What is NDIS?

Also known as: National Disability Insurance Scheme

The NDIS is Australia’s national scheme for funding supports for people with permanent and significant disability. Each participant receives an individual plan with funded budgets, and chooses the providers who deliver their supports. It is administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency and funds around 700,000 Australians.

The NDIS replaced a patchwork of state-based disability programs with individualised funding. Rather than funding services directly, the scheme funds the participant, who then engages providers of their choosing. That choice-and-control principle is what makes the provider market competitive, and it is why a provider’s administration — accurate claiming, timely notes, reliable rostering — is part of the service quality participants experience.

A participant’s funding sits in three budget categories: Core Supports, Capacity Building and Capital Supports. Money generally moves within a category but not between them, which is the single most common source of budget errors for new providers.

Related terms

NDIAThe NDIA is the Commonwealth agency that administers the NDIS. It assesses eligibility, approves participant plans and budgets, sets the price limits providers may charge, and pays claims submitted by registered providers. It is distinct from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, which regulates provider conduct.ParticipantA participant is a person whose access to the NDIS has been approved and who holds an individual, funded NDIS plan. The term is used in place of “client” or “patient” throughout the scheme, reflecting that the person directs their own supports rather than receiving a service allocated to them.Core SupportsCore Supports is the NDIS budget category funding everyday assistance: personal care, help with household tasks, community participation, transport, and consumables. It is the most flexible category — funding generally moves freely between most Core support items — and it is where the majority of a typical participant’s plan sits.Capacity BuildingCapacity Building is the NDIS budget category funding supports that build a participant’s skills and independence rather than assisting with daily tasks. It covers therapy, employment supports, improved living arrangements, and support coordination. Unlike Core, funding is allocated to specific sub-categories and cannot be moved between them.Reasonable and necessary“Reasonable and necessary” is the statutory test the NDIA applies when deciding whether to fund a support. The support must relate to the participant’s disability, represent value for money, be likely to be effective and beneficial, take account of informal supports, and not be the responsibility of another service system such as health or education.

More in NDIS

Plan management Self-management Support coordination SIL

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SCHADS interpretation, NDIS price-guide validation, claiming and the evidence an audit asks for — built for Australian providers.

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