National Legal Aid commissioned the Law and Justice Foundation of NSW to independently evaluate the implementation and impact of the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Appeals Program Legal Services.

Legal Aids in each state and territory are funded by the Federal Government to provide legal support to eligible people who are appealing to the Administrative Review Tribunal (the Tribunal) about a National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) decision.

This program is vital to the appeals process which can often be complicated, daunting, legalistic and very difficult for people with a disability to navigate without support.

This was a mixed methods evaluation that examined the design and implementation of the Program by each Legal Aid Commission (LAC) nationally, with more detailed collection and analysis of stakeholder data at three sites – Tasmania, New South Wales (NSW) and Queensland (QLD). It predominantly drew on process evaluation methods which are useful for understanding how a program works, the systems and mechanisms that underpin a program’s success, and the factors that influence the achievement of outcomes

This report details the merit of the program, its challenges, as well as the steps necessary for its efficient and ongoing operation.

It found that the NDIS appeals process is complicated, daunting and very difficult for people with disability to navigate without support. Requirements regarding the amount and type of evidence, and the extent to which the NDIA is represented by lawyers, were considered to necessitate legal support to the appeal applicants to ‘level the playing field’