Managing your child’s NDIS funds: options

Managing your child’s NDIS funds: what does this mean?

When you’re making your child’s NDIS plan, you’ll be asked how you want to manage your child’s NDIS funds.

Managing NDIS funds means making sure:

your child’s services and supports are paid for
the funds are being spent according to your child’s plan.

Options for managing your child’s NDIS funds

There are three options for managing your child’s NDIS funds:

self-managing
plan-managing
NDIA-managing.

You can choose one of these options or a combination of options. For example, you can choose to self-manage one area of your child’s NDIS funds and ask for another area to be plan-managed.

When you’re deciding on options, you could think about the following things:

How much flexibility do you want in spending your child’s funds?
How much administrative work are you comfortable with?
How big is your child’s plan?
How many providers will your child be seeing?
Will you be using NDIS-registered providers?
How confident do you feel about managing money?

You can change how your child’s plan is managed at any time by asking for a plan review.

Self-managing your child’s NDIS funds

Self-managing involves:

buying services and supports for your child’s plan
negotiating the price of services and supports
making agreements with service providers about how services will be provided and how they’ll be paid for
paying providers directly
keeping records of what you’ve spent
showing how you’ve used funds to reach the goals in your child’s plan.

Self-managing takes time and effort. You’ll need to decide whether it’s right for your family. You’ll be asked questions to check your suitability, including questions about your ability to self-manage and your financial history.

You can manage your child’s funds yourself, or you can nominate someone like a family member or friend to self-manage on your behalf, or you can pay a bookkeeper.

Benefits of self-managing NDIS funds
If you’re self-managing, you can:

choose and control how you spend your child’s NDIS funds
decide what services and supports to buy to meet your child’s goals
choose which providers to use, including providers that aren’t registered with the NDIS – this might be important in rural or remote areas with fewer services
negotiate the costs of your supports – providers can charge more or less than the NDIS rate
employ staff directly
choose not to tell a provider that you’re paying for the service with NDIS funding.

Disadvantages of self-managing NDIS funds
If you’re self-managing, it:

can involve a lot of administrative work
can be time consuming
means you must show bookkeeping and spending records at plan reviews.

When you self-manage your child’s NDIS funds, you can choose from a wider range of supports because you can use providers who aren’t registered with the NDIS as well as NDIS-registered providers.

Plan-managing your child’s NDIS funds

A plan manager can manage some or all of your child’s NDIS funds. The plan manager can:

pay service providers for you
help you keep track of your funds
take care of financial reporting.

You can choose your own plan manager. For example, you could choose an accountant or a plan management organisation. All plan managers need to be registered with the NDIS.

The cost of plan management is included in your child’s plan if you choose this option.

Benefits of plan-managing NDIS funds
If you’re using a plan manager, you:

can choose which providers to use, including providers that aren’t registered with the NDIS – this might be important in rural or remote areas with fewer services
can negotiate pricing up to the maximum NDIS rate
don’t need to pay providers yourself or keep records
don’t need to show bookkeeping and spending records at plan reviews.

Disadvantages of plan-managing NDIS funds
If you use a plan manager, you can pay providers only up to the maximum NDIS rate.

NDIA-managing your child’s NDIS funds

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) can manage your child’s NDIS funds.

Here’s how it works if the NDIA manages your child’s NDIS funds:

You choose the service providers you want from the registered provider list, and you organise the support your child needs directly with them.
The providers submit payment requests through the myplace portal and the NDIA manages your bookkeeping and spending records.

Benefits of NDIA-managing NDIS funds
If your child’s funds are NDIA-managed, you:

you don’t need to pay providers yourself or keep records
don’t need to show bookkeeping and spending records at plan reviews.

Disadvantages of NDIA-managing NDIS funds
If you’re NDIA-managed, you can use only NDIS-registered providers. This might be a problem if you live in a rural or remote area with a limited choice of providers or if you want to use providers that aren’t registered with the NDIS.

Note: sometimes NDIA-managing funds is called ‘Agency-managing’.