The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is designed to give Australians living with a disability the tools they need to live vibrant, independent and fulfilling lives.
But because it’s designed to cater to a wide variety of people and their different circumstances, sometimes it can be difficult to understand how NDIS funding work.
In this guide, we will help you understand the differences between the three different NDIS funding components and how they can be applied to support your needs.
3 NDIS funding categories
All NDIS plans are created to suit the individual needs of participants. That means the amount of funding will vary depending on the individual.
What is consistent across all NDIS plans is that your individual NDIS plan will outline your goals and the support you need to achieve them.
No matter what your goals may be, all NDIS funding is broken down into three separate funding categories:
- Core supports. These are things that will help you with day to day living.
- Capital supports. This is to cover the costs of a one-off purchase that will help manage your disability.
- Capacity building supports. These funds are designed to help you strengthen your skills and grow your independence.
Each of those categories cover a wide range of areas. Let’s dive a bit deeper to see what you might expect to be covered with each funding category.
Core Supports budget
Core support budget is designed to help you cover the costs of your everyday needs and activities. It is fairly flexible because the core needs of people on the NDIS can be so varied.
The NDIS breaks up the Core Support funding category into four sub-categories to help better define what is actually covered. Budget allocated to core supports can often be used across any of the four sub-categories, though it will depend on the particular details of your plan.
1: Assistance with daily life
Some NDIS participants require help with common activities like cooking, cleaning, or even getting dressed in the morning. It can also include support for things like yard maintenance.
2: Consumables
The consumables’ budget is designed to help cover the cost of everyday items you may need to help manage your disability. Specifically, it’s designed for low-cost items, including continence products, compression stockings or enteral feeding equipment.
3: Assistance with social & community participation
People living with a disability regularly feel isolated and lonely because they find it difficult to attend social or community events. This core budget is designed to help you become more active and social by allowing you to hire a support worker to accompany you to a class or take you to the movies or a park.
4: Transport
If you need help travelling to or from somewhere to help you achieve your goals, then you may receive some budget to support that. It can be a great way to help those with mobility difficulties get to work, for example.
Funding for transport is more restricted than some other categories, and how you can spend transport funding (and how it is paid to you) will depend on your individual needs. You can speak to your LAC for more detail on how you can use your transport budget.
Capacity building supports budget
Where the core supports budget is designed to help you with daily life, capacity building budget is all about helping you achieve more independence and achieve your goals.
There may be some overlap between the two categories, but one key difference is that capacity building supports budget cannot be moved from one sub-category to another.
There are nine sub-categories within the capacity building supports budget.
1: Support coordination
The NDIS gives a fixed amount to cover the costs of a support coordinator to help you use your NDIS funding effectively.
2: Improved living arrangements
Finding a place to live can be challenging at the best of times, but finding a place to live that can accommodate the individual needs of an NDIS participant can be just a little more challenging. The Improved living arrangements budget is designed to offer support for participants who require help to find or maintain an appropriate place to live.
3: Increased social and community participation
Not to be confused with the core support of assistance with social and community participation, this funding category is designed to help you develop and your skills so that you can participate in social and recreational events more easily.
4: Finding and keeping a job
Being able to find and keep a job is an important part of living a productive and fulfilling life, which is why the NDIS provides dedicated funding to help participants achieve that goal. It can include a range of employment-related supports, training, and assessments that can help you find and keep a job.
5: Improved relationships
Personal connection is a critical part of maintaining good mental health, but it isn’t always easy. The NDIS allocated funding for improving relationships, which can be used to help you develop new skills and approaches to make or maintain relationships.
6: Improved health and wellbeing
If your disability makes it hard for you to stay fit and healthy, then funding in the improved health and wellbeing category may help. It is designed to offer exercise or diet advice from professionals who understand and can accommodate your disability. It’s worth noting that the NDIS does not fund gym memberships.
7: Improved learning
For NDIS participants finishing school, the improved learning category is designed to help you transition to further education, like university or TAFE. It doesn’t cover any fees, including the cost of the course and materials you need. Instead, it’s designed to deliver specialised support that is specific to your disability, and may include things like help with applications, orientation around campus and help to organise student accommodation.
8: Improved life choices
Some NDIS plans can be quite complicated to understand exactly what budget you have and how it can be spent. The Improved Life Choices budget is designed to help you manage your plan by funding and paying for a plan manager to help you administer your plan or give you the skills to manage it independently.
9: Improved daily living
The improved daily living category is designed to fund any assessment, training, or therapy that will increase your skills, independence, and community participation.
Capital support budget
Capital supports is designed to cover the cost of more expensive, one-off pieces of technology or home or vehicle modifications to help you manage your disability.
There are two areas within the capital support category for budget to be allocated: Assistive technology or Home modification. It’s important to note that capital support funding cannot be used for anything apart from what it is assigned for.
1: Assistive technology
If you need equipment to help with mobility, communication, or personal care, capital support budget for assistive technology is essential. It includes things like wheelchairs or vehicle modifications.
2: Home modifications
Any budget allocated to Home modifications is designed to support with the cost of changing your home to help support with your disability. It can include things as simple as installing a safety rail, widening a doorway to better accommodate a wheelchair. It may also cover more major renovations like combining a toilet and bathroom to provide more space. Budget for Specialist Disability Accommodation is also allocated here.
How you can use your NDIS budget with Like Family
At Like Family, we’re on a mission to connect locals who care with people in need.
For NDIS participants, that means we can support you with five of the 15 different funding sub-categories, across both core supports and capacity building.
Core Supports
- Assistance with Daily Life — we can help with personal everyday tasks, like cleaning and yard maintenance
- Assistance with Social and Community Participation — We can help you get involved in social and community activities, like going to an art gallery
Capacity Building
- Increased Social and Community Participation — we can help teach you skills while participating in the community, like learning how to use public transport
- Improved Daily Living — our support workers can help you learn skills to achieve greater independence, like learning how to cook
- Improved Health and Wellbeing — we can spend time working with you to help you achieve a happier, healthier lifestyle
Like Family Social Carers are thoroughly vetted with a rigorous onboarding process including an induction, NDIS Worker Check and more.
If you have questions about how you can use your NDIS plan with Like Family, get in touch with our team! Call us on 1800 545 332 or email hello@likefamily.com.au, and we’ll talk you through how we can help.