OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
Our reference: FOI 24/25-0830
22 January 2025
Elias (via Righttoknow.org.au)
By email: (xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx@xxxxxxxxxxx.xxx.xx)
Dear Elias
Freedom of Information request — Request consultation process
Thank you for your correspondence of 27 November 2024, in which you requested access
under the
Freedom of Information Act 1982 (FOI Act) to documents held by the National
Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
Scope of your request
You have requested access to the following documents:
“Al published and draft internal policies, knowledge articles, standard operating
procedures, checklists, forms, templates, or other internal guidance pertaining to:
1. Identifying participants for ‘eligibility reassessment’
2. Conducting an ‘eligibility reassessment’
3. Finalising an ‘eligibility reassessment’
4. Internal review of an ‘eligibility reassessment’ decision
5. External review of an ‘eligibility reassessment’ decision
6. Reinstating a participant after an ‘eligibility reassessment’ decision is overturned on
appeal
7. Assessing and deciding whether a participant who was previously removed as a result
of an ‘eligibility reassessment’ is eligible for NDIS upon receiving a new access request
Please include all identified documents in full, I consider all parts of a document to be
relevant. This also includes the 'version control' information for every document.
Practical refusal
I am authorised to make decisions under section 23(1) of the FOI Act.
I am writing to advise that the work involved in processing your request in its current form
would substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other
operations due to its size. This is called a ‘practical refusal reason’ under section 24AA of
the FOI Act.
On this basis, I intend to refuse your request. However, before I make a final decision, I am
writing to provide you with an opportunity to revise your request. This is called a ‘request
consultation process’ as set out under section 24AB of the FOI Act. You have 14 days to
respond to this notice in one of the ways set out below.
Why I intend to refuse your request
A preliminary search for documents likely to be relevant to your request has revealed that
the NDIA has more than 460 individual documents matching the scope, not including any
attachments which may be contained within those documents.
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OFFICIAL: SENSITIVE
On my reasonable estimate, I consider there is more than 2000 pages worth of material that
falls within the scope of your request. At a conservative estimate of 1 minute per page, this
would take an FOI officer more than 30 hours to simply review and collate the documents.
The documents that are assessed as being within scope of the request wil then need to be
reviewed for any sensitivities and possible exemption under the FOI Act and scheduled, we
wil need to consider any consultations and carry these out if required, a decision wil need to
be made on each document, and a decision letter prepared. This wil significantly increase
the hours that it wil take an FOI officer to process your request.
As a result, I am of the view that the work involved in the processing of this request would
substantially and unreasonably divert the resources of the NDIA from its other operations.
Request consultation process
You now have an opportunity to revise your request by narrowing the scope of the request to
make it more manageable or explaining in more detail the documents you wish to access.
I have done some preliminary searches and created a list of documents which cover the
overview of the Eligibility Reassessment process. To help reduce the scope of your request,
you might like to consider requesting these specific documents. From these documents, you
would then be able to request any specific further documents you believe relevant.
Document name
Type of document
Source
Eligibility Reassessment – FAQs
Internal FAQ
NDIA intranet
SOP - Complete the plan reassessment
Standard operating
NDIA intranet
(full)
procedure
When to refer the participant for an
Knowledge article
PACE
eligibility assessment
Complete the eligibility reassessment
Knowledge article
PACE
check
Finalise eligibility assessment
Knowledge article
PACE
Finalise a revocation after an eligibility
Knowledge article
PACE
assessment
You have 14 days from the date you receive this letter to contact me and do one of the
following:
a. withdraw your request
b. make a revised request
c. indicate that you do not wish to revise the request.
During this period, you are welcome to seek assistance to revise your request. If you revise
your request in a way that adequately addresses the practical refusal reason outlined above,
we wil recommence processing it.
Please contact me by 5 February 2025, by email at xxx@xxxx.xxx.xx.
Yours sincerely
Cindy – CGN062
Senior Freedom of Information Officer
Complaints Management & FOI Branch
General Counsel Division
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