Did the NDIS refuse a support you need for your pain?

Why the NDIS refuses supports for pain, even when your pain is well documented

Every support you ask for gets checked against the same questions. Is it for the disability the NDIS has already accepted? Will it actually help? Is it good value? And is it the NDIS's job, or should the health system, or your family, be covering it?

With pain, the answer usually falls over on one of two. Either nobody has explained how your pain connects to the disability on your plan, so the NDIS can't see why it should pay for the therapies that stop you seizing up. Or your records make it sound like treatment, so the NDIS sends it back to the health system and you miss out on the supports that build your independence.

That isn't a failure by your doctors. They wrote to answer the question in front of them: what's wrong with you, and how can we help. Nobody asked them what it takes you to get through a week, or why that's a disability support rather than a medical one. That's a different question, and it needs different evidence.

It's unfair. You need the support just as much either way. But the NDIS only funds what the evidence explains.

Your letter names the question your request didn't answer. I can show you why it didn't.

Before you ask for another plan reassessment, find out exactly what your evidence is missing

Most people's next step is another report and another request. I understand why. But a new report written without knowing why the last request failed usually says the same things in different words, and the same evidence tends to get the same answer. The rules also got stricter in 2026, so a request has to be stronger now than it did before.

That's what my Evidence Audit is for. Your GP, specialists, physio, psychologist, OT, hospital: I read everything anyone has written about you, and tell you in plain English:

• whether the support you need is clearly tied to the disability on your plan
• whether your records show what the support keeps you doing, not just that it eases the pain
• where your evidence stops short
• and exactly what would close that gap before your next reassessment request

Medical files get big. By the time someone reaches the Tribunal, theirs is often hundreds of pages, and I read all of it. It's slow, detailed work. If I charged by the hour, it would cost more than most NDIS plans could cover.

So I cap it. $850 is the most you'll pay for an Evidence Audit, however big your file turns out to be. If it's smaller, you'll pay less. And nothing is claimed from your plan until you've read my findings.

Don't have your records? I'll get them for you, free. With your signed permission I write to every practice you've been to and keep chasing until everything's in.

Fees, timing and what happens after

If the Evidence Audit finds there's a gap, I can clinically assess the issue and write the evidence that fills it

With pain, the gap is usually the same one. Your records say the support helps. They don't say what it does: what it keeps you able to do, what slips when you go without it, and why that's about living with your disability rather than treating your pain.

That's what the NDIS needs to see. So where the audit calls for it, I write a report that answers the support test directly: how the support connects to the disability on your plan, what it lets you do that you couldn't otherwise, why it's good value, and why it belongs to the NDIS rather than the health system.

If your records can't show that, I assess you myself, by video from home and at your pace. I look at what the support keeps you doing, and what happens without it: the weeks your exercise program lapsed, the times the cleaner cancelled and the house got away from you. Then I call you the next day, three days later and a week later to check how you pulled up. Those calls build a clinical picture no single assessment can: how long the effort cost you, and what it took to recover. That's the part the NDIS rarely sees in a one-off report.

The Tribunal trusts therapists less when they'd be paid to deliver your ongoing support. I never am.

If a therapist recommends a support they'll then be paid to provide, the NDIS and the Tribunal can treat their report as self-interested, however good it is. I've read decisions where that is exactly how a strong request was knocked back.

So I never provide a funded support to anyone whose file I've audited or reported on. If what you need is treatment, I'll say so and point you to someone else. And my fee is set before I start. It stays the same whatever I find, and whatever the NDIS decides.

Everything I do is written down and published, so you, your GP, your support coordinator, or the person reviewing your request can check my reasoning.

Refused access to the NDIS because of your pain? I can help with your next application.

Most of this page is for people already in the NDIS. But the same work applies if your application was knocked back. The access test asks different questions: whether your pain counts as a disability, whether it's permanent, and how much it limits your day. Your records have to answer each one.

I read everything you have against that test, show you where your evidence stops short, and help you build an application that answers the questions the last one didn't. It's the same detailed Evidence Audit, the same pain-specific assessment and report, and the same capped fees. Just applied to an entirely different set of rules.

Much of this site explains how I work and why I do it. If you'd like to understand more before you get in touch: