NDIS Eligibility Checklist WA: Do You Qualify? (2026 Guide)

“Do I qualify?” is almost always the first question, and it is the one that stops the most people from ever applying. Plenty of Western Australians who would meet the criteria never find out, because the language around eligibility sounds technical and the answer feels like something only an expert could give.

It is more knowable than it looks. The NDIS has four things it checks, and you can work through all of them yourself in about ten minutes.

This guide walks through each test in plain English, gives you a printable checklist to take to your GP, and explains what your options are in WA if the answer turns out to be no. If you already know you are eligible and want the steps, our guide to how to apply for the NDIS in WA covers the process from there.

Quick answer: the four things the NDIS checks
To become an NDIS participant, you generally need to:
Be younger than 65 on the day you apply.
Meet the residence requirements – be an Australian citizen, permanent resident, or Protected Special Category visa holder, and live in Australia.
Meet the disability requirements – have one or more impairments that are likely to be permanent, that substantially reduce your ability to do everyday activities, and that mean you will likely need NDIS supports for life.
Or meet the early intervention requirements – have a permanent impairment where getting support now would reduce how much support you need later.
You only need to meet either the disability requirements or the early intervention requirements. You can meet both. Children younger than 9 are supported through the NDIS early childhood approach.

Test 1: The age requirement

You must be younger than 65 on the day you apply. Your application needs to be complete, in the format the NDIA asks for, and received by them before your 65th birthday.

That deadline is stricter than most people realise. It is not the date you started thinking about it or the date your GP wrote a report – it is the date a complete application lands with the NDIA. If you are approaching 65 and think you may be eligible, this is the single most time-sensitive thing on this page. Contact the NDIS on 1800 800 110 and start now.

If you are already an NDIS participant when you turn 65, nothing has to change. You can choose to keep using your NDIS supports or move across to aged care supports, but you cannot use both at the same time. If you move into residential aged care after turning 65, you will leave the NDIS.

If you are 65 or over and were never on the NDIS, you cannot apply. Aged care is the pathway instead, and an NDIS partner can still point you toward mainstream and community services in your area.

If you are a First Nations person and an NDIS participant, you can choose to access aged care supports from age 50, or continue with the NDIS.

If your child is younger than 9, you do not go through the standard adult pathway. The NDIS early childhood approach in WA is the front door for children under 9 with disability and children under 6 with developmental delay, and you can often start without a formal diagnosis.

Test 2: The residence requirement

Two things have to be true.

Your status. You need to be one of the following:

an Australian citizen
a permanent residency visa holder
a Protected Special Category visa (SCV) holder, which applies to some New Zealand citizens.

Where you live. Australia needs to be your home, and you need to spend most of your time here.

With your consent, the NDIA can usually check both of these against your Centrelink record. If you would rather not consent, you can provide documents instead: a birth or arrival document such as a full birth certificate, passport or Australian Citizenship Certificate, plus evidence that you live in Australia.

This is the test that rules out temporary visa holders, and it is worth checking early rather than late – gathering disability evidence takes weeks, and there is no point doing that work if the residence test is not met.

Test 3: The disability requirement, and what “permanent and significant” actually means

This is where most confusion lives, so it is worth going slowly. The NDIA is not asking “do you have a disability?” It is asking five narrower questions, and your evidence needs to answer each one.

### Your disability is caused by an impairment

The NDIA needs evidence that your disability, including psychosocial disability, is caused by at least one intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory or physical impairment.

An impairment means a significant change in how your body functions, how your body is structured, or how you think and learn. It does not matter what caused it. You could have had it since birth, or acquired it through an injury or a health condition. A stroke and a genetic condition are treated the same way here: what matters is the impairment that resulted, not how you got it.

### Your impairment is likely to be permanent

The NDIA needs evidence you will likely have the impairment for your whole life.

Two things surprise people here. First, fluctuating conditions still count. It is fine to have periods where the impact on your daily life is smaller. Psychosocial disability, multiple sclerosis and many other conditions come in episodes, and the NDIA understands that.

Second, timing matters. The NDIA usually considers whether an impairment is likely to be permanent after all available and appropriate treatment options have been considered. If you are mid-way through treatment that might substantially improve things, an application may be judged premature rather than declined on the merits.

### Your impairment substantially reduces your functional capacity

Your permanent impairment needs to substantially reduce your ability to do everyday activities. The NDIA looks at six areas:

communicating
socialising
learning
moving around
looking after yourself
managing your life.

You need substantially reduced capacity in one or more of these, not all six.

The word doing the work is substantially. Taking longer to do something, needing more effort, or doing it a different way is generally not enough on its own. What the NDIA is looking for is that on most days you need one of the following:

a high level of support from other people – physical assistance, guidance, supervision or prompting, or
assistive technology, equipment or home modifications prescribed by a GP, allied health professional or other medical professional.

### Your impairment affects your ability to work, study or take part in social life

The NDIA also considers the flow-on effects: finding and keeping a job or running a business, studying, managing money, playing sport, going to the movies, volunteering, travelling.

This is easy to under-describe. It feels like complaining. It is not – it is evidence, and leaving it out weakens an otherwise strong application.

### You will likely need NDIS support for your lifetime

Finally, the NDIA considers whether you are likely to need NDIS support for life, taking into account your circumstances, the nature of your long-term support needs, and whether those needs could be better met by mainstream and community services instead.

Test 4: The early intervention requirement

There is more than one way in. If you do not clearly meet the disability requirements, you may still be eligible under the early intervention requirements, and many people meet both.

You may be eligible under early intervention if you have one or more impairments that are likely to be permanent, and getting NDIS supports now would do at least one of the following:

improve how you move around, communicate, socialise, learn, look after yourself or organise your life
prevent your functional capacity from getting worse
improve your functional capacity
build the skills of your informal supports, such as family members who help you.

The supports also need to reduce your need for support in the future.

Children younger than 6 with developmental delay have their own version of this test. The evidence needs to show the delay is due to mental or physical impairments, substantially reduces the child’s functional capacity compared with other children the same age, and means the child needs specialist services from more than one professional working as a team for longer than 12 months.

Hearing loss in people aged 25 or younger has a specific pathway too. You will need a specialist audiological assessment showing auditory neuropathy, or hearing loss of at least 25 decibels in either ear at two or more adjacent frequencies, likely to be permanent, with electrophysiological testing where required. From age 26, hearing impairment is assessed the same way as any other impairment.

Condition lists: why a diagnosis alone is not the test

You may have heard about the NDIS “lists” of conditions. They exist, and it helps to know what they actually do.

The appendix to the NDIA’s Applying to the NDIS guideline groups conditions by how likely they are to meet the disability requirements:

List	What it means for your evidence
List A – conditions likely to meet the disability requirements	If you have evidence of a diagnosis on this list, you will likely be found to meet the disability requirements without having to document functional impact separately. The diagnosis and, where the list specifies one, the severity level still have to be established by an appropriately qualified professional. It includes things like moderate to profound intellectual disability, autism assessed at DSM-5 Level 2 or 3, severe cerebral palsy (GMFCS Level 3, 4 or 5), spinal cord or brain injury resulting in paraplegia or quadriplegia, permanent blindness in both eyes, and permanent bilateral hearing loss above 90 decibels.
List B – conditions likely to result in permanent impairment	The condition is accepted as likely permanent, but the impact varies enormously between people, so you must provide functional evidence. This list is long and includes Down syndrome, multiple sclerosis, motor neurone disease, muscular dystrophies, Parkinson’s disease, dementias, spina bifida, fetal alcohol spectrum disorder, and autism that does not meet the List A severity threshold.
List D – permanent impairment or early intervention for children under 7	Children under 7 with a condition on this list can be found eligible without further functional assessment. It covers conditions such as global developmental delay, Down syndrome, cerebral palsy, Rett syndrome and a wide range of genetic and neurological conditions.

You may also come across references to List C, a former pathway for Western Australians receiving certain state government disability supports. The NDIA’s guideline says that transition is now complete and List C is no longer in operation. If you were already applying under those arrangements before 3 October 2024, contact the NDIA directly to check whether the legacy arrangements affect you. Otherwise, you can disregard List C.

Two things to take from this.

Being on List B is not a rejection, and being on no list is not a rejection either. For many applicants the decision turns on evidence of permanence and functional impact, not simply a condition name in an appendix.

The lists are a guide only. The NDIA says so explicitly, and still assesses the evidence you provide against the legislation. Being on a list does not replace the need to establish the diagnosis and any severity criteria the list specifies. Equally, a condition that appears nowhere on the lists can still meet the NDIS eligibility requirements where the evidence establishes the required impairment, permanence and functional impact.

Your printable NDIS eligibility checklist

Work through this before you apply. Print it, or take it to your GP appointment.

If you ticked most of the age, residence and disability boxes, you have a reasonable case to apply. If you ticked age and residence but are unsure about the rest, that is exactly the situation an NDIS partner is there to talk through - and the conversation is free.

Conditions people ask about most

The honest answer for every condition below is the same: eligibility turns on functional impact and permanence, not on the diagnosis by itself. Here is how that plays out in practice.

Autism. Autism assessed as DSM-5 Level 2 (requiring substantial support) or Level 3 (requiring very substantial support), diagnosed by an appropriately experienced specialist, sits on List A. Level 1 autism is assessed on functional evidence. For children, note the reform timeline in the next section.

ADHD. ADHD is not on the condition lists, and it is not automatically eligible. That does not make it automatically ineligible either. An application succeeds or fails on whether there is a permanent impairment, usually cognitive, that substantially reduces functional capacity. Where ADHD co-occurs with autism, intellectual disability or another condition, the application usually describes the combined impairment picture rather than a single label.

Psychosocial disability. Explicitly recognised. Impairments attributable to psychosocial disability are assessed like any other, and episodic conditions are accounted for - periods of better functioning do not disqualify you. Strong evidence usually combines information from treating professionals about the mental health condition with current evidence showing how the resulting impairment affects everyday functioning.

Stroke. What matters is the resulting impairment, not the stroke itself. Where a stroke has caused hemiplegia with severe or total loss of strength and movement, that appears on List A. Other stroke syndromes appear on List B and need functional evidence. Timing can matter after a stroke, because the NDIA usually considers permanence after available and appropriate treatment and rehabilitation options have been considered.

Hearing loss. Permanent bilateral loss above 90 decibels in the better ear is on List A. Below that threshold it is assessed on functional evidence, with the separate early intervention pathway available up to age 25.

What is changing, and what it means for you

Two changes are worth knowing about if you are applying in 2026.

Applications from 3 October 2024 onward are assessed under the current legislation, which is impairment-based. The supports the NDIS funds must relate to the specific impairments you were found eligible for. Separately, applications made on or after 1 January 2025 receive a notice of impairment setting out the impairment categories behind the decision. Rules covering how people who applied before that date receive the same information are still being developed.

Thriving Kids starts from 1 October 2026. Governments have committed $4 billion over five years to a set of supports outside the NDIS, and the first phase supports children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs, and their families and carers. It rolls out fully by 1 January 2028, and NDIS access arrangements for children are expected to change from that date, subject to legislation.

If you are a WA parent, the practical read is this: children with permanent and significant disability, including developmental delay or autism with high support needs, remain eligible for the NDIS under the usual arrangements. For children with developmental delay and/or autism with low to moderate support needs, Thriving Kids is being developed as the primary support pathway as the reforms roll out. The proposed changes to NDIS access from 1 January 2028 are still subject to legislation, so nothing is settled yet. None of that changes what you should do today - if you have concerns about your child's development, contact an early childhood partner now rather than waiting for the new system to settle.

What if you are not eligible?

A "no" is not the end of it, and it is not a judgement about whether your situation is difficult.

Ask for an internal review if you disagree. You have three months from the day you receive the decision in writing to request an internal review. The NDIA aims to complete reviews within 60 days. If you are still unhappy after that, you have 28 days to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal for an external review. Our guide on what to do if your NDIS application is rejected walks through both steps.

Check whether the evidence was the problem. Sometimes an application is declined because the evidence does not clearly establish permanence or functional impact, rather than because the person was never going to be eligible. A report that confirms a diagnosis but says little about day-to-day functioning can leave the important questions unanswered.

Reapply when something changes. If the NDIA decides you are not eligible, you can apply again with a fresh application - for example if your circumstances change, or you have new evidence about permanence or functional impact. You follow the same process as the first time, and the age rules still apply on the day of the new application.

A review and a new application cannot run at the same time. If you have asked for an internal review of the eligibility decision, you cannot apply again until that review is completed, though you can ask the NDIA to stop the review at any time. The same applies while an external review is before the Administrative Review Tribunal. Because you only have three months to request an internal review, do not let that deadline pass while you are deciding what to do next.

Look at what else exists in WA. An NDIS partner will connect you with mainstream and community supports whether or not you are found eligible, and that is part of their job. Depending on your situation that might include state disability services through the WA Department of Communities, carer supports through organisations such as Carers WA, mental health supports through your local primary health network, aged care through My Aged Care if you are 65 or over, and local government and community services in your area.

How Innovative Care can help

We are an NDIS-registered provider based in Western Australia, and a large part of what we do happens before anyone has a plan.

If you are working through this checklist and are not sure where you land, we can talk it through with you - what the tests are actually asking, what kind of evidence tends to carry weight, and what questions to take to your GP or specialist. We are not the body that decides eligibility, and we will not pretend otherwise. What we can do is help you understand the process so you are not guessing.

If you are approved, we deliver the day-to-day supports that follow: personal care, help around the home, community participation, and support workers matched to the person, not just to the roster. Being local matters here. We know how the WA pathway works, our team is in Perth, and you will speak to someone who understands the local system rather than a call centre interstate.

If you are not eligible, we will say so plainly and point you toward what else exists.

Not sure whether you qualify? Talk to our Perth team for a straightforward, no-pressure conversation about your situation and what your options are. You can also read more about our NDIS supports.

Frequently asked questions

What are the NDIS eligibility criteria?

There are four. You must be younger than 65 on the day you apply, be an Australian citizen, permanent resident or Protected Special Category visa holder who lives in Australia, and meet either the disability requirements or the early intervention requirements. The disability requirements mean you have one or more impairments that are likely to be permanent, substantially reduce your ability to do everyday activities, and mean you will likely need NDIS supports for life.

Can I get the NDIS without a diagnosis?

Sometimes. The NDIS assesses impairment and functional impact rather than diagnosis alone, so a formal label is not always essential - but you do need evidence from treating professionals about your impairment, why it is unlikely to improve, and how it affects your daily life. For children younger than 6 with developmental concerns, the early childhood approach in WA is specifically designed so families can get help before any diagnosis exists.

Is autism covered by the NDIS?

Autism assessed at DSM-5 Level 2 or Level 3 by an appropriately experienced specialist is on List A, which means it is likely to meet the disability requirements. Level 1 autism is assessed on functional evidence rather than being automatically included. From 1 October 2026, children aged 8 and under with autism and low to moderate support needs will begin accessing support through Thriving Kids, while children with high support needs continue to be eligible for the NDIS.

Can I apply for the NDIS after I turn 65?

No. You must be younger than 65 on the day your complete application is received. If you are already an NDIS participant when you turn 65 you can choose to stay on the scheme, and nothing has to change. If you are 65 or over and have never been a participant, aged care is the pathway instead.

What happens if my NDIS application is rejected?

You can request an internal review within three months of receiving the written decision, and the NDIA aims to complete it within 60 days. If you still disagree, you have 28 days to apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal. You can also apply again with a fresh application if your circumstances change or you have new evidence - but not at the same time as a review. If you have asked for an internal review you cannot apply again until it is completed or you ask the NDIA to stop it, and the same applies while a Tribunal review is on foot. Since the internal review deadline is only three months, decide which path you want before it lapses.

The only way to know for certain is to ask

Every test on this page is a judgement about evidence, which means no article can give you a final answer - only a well-informed expectation. What it can do is stop you ruling yourself out for the wrong reason.

If the checklist above left you somewhere between "probably" and "not sure", that is a completely normal place to land, and it is worth one phone call to resolve. Call the NDIS on 1800 800 110, or talk to our Perth team and we will help you work out what your next step looks like.