You have some flexibility over how you spend your core supports budget and which providers you get your supports from. If we include meal preparation supports in your plan, we will specify this so you can see how much of your core supports you can use for meal preparation. We’ll tell you how much funding you have for this in your plan. Occasionally, you may have a short-term change in your situation, like needing to isolate, which means you need to get this support differently.
You may have funding in your core budget for a support worker to help you prepare meals or shop for groceries. If you do, you may decide to use this funding to have meals prepared and delivered for a limited time instead.
You’ll need think about the best way to use the funding in your plan. You need to spend your NDIS funding as described in your plan. This means if we haven’t specified meal preparation in your plan then you won’t be able to purchase this support.
If we include funding for meal preparation so you can build your skills in planning and preparing healthy meals, you will need to buy supports that help you do this. If you only buy meal delivery this won’t help you build your skills.
We’ll talk to you about how your supports have helped you build your skills when we reassess your plan.
You can only use funding from your core budget for support with meal preparation if we agree it meets the NDIS funding criteria and we include it in your plan.
You may not have funding for meal preparation in your plan. If you don’t and use your core funding for a support worker to help prepare meals or for meal delivery, it’s likely you’ll run out of funding. We won’t add extra funding to your plan if this happens.
To learn more about how to get the most out of your plan, go to Our Guideline – Your Plan.
You may decide to use your support flexibly in different ways and have meals prepared and delivered to you, if:
- you are diagnosed with an infectious disease which means you need to isolate or reduce your contact with others.
- the people who usually support you to prepare meals are unavailable for a short period of time - for example, if family members who help you go into hospital.
- you have been recently discharged from hospital or are recovering from an illness and need temporary nutrition support while you arrange for help from support workers.
- you have been unable to find someone else to help you prepare meals during these periods.
We don’t need a quote for you to use funding from your core budget like this. But you can’t use your funding to cover the cost of food, only to have the meals prepared and delivered.
Remember food is an everyday living cost for everybody, whether they have a disability or not, so we won’t fund the cost of food or ingredients. We can only fund the preparation and delivery supports you need due to your disability support needs.
Providers may ask you to pay for the food and ingredients before the meals are prepared and delivered. You can ask providers to separate the cost of food from the total cost when you discuss the total cost for meal preparation and delivery.
If you use the funds in your core budget flexibly to purchase meal preparation and delivery, you can claim:
- 100 percent of the invoice if the provider has removed the cost of food
- 70 percent of the invoice if the provider includes the cost of food in the total cost.
If your plan is managed by us, you will only be able to use a registered provider to arrange a support worker to help you at home, or to have meals prepared and delivered. If your plan is self-managed or plan-managed, you can choose to use either a registered or unregistered provider to deliver this support.
When considering a provider, you should ask whether the meals provided are meeting the standards of the Australian Dietary Guidelines .
To learn more, speak to your my NDIS contact or support coordinator.
If your nutrition support needs change significantly, you should contact us . Let us know about new reports or assessments you have.
If we decide your plan isn’t meeting your needs, we can do a plan reassessment. Learn more about changing your plan.