this is a notice of who is acting/representing the Agency.
- Any new evidence that you may have submitted since you lodged your internal review application. This includes: any new medical report or Occupational Therapist reports, etc.
We will then place you onto our waiting list and your referral for service will be triaged and reviewed at our next Appeals Team meeting, which occurs weekly. After our meeting an advocate will be in touch with you to let you know if we have any capacity to assist you with your NDIS Appeal, and if not, we can suggest some other advocacy services to contact.
For more information contact our team by filling out Policy & Advocacy – Request for Service.
Additional Information
- You can contact Legal Aid NSW and Legal Aid QLD for free legal advice. The Tribunal can arrange a Legal Aid advice appointment for you upon request.
- Queensland Advocacy for Inclusion provides templates and information about NDIS Access, applying for NDIS funding, lodging an AAT appeal, navigating appeals for supports and information to help you understand what ‘reasonable and necessary’ means for your request for supports. Download their NDIS Supports Template for Carers Statement here.
- Download this example of Statement of Lived Experience that can help you with your Case Conference.
- If you are a carer for someone and seeking information about services to help you or your loved one, Carer Gateway can help you navigate supports.
- Our Representative Advocacy has put together workshops for participants of the NDIS to talk through the legislative changes made in National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) that commenced in October 2024.
- Have The Nerve Episode Six – Over 65s, NDIS and Aged Care Funding
- Have The Nerve Episode 12 – So, how disabled do you need to be for the NDIS?
- Have The Nerve Episode 21 – NDIS, WTH?! (Where’s The Help)