NDIA impairment advice
Dear National Disability Insurance Agency,
I request a copy of all documents that:
1. Contain current advice or guidance or similar on the definition of ‘impairment’ (as used in the Act), and
2. Are not publicly available, and
3. Are not advice et al to a specific individual (for example, an email in response to a question is not included; a reference document in Teams is, even if the reference document is not a formal SOP).
Where a document is in scope the request is for the whole document, not just the portion relating to impairment
I agree to the exclusion of non-SES details and applicant/participant personal information
Yours faithfully,
Me
Thank you for your email to the National Disability Insurance Agency
(NDIA) Freedom of Information (FOI) team.
Please note: due to a high volume of requests, our ability to respond to
you in a timely manner may be affected. We will action your request as
soon as possible and will endeavour to process your matter within the
legislative deadlines. We may need to seek your agreement to an extension
of time. We appreciate your understanding if this is required.
Participant Information
Did you know the NDIA has other ways to access the documents and
information that we hold?
Participants, Guardians and Nominees can obtain copies of some participant
information through our National Contact Centre (NCC). For more
information about what’s available through the NCC, please contact 1800
800 110.
Please visit our [1]Access to Information webpage to find out more about
accessing information through:
* The [2]Participant Information Access (PIA) scheme
* The [3]Information Publication Scheme (IPS)
* The [4]myplace portal for participants
* The [5]myplace portal for providers
Access to Data
You can also request data and statistics. Please visit our [6]Data and
insights webpage page for further information.
If you are able to obtain your information from a source listed above, you
can withdraw your FOI request by emailing [7][NDIA request email]
Further Information
Information about how to make an FOI request can be found on our website:
[8]Freedom of Information
Should you have a query unrelated to FOI, please contact the Agency by
email at [9][email address] or via webchat at [10]ndis.gov.au.
Alternatively, you can also contact us by phoning 1800 800 110.
Kind regards
Freedom of Information Team
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [11][NDIA request email]
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
References
Visible links
1. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
2. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
3. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
4. https://www.ndis.gov.au/participants/usi...
5. https://www.ndis.gov.au/providers/workin...
6. https://data.ndis.gov.au/
7. mailto:[NDIA request email]
8. https://www.ndis.gov.au/about-us/policie...
9. mailto:[email address]
10. https://www.ndis.gov.au/
11. mailto:[NDIA request email]
Dear Me
Freedom of Information Request: Acknowledgement
Thank you for your request of 6 March 2025, made under the Freedom of
Information Act 1982 (FOI Act), for copies of documents held by the
National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your Request
You have requested access to:
“ I request a copy of all documents that:
1. Contain current advice or guidance or similar on the definition of
‘impairment’ (as used in the Act), and
2. Are not publicly available, and
3. Are not advice et al to a specific individual (for example, an email in
response to a question is not included; a reference document in Teams is,
even if the reference document is not a formal SOP).
Where a document is in scope the request is for the whole document, not
just the portion relating to impairment
I agree to the exclusion of non-SES details and applicant/participant
personal information.”
Irrelevant Information
Section 22 of the FOI Act allows an Agency to redact information from
documents if that information would reasonably be regarded as irrelevant
to a request for access.
I note that you have agreed to the exclusion of non-SES contact details,
consequently, NDIA staff members’ middle names, surnames and contact
details will be regarded as irrelevant under section 22 of the FOI Act.
Processing Timeframes
In accordance with section 15(5)(b) of the FOI Act, a 30-day statutory
period for processing your request commenced from 7 March 2025. This
30-day period expires on 5 April 2025.
The 30-day period can be extended in a number of ways, including with your
agreement.
Unfortunately, it is currently taking us a little longer than 30 days to
process FOI requests. I am therefore seeking your agreement to a 30-day
extension of time under section 15AA of the FOI Act. If you agree to this
extension, the new due date for us to decide on your request will be 5 May
2025.
If you do not agree and we are unable to process your request within the
30-day period expiring on 5 April 2025, we will be deemed to have refused
your request and you will not have a right to seek internal review of that
decision. You will, however, retain your right to external review by the
Australian Information Commissioner.
Please let us know if you agree by 18 March 2025.
Disclosure Log
Subject to certain exceptions, documents released under the FOI Act will
be published on the NDIA’s disclosure log located on our website.
If you have any concerns about the publication of the documents you have
requested, please contact me.
Next steps
Your request will be allocated to an authorised FOI decision-maker. The
decision-maker may need to contact you to discuss a range of matters,
including refining the scope of your request.
We will contact you using the email address you have provided. Please
advise if you would prefer us to use an alternative means of contact.
In the meantime, if you have any questions or need help, please contact us
at [1][NDIA request email].
Regards
Mykal
Freedom of Information Officer
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3]NDIA logo
[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
Dear foi,
Ordinarily I would agree to the extension but I would like the documents in the timeframe. I’d prefer OAIC review of deemed refusal to be available in 30 days not 60.
You’re welcome to apply to OAIC for extension but I understand understaffing is not an accepted reason
May I suggest NDIA does not seek an extension, plugs away at it, and hopefully the NDIA decision, albeit out of time, is before the OAIC gets to it
Yours sincerely,
Me
Dear Me
Thank you for your request.
Clarification of Scope
Your original request is:
“…I request a copy of all documents that:
1. Contain current advice or guidance or similar on the definition of
‘impairment’ (as used in the Act), and
2. Are not publicly available, and
3. Are not advice et al to a specific individual (for example, an email in
response to a question is not included; a reference document in Teams is,
even if the reference document is not a formal SOP).
Where a document is in scope the request is for the whole document, not
just the portion relating to impairment
I agree to the exclusion of non-SES details and applicant/participant
personal information…”
Noting that the word ‘impairment’ is referenced 62 times within the NDIS
Act 2013, I consider the scope of your request to be quite broad and
thereby may attract a large number of responsive documents. As per
section 15(2)(b) of the FOI Act, a FOI request must provide enough detail
to enable an officer of the Agency to identify the document. To assist me
with conducting searches for documents, I request that you identify which
particular topics of impairment you are seeking by 1 April 2025.
Administrative release of documents
During preliminary searches, I conducted a key-word search of the [1]NDIS
FOI Disclosure Log using the term ‘impairment’ and found several published
FOI decision documents. Two published decisions were released recently -
FOI 24/25-0754 (release date 04/02/2025) and FOI 24/25-0883 (release date
13/03/2025), which may be of interest to you. In particular, FOI
24/25-0883 provides the current Impairment Categories Guide which provides
guidance for understanding the impairment categories. I have attached
these for your convenience.
If you find that your enquiry is satisfied in this case, please notify me
of your agreement to withdraw your FOI request, by 1 April 2025.
Please contact me at [2][NDIA request email] with any questions.
Kind regards
Ramya [RMO 260]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [3][NDIA request email]
[4]NDIA logo
[5]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[6]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
Dear Ramya
Thanks for your email
I will look at the other FOIs, that’s really helpful
I’m not sure why multiple mentions of ‘impairment’ in the Act makes the scope broad - it would be highly unusual for the same word to mean different things in the same Act.
Nonetheless, if it assists, I narrow the request to:
- Only relate to ‘impairment’ as used in s 24
- Not include documents already released under 0883 and 0754
Regards
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
Dear Me,
Many thanks for your response regarding the scope.
Also, I am pleased that the FOI disclosure log documents may be helpful to
you. The FOI disclosure log is a great resource of published documents
and well worth checking through prior to submitting new FOI requests.
With the due date of 5 April fast approaching and the need to commence
searches for your revised scope, can I kindly request you reconsider your
decision on the 30-day extension of time? That way, your internal review
rights of this request are preserved.
Please reach out to me at [1][NDIA request email] with any questions.
Kind regards
Ramya [RMO 260]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3]NDIA logo
[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
Dear Ramya
On the extension: ok. Mainly because you/NDIA seem to be meaningfully helpful with FOI (cf the rest of the Cth).
OAIC for deemed refusal would otherwise be satisfactory
Regards
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
Dear Me,
Many thanks for your prompt response and agreement to a 30-day extension
of time for this matter. Please be advised that the new due date for
decision on access is 5 May 2025.
I will proceed with processing your request as per the agreed revised
scope.
If you have any further questions, please reach out to me at
[1][NDIA request email].
Kind regards
Ramya [RMO 260]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3]NDIA logo
[4]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[5]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
Dear Me,
I have been continuing to progress your application since our last
communication, and I wish to provide you with an update.
During the course of conducting document searches with business areas, I
was only recently advised that an additional search consultation is
necessary. At this stage, I am still awaiting a response from that
business area. Consequently, it is unlikely I will be able to meet the
extended due date, 5 May 2025 for this matter. I sincerely apologise for
any inconvenience.
I will continue to keep you updated and hope to provide you with a
decision on access as soon as possible.
Thank you for your patience and understanding.
Kind regards
Ramya [RMO 260]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [1][NDIA request email]
[2]NDIA logo
[3]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[4]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
From: foi <[NDIA request email]>
Sent: Thursday, 3 April 2025 9:57 AM
To: 'Me' <[FOI #12890 email]>
Cc: foi <[NDIA request email]>
Subject: FOI 24/25-1470 - Your request for information - Extension of time
confirmed [SEC=OFFICIAL]
Dear Me,
Many thanks for your prompt response and agreement to a 30-day extension
of time for this matter. Please be advised that the new due date for
decision on access is 5 May 2025.
I will proceed with processing your request as per the agreed revised
scope.
If you have any further questions, please reach out to me at
[5][NDIA request email].
Kind regards
Ramya [RMO 260]
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [6][NDIA request email]
[7]NDIA logo
[8]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
[9]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
Dear foi,
Could I confirm the FOI reference - is this request 1470?
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
Dear Me,
We refer to your FOI request made 6 March 2025 (Our Ref: FOI 24/25-1470).
Please see attached revised decision and documents in relation to your
request. If you require these in a different format, please let us know.
Due to the size of the documents, they have been split across two emails,
this being Part 1 of 2.
As this matter is currently before the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) for review, we have copied OAIC into this
correspondence.
If you have any further questions, please contact me at
[1][NDIA request email]
Kind Regards
Kate (KIM627)
A/Assistant Director – Freedom of Information
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3][IMG]
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
Dear Me,
We refer to your FOI request made 6 March 2025 (Our Ref: FOI 24/25-1470).
Please see attached documents (part 2 of 2) in relation to your request.
If you require these in a different format, please let us know.
Due to the size of the documents, they have been split across two emails,
this being Part 2 of 2.
As this matter is currently before the Office of the Australian
Information Commissioner (OAIC) for review, we have copied OAIC into this
correspondence.
If you have any further questions, please contact me at
[1][NDIA request email]
Kind Regards
Kate (KIM627)
A/Assistant Director – Freedom of Information
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3][IMG]
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
Dear Kate
Thank you this is very helpful.
Could I confirm: the s 47E(d) redaction related to revealing methodologies - that is referring to the redaction on folio 83 (of 283)? Part of an answer to a question?
Regards
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
Dear Me
Thank you for your email below.
I can confirm that the conditional exemption under section 47E(d), which
pertains to the disclosure of internal methodologies, applies to the
redacted content on page 83 of the document bundle.
Please contact us at [1][NDIA request email] if you have any questions or
require help.
Kind regards
Kate (KIM627)
A/Assistant Director – Freedom of Information
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
E [2][NDIA request email]
[3][IMG]
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We
pay our respects to them and their cultures and to Elders past, present
and emerging.
Dear Kate
Helpful, thank you.
My 00831 submissions:
——
Dear OAIC
NDIA provided a revised decision.
I would like to keep the review on foot in relation to one specific point.
Folio 83 contains s 47E(d) redactions on the basis they reveal methodologies. I contend that is not a valid basis. Refusing to disclose such decision-making criteria is kafkaesque. It also necessarily results in NDIA’s decisions being infected with jurisdictional error for breaching the fair hearing rule.
Further, the methodology for disability support pension is publicly available. It’s not harmful to publish the exact details for assessing DSP. NDIA has given no reason to demonstrate publishing exact details for NDIS is different. Therefore, the redaction should not apply such that NDIS criteria are as transparent as DSP criteria.
https://www.legislation.gov.au/F2023L001... Social Security (Tables for the Assessment of Work-related Impairment for Disability Support Pension) Determination 2023; see also SA website generally https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/gen...
Regards
PNA
——
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
OAIC reference: MR25/00831
NDIA reference: FOI24/25-1470
Applicant: Perfectly Normal Applicant (Me)
By email: [1][FOI #12890 email]
OAIC
By email: [2][email address]
Dear parties,
After receiving notification from Australian Information Commissioner
(OAIC) that the applicant intended to proceed with the Information
Commissioner review as they contested the application of an exemption, we
wish to provide a revised decision.
If you require these in a different format, please let us know.
As this matter is currently before OAIC for an IC review, we have copied
OAIC into this correspondence.
If you have any further questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at
[3][NDIA request email].
Kind regards
Sussan (SJL495)
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Information Release, Privacy and Legal Operations Branch
Reviews and Information Release Division
National Disability Insurance Agency
Email: [4][NDIA request email]
[5]NDIA logo
[6]LGBTIQA+ rainbow graphic
The NDIA acknowledges the Traditional Custodians of Country throughout
Australia
and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our
respects to
them and their cultures and to Elders past, present and emerging.
[7]Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander flags graphic
References
Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #12890 email]
2. mailto:[email address]
3. mailto:[NDIA request email]
4. mailto:[NDIA request email]
6. https://intranet.ndiastaff.ndia.gov.au/h...
Dear Sussan
Thanks
I have withdrawn the OAIC review
Yours sincerely,
Perfectly Normal Applicant
Emily Lacey left an annotation ()
Just a tip for checking what FOI number the NDIA have assigned something where they haven't made a decision yet – if you go to "Actions", "Write a reply", type in some random text, then click "Preview your message", that page shows you the email subject line which should include the FOI number its been given.
Took me a while to figure that one out haha. I wish the NDIA would put it in the body of the email as well as the subject line.