NDIS updates that are relevant to supporting you in your NDIS journey

The NDIS website is a great source of information for everything NDIS related. Below we have included some links to help you along your way to understanding the NDIS. The latest updates are outlined below.

Will the NDIS fund it post the 3rd of October?

On October 3rd, 2024, the NDIS rolled out updates outlining which supports will continue to be funded and which will no longer receive funding. This guidance aims to help you understand what can be claimed going forward.

Providers and plan managers must now only claim NDIS funds for items listed on the approved NDIS supports.

  • Supports that are ‘NDIS supports’- includes examples of commonly requested items that the NDIS find causes the most confusion. For each item, they explain how they make reasonable and necessary decisions about them and provide an overview of whether or not the NDIS typically fund them.
  • ‘Supports that are not NDIS supports’ –we have also added examples of what the NDIS may not fund

Please click on the boxes below to view supports

New changes to the NDIS Plan Funding Periods- effective 19th May

Section 33 of the NDIS Plan Funding Periods introduces a new limit on how participants and their service providers can draw down on large chunks of funding. This change aims to improve budgeting practices, enhance oversight, and provide clearer guidance for everyone involved.

So, what does this mean?

This change will be rolled out gradually. Funding periods will usually be set at 3-months on the basis this gives flexibility, but will also help managing the budget, so that funding lasts the full length of the plan. Funding periods won’t change your total funding amount.

You’ll see your funding periods in your NDIS plan:
• how much funding you have
• how much you’ve spent
• when the next amount becomes available

When will this affect my plan?

All new plans, including those for new participants and those undergoing a plan reassessment (Plan Review), will include the new funding periods

Participants with existing plans won’t be impacted by this change until they have a plan reassessment (Plan Review). Similarly, participants with extended plans (rollover) won’t be affected until their plan is reassessed.

What happens if I overspend?

If participants or support providers use all of the funding within the period allocated, they will have to wait until the next funding period starts.

What about my provider invoices? Will they need to change?

Support providers might need to update how they invoice and what information they include to match the new funding periods. If they provide services outside of these periods.

More updates will be provided as information becomes available. Stay tuned with Plan Manage Assist for the latest details click for NDIS update

Frequently asked Questions

To enable better early intervention pathways, improving how NDIS participants meet their set budgets and introducing a new definition of NDIS supports. This also includes shifting access back to the NDIS supports rather than medical diagnosis/supports

The NDIS is reassuring participants that for most, there won’t be major changes to the way they experience the NDIS right now. The NDIS will continue to provide participants with disability-related supports. However, some participants will see changes in their eligibility of non-funded supports

You may owe money if you access a supports and/or services that are not allowed and costs more than $1,500. For 12 months, if you use a support that’s not allowed and costs less than $1500, you will get two warnings before you might have to pay money back. Please contact the NDIS if unsure.

You can keep using supports that are now not allowed if they were approved as reasonable and necessary before 3 October 2024.

These supports will be available to all people with disability not just people on the NDIS. Some supports you used to get from the NDIS might come from foundational supports. Click for more information

Please click on the boxes above to view what the NDIS will fund

STA, also known as respite, is still part of the NDIS under the category ‘assistance with daily life tasks in a group or shared setting.’  Participants can continue to access STA based on the current guidelines.

STA can be funded for up to 14 days at a time, with a maximum of 28 days per year.

The legislation and legislative instrument state only a small number of things are stated supports. So, everything else should be flexible? The way plans are built and funding allocated across core, capacity building and capital budgets is not changing until the new planning framework commences. This includes no changes to flexibility within and across these budgets.

This has always been the case, Health insurance, Medicare gap payment are not NDIS funded

  • Recreational activities involving animals, like petting dogs or horseback riding, are not considered NDIS supports, even if provided by an allied health professional
  • Animal-assisted therapy can be a NDIS support under ‘Therapeutic Support,’ but it’s different from ‘animal therapy.’. In animal-assisted therapy, a therapist uses an animal to help participants achieve specific therapy goals. eg: a psychologist might use an animal to help a participant focus or stay calm during sessions, or an occupational therapist may use an animal to assist with activities like walking or balancing.

NDIS funding can be used to purchase an assistance animal and cover most associated costs, once approved by the NDIA. However, it cannot be used to pay for pet insurance.

NDIS funding cannot be used to buy pets or companion animals, or cover any related expenses, such as: 

  • pet food, toys, or accessories
  • vet costs
  • pet boarding or grooming
  • pet insurance, taxidermy, cremations, burials, or funerals for pets

On Page 3 of the supports that are not NDIS funded; you will find that unfortunately this is not funded

In some cases, existing items can be replaced, please review the following documents below

1. What is a replacement support?
2. How to apply for a replacement support?
3. The NDIS Application for a replacement support

Any request for a replacement support must go to the NDIS directly and must meet the following criteria.

1. Replace an NDIS support or supports in your plan
2. Cost the same or less than the NDIS support or supports it’s replacing.

Groceries including food and beverages cannot be funded however this EXCLUDES the Meal delivery platforms

Petrol, diesel and gas is not NDIS funded. Please refer to Page 5 “Supports that are not funded by the NDIS’

Unfortunately no, this is an everyday expense

Only if the clothing and shoes are adaptive are specially designed clothing items with modifications to make life easier for people with disabilities. Please refer to page 5 under Clothing & Beauty related services

Music Therapy isn’t listed in the funded therapies, you would need approval from the Planner/NDIS in writing before this could be claimed.

Improved Daily Living is now stated in the updated PACE plans, this means you can only use this funding to buy the supports described in the Capacity Building Budget, it can’t be used to pay for anything else.

If your activity is being delivered through a group and centre-based program and the costs of the activity and the support you need are fully covered by the hourly rate charged by the provider in line with the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, you can purchase your group and centre-based program using your NDIS funds.

If your group and centre-based program does not cover the costs of an activity within the hourly rate they charge to support you in that activity then you will need to pay for the cost of the activity yourself.

For example, if your group and centre-based program goes bowling and the cost of bowling is not covered by the approved hourly rate then you need to pay for these costs yourself.

Any unused funding will roll-over between funding periods within a plan.

Unused funding will not roll-over into new plans.

Where is the legislative barrier against combining funding across components?

If it can be done using four categories under core components, then why can’t this be applied with other categories?

A funding component amount in a plan might include funding for more than one support category. This means a participant can choose how to spend their funding across all the supports under that funding component amount.

For example, in the same funding component amount we can include any funding for:

  • transport
  • consumables
  • assistance with daily life
  • assistance with social, economic and community participation.

The NDIA will talk to the participant about the risks and safeguards they have considered when making a plan management decision.

Where possible, they will support the participant to work towards their preferred plan management type in the future.

Supports that provide evidence-based therapy, to help participants improve or maintain their functional capacity in areas such as language and communication, personal care, mobility and movement, interpersonal interactions, functioning (including psychosocial functioning) and community living are included as NDIS supports. Evidence-based therapeutic supports can only be delivered by an allied health professional or appropriately qualified professional.

Evidence based therapists may use a variety of tools to play a role in a goal-directed, structured intervention which will assist the therapist and the participant to engage in therapy. This may include board games, online games, Lego or an animal. The therapy is delivered to the participant by the allied health professional and the tool is used to support participation.

Activities that are delivered without a best quality evidence-base and/or by people who are not appropriately qualified to develop and deliver therapy are not funded as therapeutic supports.

Making it clear what the NDIS does, and does not, fund will help participants make more informed choices about what they can use their funds for. The NDIS will work closely with the disability community and state and territory governments to understand what should and shouldn’t be included.

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