Articles: what your NDIS evidence needs to show

Whether the NDIS refused a support or refused access, the decision comes down to the same thing: what your evidence shows, and how clearly it shows it.

These articles set out what the law asks for in its own words, how the Tribunal weighs evidence, and the standard good evidence has to meet. They're drawn from the NDIS Act and published Tribunal and Court reasons, and they're free to read whether or not you ever contact me.

How I work: my method, published in full

What the NDIS asks your evidence to show

The law in its own words, and the chain every request depends on: the diagnosis, the impairment, what you can and can't do, and what that means for your life. Two of these are written around the access criteria, but the reasoning applies to supports as well.

What the NDIS's own data says about painFor most pain conditions, pain isn't the primary disability on the participant's record. What that means for a support request. What the NDIS actually requires, in its own wordsThree provisions decide most pain-related decisions. Here is what each one says, and the thing none of them says. A diagnosis, an impairment and a functional impact are three different thingsWhy two people with the same condition need entirely different cases built, and why a better diagnosis usually changes nothing. What "substantially reduced functional capacity" means when pain is the primary issueThe Tribunal asks for “a relatively high degree of precision”. Here is why “significantly limits daily activities” does no work, and what does. What makes an impairment permanentIt isn't a question about how long you've had pain. It's about what treatment has been tried, and what the record shows about it.

Why a thick medical file can still be refused

How decision-makers read the records you already have, and what those records usually leave out.

What your specialist's report was actually written forYou paid for a report and the decision came back the same. Here is why that happens, and what to ask for next time. Nine categories, one fileHow a treatment history is read, and why a thick file is not a finished one. Pain scores establish nothing. Here is what does.Why the most carefully recorded number in your file does no work, and what a decision-maker can actually use. Sleep is not a symptomIt appears in almost every pain file as a complaint, and almost never as something that was investigated. Pain and thinkingYou have not become disorganised. Something is using the capacity you used to plan with. Three desks, one fileA support coordinator, a solicitor and a physiotherapist each receive the same NDIS file. Here is the first thing each of them looks for, and why none of them can do the others' job.

Evidence you can start building yourself, for free

What you and the people around you can record now, before anyone is paid to write anything.

How to write your own functional recordNobody has seen your kitchen at six in the evening. Here is how to write it down so that someone else can use it. What the person beside you seesThe most accurate account of how a condition affects daily life usually belongs to someone who has never been asked to write anything down. Documenting a condition that changes day to dayWhy a good day in an appointment can undo years of evidence, and what has to be recorded instead. Free help with an NDIS application, and what it can and cannot doMost of the help available for applying to the NDIS costs nothing. Here is what each kind is good at, what none of them can do, and what you can do yourself for free.
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Drawn from published Tribunal and Court reasons, current as at the compilations cited. Nothing here is legal advice or a prediction about any outcome. Every file turns on its own evidence.

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