If you’ve just received your NDIS plan, or you’re preparing for a planning meeting, it’s natural to have questions about what your funding actually covers.
NDIS plans can feel complex at first, but the core idea is straightforward: your funding is there to support your goals, your independence and your daily life.
What The NDIS Is Designed to Fund
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) provides funding to help people with disability live more independently, work toward their goals and take part in everyday life and community activities.
Every support funded through the NDIS must be reasonable and necessary. This is a legal test set out in the NDIS Act, and it applies to every item or service in your plan.
To be classed as reasonable and necessary, a support must:
- Be directly related to your disability
- Help you work toward your goals and participate socially or economically
- Represent value for money compared to alternatives
- Be likely to be effective and beneficial for you
- Not duplicate supports that are already the responsibility of another system, such as health or education
Funding is always outlined in your individual NDIS plan. Because every person’s disability, goals and circumstances are different, no two plans look exactly the same.
What Can NDIS Core Supports Be Used For?
Core Supports are usually the most flexible part of your NDIS plan. They fund the practical, hands-on assistance you need for everyday activities so you can live as independently as possible and take part in daily life.
Core Supports are divided into four subcategories:
- Assistance with Daily Life: support with personal care, household tasks and day-to-day living
- Consumables: everyday items and low-cost products related to your disability needs
- Assistance with Social and Community Participation: help to join activities, social events and community life
- Transport: funding to help you get to work, study, appointments and community activities
In many plans, you can adjust how you use your Core budget across these areas. However, you generally cannot move Core funding into Capacity Building or Capital supports. How flexible your Core budget is will depend on the way your plan is written, so check with your Support Coordinator or the NDIA if you’re unsure.
Assistance with Daily Life
Assistance with Daily Life funds the hands-on help you need with personal care and everyday living tasks that your disability makes harder to manage on your own. It covers your current, ongoing needs, not skill-building for the future (that falls under Capacity Building).
Depending on what’s in your plan, Assistance with Daily Life can be used for:
- Personal care: showering, bathing, dressing, grooming and toileting
- Meal support: meal preparation, eating assistance and swallowing supervision
- Daily routines: help getting up, going to bed or managing daily schedules
- Mobility and transfers: assistance with movement, repositioning and walking
- Medication prompting: reminders and prompting (non-clinical)
- In-home supervision: support to help you stay safe at home
- Household tasks: cleaning, laundry, linen changes, dishwashing, basic home organisation, light yard maintenance and taking out bins
- Grocery shopping: for essential household items where disability prevents you from doing this independently
- Short-term support: extra help during periods of illness, recovery or increased need
The level of support can range from a few hours a week to more regular assistance, depending on your needs and what’s funded in your plan.
Assistance with Social and Community Participation
This funding is there to help you get out into your community, maintain social connections and take part in activities that matter to you. It typically covers the cost of a support worker accompanying you, rather than the cost of the activity itself.
Examples of what this funding can cover include:
- Attending community events, festivals and local activities
- Joining social groups, clubs or classes
- Taking part in sport and recreational programs
- Visiting arts, cultural or educational venues
- Volunteer work and community service
- Support to attend appointments or go shopping with assistance
- Group programs and day activities
The goal is to help you connect with your community in ways that matter to you and reflect what you want to achieve through your NDIS plan.
Consumables
The Consumables budget covers everyday items and low-cost products that support your disability-related needs. These items must be reasonable, necessary and directly linked to your disability. General household products do not qualify.
Common consumables funded through the NDIS include:
- Continence aids and products
- Personal care aids
- Adaptive eating and drinking tools
- Nutritional supplements (where disability-related)
- Low-cost assistive technology items that meet NDIS criteria
Many low-cost assistive technology items can be purchased from your Consumables budget where they meet NDIS criteria and your plan has enough funding available. If you’re ever unsure whether an item qualifies, check with the NDIA or your Support Coordinator before you buy.
Transport Funding
NDIS transport funding helps participants who cannot use public transport without significant difficulty due to their disability. It is included as a regular allowance in your Core Supports budget across three levels, based on your work and study situation:
- Level 1: for participants who are not currently working or studying but want to increase community access
- Level 2: for participants working or studying part-time, or attending day programs and social activities
- Level 3: for participants working, seeking work or studying 15 or more hours per week
Each level comes with an annual funding cap that the NDIA reviews periodically. Your Support Coordinator or the NDIA can confirm the current amounts that apply to your situation.
Keep in mind that transport funding still needs to meet the reasonable and necessary criteria. It’s not a general travel allowance for everyday errands unrelated to your disability.
What Can NDIS Capacity Supports Be Used For?
Where Core Supports help with your everyday needs right now, Capacity Building supports are designed to help you develop skills and increase your independence over time. The focus is on building your capabilities so that everyday life becomes more manageable in the long run.
Unlike Core, Capacity Building funding is tied to specific categories. The money allocated to each one can only be used for the supports it was intended for, so it pays to understand what sits where.
There are nine categories in total:
- Support Coordination: funding for a professional to help you understand your NDIS plan, connect with providers and coordinate your services
- Improved Daily Living: therapy and training supports such as occupational therapy, physiotherapy, speech therapy and functional capacity assessments
- Finding and Keeping a Job: supports for employment preparation, training and workplace assessments
- Improved Health and Wellbeing: supports directly linked to your disability, such as exercise physiology or nutrition programs
- Improved Learning: assistance with transitioning to or participating in education
- Improved Living Arrangements: help with finding and maintaining appropriate housing
- Increased Social and Community Participation: supports that build your skills and confidence to engage with your community
- Improved Relationships: support to develop communication and relationship skills, including behaviour support
- Improved Life Choices: plan management and financial administration of your NDIS plan
Capacity Building funding is about building skills that last. It works best alongside your Core Supports, addressing your longer-term goals while Core funding takes care of your day-to-day needs.
What Can NDIS Capital Supports Be Used For?
Capital Supports fund the bigger-ticket items that help you live more safely and independently at home and in the community. Think equipment, home modifications and in some cases, specialist housing.
Unlike Core Supports, Capital funding is tied to specific approved items. Most purchases require quotes and NDIA approval before you go ahead, so it’s worth planning ahead rather than buying first and asking later.
Capital Supports cover three main areas.
Assistive technology covers equipment and devices that help you manage daily life more independently. This can range from lower-cost items like walking frames and shower chairs through to complex equipment like power wheelchairs, communication devices and vehicle modifications. The more complex or costly the item, the more evidence and approval steps are generally involved — your allied health professional can help you build the case.
Home modifications cover structural changes to your home that improve accessibility and safety. Common examples include ramps, bathroom modifications, grab rails and widened doorways. An assessment is required before any work begins, and modifications must be directly related to your disability needs.
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) is available to a smaller group of participants with very high support needs or extreme functional impairment. It funds purpose-built or modified housing designed to support independent living. SDA has its own eligibility criteria and is assessed separately from the rest of your plan.
What NDIS Funding Cannot Be Used For
Knowing what falls outside your NDIS funding is just as useful as knowing what’s in. The NDIS has a defined list of goods and services that cannot be funded.
Here are some of the most common examples:
- Day-to-day living costs: rent, mortgage repayments, utility bills, general furniture and whitegoods
- Food and groceries: general grocery shopping, takeaway and food delivery (with limited exceptions)
- Clothing and personal grooming: standard clothing purchases, haircuts and beauty treatments
- General medical expenses: GP visits, pharmaceuticals and hospital costs — these are the responsibility of Medicare and the health system
- Entertainment and lifestyle items: gym memberships, holidays, hobbies and recreational goods not linked to your disability
- Legal and financial costs: fines, insurance premiums, debts, donations and business expenses
- Income replacement: NDIS funding is not a substitute for income support payments
The underlying principle is simple: NDIS funding exists for disability-related supports. If it’s something most Australians pay for out of their own pocket, the NDIS is unlikely to cover it.
Need Help Finding NDIS Providers That Match Your Needs?
Understanding your funding is the first step. Finding the right providers to deliver those supports is the next, and that’s often where things feel complicated.
Care Decisions offers a free, independent service that listens to your goals and matches you with disability support providers who have current availability. Instead of spending hours researching and calling around, our team does the work for you and prepares a tailored Options Report based on what matters most to you.
There’s no cost to you as a participant and no obligation to choose any provider we suggest. You stay in control of every decision.
Ready to find providers that match your NDIS plan? Get started with Care Decisions today—it only takes around 20 minutes.
FAQs
Can I buy a laptop with NDIS funding?
Generally, no. Standard laptops are considered mainstream items that most Australian households already own, so they don’t meet the reasonable and necessary criteria on their own.
That said, there are situations where a laptop may be funded as assistive technology. This is usually where an allied health professional has recommended it as part of a specific disability-related program, or where it runs specialised software directly linked to managing your disability. For example, screen-reading software for a vision impairment or a literacy program recommended by a speech pathologist.
Decisions are made case by case. If you think a laptop could be appropriate for your situation, have a conversation with your allied health professional or Support Coordinator before you buy.
Can I buy an iPad with NDIS funding?
The same principles apply. iPads and tablets are general-purpose consumer devices and are not automatically funded by the NDIS.
Funding may be possible where a device is clearly functioning as assistive technology, for example, running an Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) app recommended by a speech pathologist, or supporting a specific therapy program. A written recommendation from a qualified professional and alignment with current NDIA assistive technology guidelines will generally be required.
If you’re not sure whether your situation qualifies, your Support Coordinator or the NDIA can help you work through it before you commit to a purchase.