What are NDIS support budgets?

Your child’s NDIS plan includes your child’s NDIS funding. This is the total amount you can spend on NDIS supports for the duration of your child’s plan, usually around 12 months.

There are 4 NDIS support budgets, which fund different kinds of supports:

• Core supports budget – this is for supports that help your child do everyday activities and manage current needs.
• Capacity building supports budget – this is for supports that help your child build their independence and skills.
• Capital supports budget – this is for supports like assistive technology, equipment, home or vehicle modifications, and one-off purchases.
• Recurring supports budget – this is for supports that fund your child’s everyday transport needs.

The supports in your child’s NDIS plan must be reasonable and necessary. The NDIS has rules that it uses to work out what’s reasonable and necessary. For example, the supports must be related to your child’s disability, value for money, likely to benefit your child, and based on evidence.

How NDIS funding is included in NDIS support budgets

The funding in your child’s NDIS plan will be in one or more of the NDIS support budgets, but your child’s plan might not include all 4 budgets.

NDIS support budgets have categories. There are 2 types of categories. They have different rules about how you can spend the funding in them:

• Flexible supports category – you can use funding in this type of category to buy reasonable and necessary supports from other flexible categories in the same support budget.
• Stated supports category – your child’s NDIS plan will state exactly what you can use the funding in this type of category for. You can’t use the funding for anything else.

This means some budgets are more flexible than others.

The NDIS is making changes. If your child’s NDIS plan has been created in the new system, the plan will include ‘funding periods’ and ‘funding component amounts’. These say how much funding you can spend on types of supports over a set period of time. The plan will also include a ‘total funding amount’. For more information, go to NDIS – How do we include the NDIS funding in your plan?

NDIS core supports budget

The core supports budget has:

• 4 flexible support categories
• 2 stated support categories.

Flexible support categories

• Assistance with daily life – for example, this might pay for someone to help your child get dressed and showered. Or it might pay for short periods of additional care to give you respite.
• Assistance with social, economic and community participation – for example, this might be funding for a support worker to help your older child take part in social and community activities like art classes or choir. This might also give you respite while your child is with the support worker.
• Consumables – this might cover everyday items like continence products or shower stools. It might also include low-cost technology like communication apps.
• Transport – this might be specialised transport for attending school or funding for a teenage child to get to social activities if they can’t use public transport independently.

Stated support categories

• Home and living – this might pay for someone to help your child build everyday living skills, or it might be for help with specific accommodation costs. This is for people living independently or for younger people in residential aged care (YPIRAC).
• YPIRAC cross billing – this might pay for some of the fees and charges if you are a YPIRAC.

Your early childhood partner, local area coordinator or NDIA planner will help you work out how to use your core supports budget.

NDIS capacity building supports budget

The capacity building supports budget has 10 categories. All capacity building support categories are stated.

• Behaviour support – this is funding to help your child develop strategies that support positive behaviour.
• Choice and control – this funding pays for a plan manager to help you manage your child’s plan, if you choose this option.
• Finding and keeping a job – this is funding for training and other support to help your older child find and keep a job.
• Health and wellbeing – this funding can cover exercise or diet advice that helps your child manage the effects of their developmental delay or disability.
• Improved daily living skills – this is funding to help your child maintain, develop or build new skills that enable them to take part in the community and be more independent.
• Improved living arrangements – this is funding to help your child find and maintain an appropriate place to live when they’re ready to live independently of you.
• Increased social and community participation – this is funding to develop your child’s skills so your child can take part in community, social and recreational activities.
• Lifelong learning – this funding covers advice and other supports that help your child make the transition from school to further education.
• Relationships – this is funding to support your child to interact with people and build friendships.
• Support coordination and psychosocial recovery coaches – this is funding for a support coordinator or psychosocial recovery coach to help you understand and use your child’s plan.

NDIS capital supports budget

The capital supports budget has 4 categories. All capital support categories are stated.

• Assistive technology – this includes equipment to help your child with everyday tasks like mobility, personal care, communication and recreation at home, in the community and in the workplace. For example, it might cover a wheelchair or vehicle modifications.
• Assistive technology: maintenance, repair and rental – this includes repairs and maintenance of your child’s assistive technology and short-term rentals or trials of equipment.
• Home modifications – this includes home modifications to help your child move comfortably around their home. For example, it might be involve installing a handrail in a bathroom.
• Specialist disability accommodation – this is a specially designed house for people with very high support needs.

NDIS recurring supports budget

The recurring supports budget has 1 category.

The Transport recurring category includes funding paid by the NDIS on a regular basis for your child’s everyday transport needs.

If your NDIS plan has not been moved to the new system, the names of the categories in your plan might be different from the names on the NDIS portal. The NDIS publishes a full list of the support budget category names used in your plan and in the portal.