What happens, step by step, and what it costs

This is for you if the NDIS refused a support you need for your pain

• You're an NDIS participant, and a support was refused, or cut when your plan was reassessed
• Or you have a reassessment coming up and want your evidence right first
• Pain is a big part of why you need the support
• You have a treating history, even if your records are scattered across practices

It isn't for you if you need legal advice or someone to argue your case. Which review pathway to take, what a deadline means, whether to appeal: that's for an advocate or a solicitor. I write evidence, and it says what your records support, even when that isn't what you hoped.

If you were refused access to the NDIS rather than a support, the same steps apply, read against a different set of rules. See how that works.

Step 1 · A free 15-minute call to see whether I can help

Fifteen minutes on the phone or by video, with me. We talk about what was refused, what the letter said, and roughly what's in your records. By the end you'll know whether an Evidence Audit would help and what it would cost at most.

If it wouldn't help, I'll tell you on the call, and try to point you to someone better placed. That costs you nothing.

Book the free call

Step 2 · I collect your medical records from every practice, free

Most people don't have their records. You're entitled to them, but chasing them is work nobody has the energy for while they're unwell.

With your signed permission, I write to every practice you've been to and keep chasing until everything's in. There's no charge and no limit on how many practices or how far back. The audit doesn't start, and nothing is charged, until your file is complete.

Step 3 · The Evidence Audit shows what your records can support, and where they stop. Up to $850.

I read your whole medical and allied health history against the support test, one question at a time: is the support tied to the disability on your plan, will it help, is it good value, and is it the NDIS's job rather than the health system's. For each one, you get back in writing:

• what your records already show, and which document shows it
• where they stop short
• what would close the gap, or whether it can be closed at all

That last part matters. Sometimes the evidence is there and nobody has put it in the terms the NDIS uses. Sometimes it was never recorded. And sometimes the honest answer is that the support doesn't meet the test, and the NDIS got it right. If that's what your records show, I'll tell you plainly, even when it isn't what you hoped, so you don't spend more time and money on a request that can't succeed.

NDIS files get big. By the time someone reaches the Tribunal, theirs is often hundreds of pages, and I read all of it. 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.

It takes two to three weeks from the day your file is complete. A call to talk it through is included once you've had time to read it, and you pay after you've read it, not before.

Step 4 · If there's a gap, a report written to close it

Only where the audit shows you need one, and quoted once the audit has shown exactly what it needs to cover. There are two kinds.

A report from your records, up to $1,650. This one is analytical. The evidence is already in your file, but nobody has set out the reasoning that connects it to the support test. So I do: step by step, how what's already written shows that the support is tied to the disability on your plan, what it lets you do, why it's good value, and why it belongs to the NDIS rather than the health system. Because it works from what exists, it's quicker and costs less.

A clinical assessment, then a report, up to $2,250. This one is clinical. The gap is that your impairments, and what they mean for your day, have never been properly identified or measured. I assess you by video from your own home, working through the ordinary tasks of a day in a realistic order, and look at what the support keeps you doing and what slips without it: the shopping that doesn't get done, the shower you skip so you can make an appointment.

It's a detailed process, with your safety and risk management first. You're screened before we start, we agree a stopping rule, and someone with you is the preference, not a condition. Then I call you the next day, three days later and a week later to check how you pulled up, which shows how long the effort cost you and what it took to recover.

Every outcome is evidence. If a task can't be done, or we stop early, or there's nobody to help you, that's recorded as a finding, not a failure. Having nobody to call on is itself evidence of what you need, so the report says so.

How the assessment is kept safe

Every report shows its reasoning, so your GP, coordinator or the NDIS can check it

Every report states clearly:

• my qualifications, and what falls outside them
• every source I relied on, with dates
• a declaration that I've followed the guidelines for expert evidence
• what I observed, kept separate from what I was told

Then the findings, with the reasoning behind each one, so anyone reading it can follow how I got there and disagree if they want to. Where something couldn't be assessed, the report says what that means rather than leaving a gap.

Reports read by the Tribunal are expected to be accurate, independent, objective and rigorous. Mine are written to that standard from the first line.

If you're asked to answer questions about a report I've written, I'll answer them. Attending a hearing or conference may cost extra, quoted in advance.

To keep my evidence defensible, I'm never paid to deliver the supports I write about

The Tribunal gives less weight to practitioners who stand to be paid from the plan they're writing about. So I've built my practice so that can never be said of my evidence. I don't provide funded supports to anyone whose file I've audited or reported on, or whose future funding depends on a report I wrote.

This isn't about appearances. It's what keeps your evidence standing when it's read by the NDIS, a reviewer or the Tribunal.

My fee doesn't change with what I find, or with what the NDIS later decides.

I don't give legal advice, act as an advocate, or promise outcomes. And I don't work outside physiotherapy: where your file needs a psychiatrist, a neuropsychologist or a specialist's opinion, my findings will say which and why.

Refused access to the NDIS because of your pain? The same four steps apply.

If your application was knocked back, the process is the same: a free call, free record collection, an Evidence Audit, and a report only if you need one. The fees are the same too. What changes is the test your records are read against.

The access test asks different questions from the support test: whether your pain counts as an impairment, whether it's likely to be permanent, how much it limits what you can do, and whether you're likely to need NDIS support for life. The Evidence Audit reads your records against each one, and shows you where your evidence stops short before you apply again.