Types of support budgets
Every person living with a disability has different needs. Your NDIS funding is there to provide you with the supports you need for your disability and help you work towards your goals.
Your funding is based on what is ‘reasonable’ and ‘necessary’ to pursue your goals, in addition to the support provided by family, friends, and other community and government services.
There are three types of support budgets that may be funded in your NDIS plan.
Core supports budget
Your Core budget is the most flexible, and includes four categories of support:
- Consumables (e.g. purchasing everyday use items such as continence aids)
- Daily Activities (e.g. assistance with self-care activities during the day or evening)
- Assistance with Social and Community Participation (e.g. supports to enable you to engage in social or recreational activities)
- Transport (e.g. if you are unable to use public transport because of your disability).
The good news is you can generally use Core budget funds allocated against one support category to purchase supports under another support category unless funds have been set aside for a specific purpose such as periodic payments for transport, or any Core budget line item type that is:
- Compensation
- Specialised Disability Accommodation i.e. accommodation for participants who require specialist housing solutions due to significant functional impairment and/or very high support needs
- In-kind e.g. Government pre-paid supports such as school transport or some therapy supports
- Stated item (including Quotes for certain items) e.g. assistance in a shared living arrangement.
In these cases the funds within a category must only be used for that specific purpose. For details about your Core supports please refer to your NDIS plan.
Capacity Building budget
The Capacity Building funding is allocated across eight support sub-categories, each matched with the goals in your plan. You can choose how to spend these funds to purchase any approved individual support within its category, but won’t be able to move funding from one category to another.
The Capacity Building support categories include:
- Choice and Control e.g. training in planning and plan management
- Daily Activity e.g. therapy aimed at building your capacity to participate
- Employment e.g. employment related assessment and counselling
- Health and Wellbeing e.g. exercise advice required because of impact of disability
- Home Living e.g. support to obtain/retain appropriate accommodation
- Lifelong Learning e.g. assistance moving from school to further education
- Relationships e.g. positive behavioural support strategies to reduce behaviours of concern
- Social and Community Participation e.g. Individual life skills development and training including public transport training and support, developing skills for community, social and recreational participation.
Support Coordination (if required) is included in the Capacity Building budget. This is a fixed amount for strengthening participant’s abilities to coordinate and implement supports in their plans and to participate more fully in the community.
Capital Support budget
The Capital Support budget relates to supports such as assistive technology or modifications to your home and as such depends on quotes from suppliers. Funds within this budget can only be used for their specific purpose (e.g. a rail in the bathroom or a wheelchair) and cannot be used to fund other items.
The Capital Support budget has two support categories:
- Assistive Technology – includes equipment items for mobility, personal care, communication and recreational inclusion (e.g. wheelchairs or vehicle modifications)
- Home Modifications (e.g. rail in the bathroom).
Starting your plan
The NDIS can work with you to put your plan into action, and depending on your situation there are a range of people who can help you implement your plan and support you to start receiving supports.
These would have been discussed with you during your planning process and may be a Local Area Coordinator or an early childhood partner. Some people may also have a Support Coordinator funded in their plan to help them get started.
You can start your plan by yourself if you are self-managed. For more information see Using your plan.
Our Guidelines: how we make decisions
Updated information about what we consider when we make decisions under the NDIS is available in Our Guidelines .
The guidelines are based on the NDIS Legislation and Rules. They explain what we need to consider and how we make decisions based on the legislation.
The updated guidelines make the NDIS more transparent, clearer and easier to understand. You can read more about this in the Participant Service Charter.