This page contains a detailed summary of the access requirements for becoming a participant in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

If you are a person with disability who wishes to participate in the NDIS, you must first be assessed against the access requirements.

Availability in your area

To access the NDIS right now, you must live in an area where the NDIS is available. In some of these areas, you also need to be a certain age to access the Scheme.

Until the Scheme has been rolled out in your area, existing Commonwealth, state and territory government funded disability services will continue.

Contact details for Commonwealth, state and territory government disability services are on the Other services in your State or your Territory page.

Find out if the NDIS is available in your area, e.g. New South Wales

For more information view the Our sites page, and the Completing your Access Request page.

Residency Requirements

You may meet the residency requirements if you live in Australia and:

are an Australian citizen, OR
hold a Permanent Visa, OR
hold a Protected Special Category Visa, (i.e. you were in Australia on a Special Category Visa on 26 February 2001, OR had been in Australia for at least 12 months in the 2 years immediately before 26 February 2001 and you returned to Australia after that day)

Disability Requirements

You may meet the disability requirements if:

you have an impairment or condition that is likely to be permanent (i.e. it is likely to be life long) and
your impairment substantially reduces your ability to participate effectively in activities, or perform tasks or actions unless you have assistance from other people OR you have assistive technology or equipment (other than common items such as glasses) OR you can't participate effectively even with assistance or aides and equipment and
your impairment affects your capacity for social and economic participation and
you are likely to require support under the NDIS for your lifetime.

An impairment that varies in intensity e.g. because the impairment is of a chronic episodic nature may still be permanent, and you may require support under the NDIS for your lifetime, despite the variation.

Early Intervention Requirements

You may meet the early intervention requirements if you have an impairment or condition that is likely to be permanent and there is evidence that getting supports now (early interventions) will help you by:

reducing how much help you will need to do things because of your impairment in the future and
improving or reducing deterioration of your functional capacity or
helping your family and carers to keep helping you and
those supports are most appropriately funded through the NDIS, and not through another service system.

OR if you are a child aged under 6 years of age with developmental delay which results in:

substantially reduced functional capacity in one or more of the areas of self-care, receptive and expressive language, cognitive development or motor development and
results in the need for a combination and sequence of special interdisciplinary or generic care, treatment or other services which are of extended duration, and are individually planned and coordinated; and
those supports are most appropriately funded through the NDIS, and not through another service system.

(Source – NDIS Department of Human Services)

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