What's included in an NDIS plan?

Name: What’s included in an NDIS plan
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The three parts of your NDIS plan

Every NDIS plan is the same, but different!

You will have been sent a copy of your plan in the mail or have access to it through the NDIA’s myplace portal.

On the first page of your NDIS plan, you will see some important details including:

your name
your NDIS number
the name and number of the National Disability Insurance Agency’s local office or your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) details
your NDIS plan start date and the review date.

Each NDIS plan then has three main parts:

Part 1 – About me:

This includes a short description of you and your daily life, the activities you enjoy or participate in, and the people who support you.

Part 2 – My Goals:

Here will be a list of your goals that you agreed with the LAC or Planner. There are usually two to three goals. These are the goals that you will work towards during the term of the plan.

Part 3 – My Supports:

This section of your NDIS plan is the most detailed and includes information on the supports in your plan, including:

help from your family and friends, mainstream and community supports (informal supports)
local community groups or government provided services like school, health or transport services
‘Reasonable and Necessary’ supports, including how much funding you will have access to over the course of your NDIS plan.

Understanding NDIS Budgets and Funding

Wondering how your NDIS support budgets work? Every NDIS plan has a budget with funding to purchase supports to help you achieve your goals. Let’s have a look at what’s in a NDIS plan, the budget areas and the different types of support categories there are.

We’ll explore which supports are ‘stated supports’, where the funds are allocated for a specific item, and the various flexible options you have for using your funds to pay for your disability services.

The three support budget types in a NDIS plan

Supports and services fall into three types of budgets within your NDIS plan. These are:

Core Supports budget
Capacity Building Supports budget
Capital Supports budget

There are 15 broad support categories which the NDIS can give you funding for to pay a range of services and products. Each fit into one of the budget areas listed above.

NDIS support categories explained

Let’s take a deep dive into each of the NDIS support categories within each budget type where we’ll provide you with our explanation of how each of these can be used.

Download: Fact Sheet - NDIS budgets and funding categories (PDF 36KB)

Core Supports

This budget will help fund the main things you need to live your daily life.

Your Core Supports budget is the most flexible, and you can usually use funds across the following four categories:

Support Category 1 – Assistance with Daily Living

Funding for services that assist you to be independent at home including help with meals, toileting, showering, dressing, house cleaning and gardening. This category also provides funding for respite care.

Support Category 2 – Transport Allowance

Funding will be included if you need to access the community and your disability prevents you from using public transport. Participants can elect to have this funding paid into a bank account every fortnight, and this category is usually agency managed. You can read more about Transport funding on the NDIS website here.

Support Category 3 – Consumables

Usually forming a small part of your overall budget, this category provides funding for items or supplies you use every day and need because of your disability. For example, the purchase of nutrition products, continence products, dressing aids, care for assistance animals, or low-cost aids and equipment such as items for adaptive living in the kitchen, home, or apps for your tablet or smartphone. Consumables funding can also include money for translation and interpretation. You may want to consult with an occupational therapist on what items you may need that could be included in a report to help build your consumables budget.

Support Category 4 – Assistance with Social & Community Participation

As the name suggests, this category includes funding to cover your participation in community, social and recreational activities that may be part of your goals. This could include funding for someone to assist you to attend and participate in these activities.

HOT TIP! You can move funding around in these 4 support categories to help you with any adjustments in support you may need. If you are Plan Managed, (a service provided by MyIntegra) you can move Core Support funding from one category into the transport category if you have additional transport needs.

Capital Supports

This budget covers funding for home modifications, vehicle modifications or assistive technology.

Within Capital Supports, you will usually require a quote (how much it will cost) from a provider and a report from a specialist (for example, an Occupational Therapist) for more expensive items or modifications to your home or vehicle. Generally, items funded in the Capital Supports categories are more than $1,500.

The Capital Supports budget has two support categories:

Support Category 5 – Assistive Technology

Assistive Technology includes funding to purchase or repair specialised technology or equipment including wheelchairs, prosthetics and orthotics, hoists, vehicle modifications, communication equipment or even an assistance dog.

Support Category 6 – Home Modifications and Supported Disability Accommodation

If you need changes to be made to your home to help you achieve, or more easily achieve everyday activities you can seek funding for home modifications including for changes to layout, access or support such as ramps, rails. If you are modifying your home, you could have funding included to appoint a specialist designer or project manager. Many people also have funding included in this category for Supported Disability Accommodation to help with costs of living in specially designed and operated homes.

HOT TIP! If you receive Capital Supports funding you must use it on the specific categories and items it was provided for – it will note ‘stated support’ which means the funds cannot be used flexibility for something else.

Capacity Building Supports

Capacity Building supports are aimed at building your skills to undertake activities independently and safely.

Younger Participants tend to have a much greater proportions of Capacity Building Support (such as therapies and early intervention) in their plans.

There are nine main Support Categories and you only receive funding for those areas that will help you meet your goals.

Support Category 7 – Coordination of Supports

About 40% of Participants have funding for ‘Coordination of Supports’ (varies by State/Territory) and over time this is expected to fall. This category is for the employment of a dedicated person to work with you to find, connect with and resolve issues for your relevant services and supports. There are 3 main services that will help you to connect with supports:

Support connection – short-term assistance and learn how to connect with service providers.
Support coordination – help to connect with supports, monitor and resolve supports and service issues. Can also assist with getting relevant information for plan review.
Specialist support coordination – help for people dealing with complex and high-risk situations.

MyIntegra are a registered provider of Support Coordination, find out more here.

Support Category 8 – Improved living arrangements

Support to find and apply for accommodation, including shared or independent arrangements. Help to understand rental agreements, tenancy obligations and other accommodation-related responsibilities.

Support Category 9 – Increased social and community participation

Help to build skills and capacity so you can participate in the community. Supports could include help with social skills, participating in recreation activities, fitness activities, peer support, community access programs, weekend programs and holiday care, Out of School Hours Care, flexible or centre based respite.

Support Category 10 – Find and keep a job

Support to transition to employment including school-to-work transition. Help with understanding how to get your CV or resume together, apply for jobs, how to present, or prepare for and attend interviews. Can also include Australian Disability Enterprises funding.

Support Category 11 – Improved Relationships

This support will help you develop positive behaviours and interact with others. This could be through behaviour intervention and support plans, behaviour management plans and strategies, or development of social skills.

Support Category 12 – Improved Health and Wellbeing

Help to develop or maintain a healthy lifestyle or stay active and eat healthy, nutritious meals and can include exercise physiology, personal training, dietician consultation, nutrition. The NDIS doesn’t fund gym membership.

Support Category 13 – Improved learning

Help to undertake further study once you leave school. This does not include course or tuition fees but can include help to apply for a course, plan how you will attend and participate in the course, alternate formats for text books, or someone to attend with you.

Support Category 14 – Improved life choices

Help to manage financial parts of your plan including administration and record keeping, paying bills, providing statements, monitoring your plan, resolving issues with provider payments. Participants who select Plan Management are also able to access both registered and unregistered providers which gives them more choices. An example of an unregistered provider might be a therapist who works for themselves, a small business, or cleaner or gardener. Or other mainstream services that you may want to access. MyIntegra is a registered Plan Management provider, find out more here.

Support Category 15 – Improved Daily Living

Funding for therapy (including assessment, reports, therapy programs, help to identify or justify equipment or technology) and training to assist in the development of, or to increase skills for independence and community participation. Physiotherapists, Psychologists, Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists, Social Workers or Registered Nurses as well as Therapy Assistants provide these types of supports.

HOT TIP! Funding in Capacity Building categories is dedicated to purchasing only within those streams of service, and the funds cannot be moved to different categories.

What's included in an NDIS plan?

The three parts of your NDIS plan

Understanding NDIS Budgets and Funding

The three support budget types in a NDIS plan

NDIS support categories explained

Download: Fact Sheet - NDIS budgets and funding categories (PDF 36KB)

Core Supports

Capital Supports

Capacity Building Supports

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Download: Fact Sheet - NDIS budgets and funding categories (PDF 36KB)

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