Note: when we say ‘disability support needs’, we mean supports you need for the impairments that meet the disability or early intervention requirements, or both.
Case
Cho feels that getting a car will increase his independence. He asks for NDIS funding to buy a vehicle that meets his disability support needs.
Would we fund this?
No, we would not fund a motor vehicle as it’s not an NDIS support. It’s a day-to-day living cost that is not related to Cho’s disability support needs.
Why wouldn’t we fund this?
NDIS laws determine what we can and can’t fund. Things we can fund are called NDIS supports. You can only use the funding in your plan to buy NDIS supports if they are related to your disability and are in-line with your plan.
To work out whether a support is an NDIS support for you, we look at the information you give us against the NDIS funding criteria.
Vehicles are not an NDIS support because people need vehicles whether or not they have a disability.
Cars and/or motorbikes are found in most households and used by most Australians. This means the cost to buy, run, register and insure a vehicle is a day-to-day living cost not related to your disability support needs as it’s:
- unlikely that a motor vehicle is an extra cost just because of your disability support needs. It is more likely people need and use a vehicle for non-disability related uses.
- unlikely to be an extra cost because of a funded support you receive due to your disability support needs.
What else do we think about?
We would not fund items that aren’t related to your disability support needs. We may, however, fund modifications to a new or second-hand vehicle if, for example, you need modifications to help you:
- get in and out of the vehicle with or without a wheelchair
- carry your wheelchair in or on the vehicle without lifting
- be transported safely while seated in your wheelchair
- drive the vehicle with specialised controls or other adaptions.
For more information on vehicle modifications, please go to the Vehicle modifications and driving supports.
Case example
Sean lives with paraplegia and uses a wheelchair for mobility. He has been taking driving lessons in a modified vehicle using hand controls to operate the accelerator and brakes.
Sean recently passed his driving test.
Sean has been looking for a job. One of his goals is to re-join the workforce and he feels his employment chances would increase if he had his own vehicle.
Looking online Sean sees a second-hand car within his price range. He feels it could probably be modified to support his disability needs. He asks us to fund the cost of the vehicle.
To determine whether this is an NDIS support for Sean, the planner looks at the information Sean provides against our NDIS funding criteria.
The planner decides that buying a car is not an NDIS support so we wouldn’t fund it.
The planner recommends that before Sean decides to buy his own car, he should work with a driver-trained occupational therapist to understand what type of car is most suited to being easily modified to support his specific disability support needs.
We could then consider funding modifications to the car.
For more information, go to: