Understanding the three budgets in your NDIS plan

Most of the confusion about NDIS funding comes down to one thing: an NDIS plan is not a single pot of money. It is three separate budgets with different rules, and money generally cannot be moved between them.

Core Supports

This is the budget most people use most often. It covers the everyday things:

• Assistance with daily personal activities — showering, dressing, meals
• Assistance with social and community participation
• Transport
• Consumables — continence products, low-cost assistive technology

Core is the most flexible budget. In most plans you can move funding between the Core categories without asking anyone. If you are using less transport than expected and need more personal care, that is usually fine.

Transport is the exception that catches people out — it is sometimes allocated as a fixed periodic payment rather than a flexible amount.

Capacity Building

This budget is about building skills so you need less paid support over time. It covers things like:

• Support coordination
• Improved daily living — therapy, allied health, skill development
• Finding and keeping a job
• Improved health and wellbeing — for example, exercise physiology

Capacity Building is not flexible in the same way. Funding is allocated to specific categories and generally cannot be moved between them. Money allocated for therapy cannot be redirected to support coordination.

Capital

This is for higher-cost items — assistive technology, home modifications, specialist disability accommodation.

Capital funding is the least flexible of all. It is usually tied to a specific quoted item, and it cannot be used for anything else.

The rule that matters

You can generally move funding within Core. You generally cannot move it between the three budgets, and you cannot move it between most Capacity Building categories.

If someone tells you that you can spend your therapy funding on extra support worker hours, be sceptical and check.

Underspending is not a win

A lot of participants finish a plan with money unspent, then have their next plan reduced on the basis that they did not need it.

If you are underspending because you cannot find a provider with capacity — a common problem in regional areas — say so, and get it documented before your plan review. That is a supply problem, not evidence that your needs decreased.

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If you are unsure what your plan covers, send us the details and we will tell you what we think applies before you commit to anything.