Your rights and responsibilities as an NDIS participant
What you can expect from a provider, what you are responsible for in return, and what you can do if something is not right — including who you can go to if you need help outside your provider.
In short
- You have rights as a consumer — to ask questions, take your time, be treated fairly, get correct information, say no and speak up.
- A provider must tell you the price before delivering a support, give you an invoice, and only ask for payment once the support is delivered.
- A provider must not threaten you for raising a concern or making a complaint.
- Your responsibilities include understanding your plan, keeping good records and talking with your providers.
- You can complain about your provider, including Gencare, or go outside it to the NDIS Commission. Plan and funding problems go to the NDIA.
- You can change providers by following the NDIS process, which includes checking your service agreement, as it may set a notice period.
Whether something already feels wrong with a support worker or a provider, or you simply want to know where you stand, it helps to have the whole picture in one place. This guide sets it out in plain words: your rights, what a provider has to do for you, what you are responsible for in return, what you can do when something is not right, who you can go to outside your provider, and what happens if you want to change providers.
If you are dealing with a problem right now, you do not need to read the whole guide first. You can raise a concern about the safety or quality of your support, and you can complain about your provider — and that includes Gencare. Our feedback and complaints page explains how to raise something with us. Outside any provider, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission takes complaints about safety and quality.
Every plan and every situation is different, so read this as a clear starting point rather than advice about your own circumstances.
Your rights, in plain words
The NDIS describes your rights as a consumer of supports in plain terms. You have the right to:
- Ask for what you want
- Ask questions
- Take your time to make a decision
- Be treated fairly
- Get information that is important and correct
- Say no to buying something or to signing a contract
- Speak up if something goes wrong
The sections below set out what a provider has to do for you, and what you can do if one of these rights is not being respected.
What a provider has to do for you
Your rights are one side of the arrangement. The other side is what a provider is required to do. A provider must:
- Tell you the price of a support before they deliver it
- Keep full and accurate records
- Give you an invoice after delivering a support or service
- Only ask for payment after the support has been delivered
- Take reasonable steps to avoid and manage conflicts of interest
- Treat you fairly and follow consumer law
Providers must also follow the NDIS Code of Conduct, and NDIS laws, rules and policies. If you want the detail in the NDIS’s own words, it sets out what providers are responsible for (opens in a new tab) on its website.
A provider must make you feel safe and comfortable discussing issues with them. They must not threaten you for raising a concern or making a complaint.
What you are responsible for in return
Alongside your rights, the NDIS describes some responsibilities of your own. Your responsibilities include:
- Understanding your NDIS plan
- Keeping good records
- Letting the NDIS know if your situation changes
- Talking with your providers
- Letting the NDIS know if something goes wrong
Talking with a provider does not have to be something you do on your own. You can ask someone you trust to help you communicate with them — a friend, a family member or a support person.
The NDIS explains your responsibilities as a participant (opens in a new tab) in more detail. If what has gone wrong is about the safety or quality of your support, the next two sections set out what you can do, including where to go outside your provider.
If something is wrong
You can raise a concern about the safety or quality of your support. It does not have to come from you alone — a family member, a carer or a worker can raise a concern too.
You can also make a complaint about your provider, and that includes Gencare. We have our own complaints process, and our feedback and complaints page sets out how it works.
You can raise it with us yourself. A family member, friend or advocate can also help you, or raise it for you.
If you would rather raise your concern outside Gencare, you can go to the NDIS Commission instead. And if you are not happy with how we have handled a complaint, you can take it to the NDIS Commission too. The next section explains what the Commission does, and which problems belong with the NDIA.
Going outside your provider
Two bodies matter here, and they do different jobs.
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission — the NDIS Commission — looks at the safety and quality of NDIS-funded supports and services. It receives issues and complaints about safety and quality, and acts on them.
The NDIA is different. It provides individual plans and handles access to plans, service bookings and payments. A complaint about your NDIS plan or your funding goes to the NDIA, not the Commission.
The two are separate, and the NDIS Commission does not regulate the NDIA. If you want more background on how the scheme fits together, our guide to what the NDIS is and who runs it covers both.
If you want to change providers
You can change providers. The NDIS says you can add, change or remove providers at any time by following its process, and it sets out how to change providers (opens in a new tab) in five steps:
Talk to your current provider
Start with a conversation with the provider you have now.
Check your service agreement
Your service agreement may set a notice or cancellation period, so it is worth reading before you take the next steps.
Find a new provider
Our guide on how to choose an NDIS provider covers the questions worth asking.
Tell your current provider you want to leave
Let the provider you have now know that you want to leave.
Update the relevant participant portal
Update your provider details in the relevant portal.
If the reason you want to change is a problem with your current provider, the routes in the sections above are still open to you.
Important information
NDIS rules and processes change. This guide is general information drawn from current NDIS and NDIS Commission information, and it does not replace advice about your own situation. If anything here differs from what the NDIS or the NDIS Commission says now, follow their information.
The bottom line
You have rights as a consumer of NDIS supports, a provider has clear things it must do for you, and you have some responsibilities of your own. When something is not right, you can raise it — with your provider, including us, or outside your provider with the NDIS Commission. Problems with your plan or funding go to the NDIA.
You can also change providers, by following the NDIS process, which includes checking your service agreement. And you do not have to speak up on your own: someone you trust can help you talk to a provider, and a family member, friend or advocate can help you raise a concern with us.
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