How do we decide who manages your funding?

you want to self-manage the funding but that would be an unreasonable risk to you
you already have a plan nominee, in which case we’ll talk to your nominee about your plan management options
your plan nominee or child representative want to self-manage your funding but that would be an unreasonable risk to you
you want to self-manage the funding but you, or your plan nominee or child representative, are bankrupt or insolvent under administration
you want a registered plan manager to manage your funding but that would be an unreasonable risk to you
you, your plan manager, nominee or child representative are unlikely to spend your funding on only NDIS supports and in line with your plan
you or your nominee have been convicted of an offence punishable by 2 or more years in prison
you or your nominee have been convicted of an offence involving fraud or dishonesty
it’s for in-kind supports, or cross-billing payments for younger people in residential aged care.

If there are risks with how you want your funding to be managed, we’ll:

find out more about the risks. For example, we’ll look at records of spending in previous plans and any other information or documents you or someone else gives us
look at the risks in more detail. For example, how often they take place and why
think about supports and strategies we can include in your plan to reduce the risks
record our decision and, if we don’t agree to your request, let you know our reasons.

If you’re not happy with the decision we make about managing your plan, you can ask for a review of our decision.

Learn more about requesting a review of decisions we make.

How do we decide if you will spend your funding on NDIS supports and in line with your plan?

When we decide how your funding should be managed, we also consider if you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative:

spent funding on NDIS supports
spent funding in line with your plan.

If you haven’t done this and you self-manage your plan, we’ll look at:

if it was a once off or not. For example, you may have spent your funding on one support that wasn’t an NDIS support
why you haven’t spent your funding on NDIS supports and in line with your plan
if someone else was involved in the decision to use your funding in this way.

If your plan was managed by a registered plan manager, they were responsible for making sure your funding was used on NDIS supports and in line with your plan.

We’ll also look at if you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative:

have given us the information and documents that we need, and have a reasonable excuse if you or they can’t
have been involved in fraud, mismanagement or the misuse of funds or other assets
have been legally or financially exploited or pressured to do something. For example, someone spending your funding on supports you don’t want or need. We’ll think about how often this has happened and why
have the capacity to make decisions or manage your finances, including when you or they have support from others
anything you or someone else tells us, or that we think we should look at.

We’ll also think about if you had the information and support you needed to spend in line with your plan.

For example, if you speak a language other than English, live in a remote area or don’t have regular access to internet.

When we look at how you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative are likely to spend, or have spent, your funding, we don’t look at:

the type of impairments you have, but we do look at how your impairments may affect how you manage your funding
the total amount of funding in your plan
not using all your funds in a previous plan
a period of bankruptcy that has now ended.

The funding in your plan must be spent on the NDIS supports described in your plan.

We’ll explain the types of supports included under each funding component amount in your plan, so you know how to use your NDIS funding.

Sometimes things can go wrong, or you find something’s not right.

This can include things like not getting the support you agreed to or providers claiming more than you agreed to.

We understand most people try to do the right thing but sometimes make mistakes.

We want to help you to do the right thing when you claim from your plan.

If you think you’ve spent your funding on supports that aren’t in your plan or aren’t NDIS supports, or you’ve made a mistake with your self-managed claims, contact us .

We can help you fix any mistakes and understand how to claim for next time.

We’ll also look at supports and strategies we can include in your plan to help you self-manage your funding.

We are also here to support your plan manager with any questions they have or claims they make.

If you spend funding on supports that aren’t in your plan or aren’t NDIS supports, you may owe us a debt.

This means we’ll need to be repaid the amount of money spent on supports that weren’t in your plan.

How do we decide if there is an unreasonable risk to you?

You have the same right as all Australians to take reasonable risks in managing your money.

We respect your right to take reasonable risks if you self-manage your funding or have a plan manager to manage your funding. But it’s also important to understand any risks this might create for you.

In most cases, risks will be small or can be managed. We’ll work with you to address risks and support your request to self-manage your plan, or have a plan manager to manage your plan, as much as possible.

But you can’t self-manage your funding or have a plan manager if we think this would create an unreasonable risk to you.

Your registered plan manager, plan nominee or child representative also can’t manage your funding if that would be an unreasonable risk to you.

An unreasonable risk is where it is likely that you will experience physical, mental or financial harm if you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative manage your plan.

When we look at risks to you when you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative manage your funding, we look at:

if there are supports or strategies we can include in your plan, or that were included in a previous plan, to reduce risks
informal, community and mainstream supports that you, your plan nominee or child representative have, or had, in place
the types of NDIS supports in your plan. For example, we’ll think about how your supports are delivered and who is delivering them
if you are at risk of physical, mental or financial harm or exploitation. Or if someone might pressure you to do something
your capacity to make decisions or manage your finances, including when you have support from others
your plan nominee or child representative’s capacity to make decisions or manage your finances, including when they have support from others
if a court or tribunal has ordered someone else to manage part or all of your property or finances
if a court or tribunal has ordered someone else to manage part or all of your plan nominee or child representative’s property or finances
anything you, your plan manager, plan nominee or child representative tell us that we think is relevant, or that we think we should look at.

When we look at risks, we don’t look at:

the type of impairments you have, but we do look at how your impairments may affect how you manage your funding
the amount of funding in your plan
if you haven’t used all your funds in a previous plan.

When we are thinking about unreasonable risk to you, we look at your whole situation, not just one thing by itself.

We also look at the supports and strategies we can use to reduce risk, or that we have used in a previous plan.

For example, if you only have a little experience managing your finances, but strong informal supports like a family member who can support you with budgeting.

We’ll only decide there is unreasonable risk to you if there are no suitable supports or strategies available to reduce the risk of harm to you.

Learn more about the supports and strategies we can use to reduce risk.

How do we decide if there is possible physical, mental or financial harm to you?

When thinking about risks to you, we’ll look at if there is evidence of possible physical, mental or financial harm to you.

Evidence of possible harm won’t always mean there is an unreasonable risk to you if you want to self-manage your funding or have a plan manager to manage your funding.

We’ll also think about:

how big the risk of harm is to you
if the risk of harm will affect how the funding in your plan is managed.

We know it can be difficult to talk about this information.

We’ll only talk about it to make sure we can identify any possible risks.

We can then work out together if we can put supports and strategies in place to reduce the risks.

Examples of physical harm might include if there is evidence of:

you being injured from a reckless or intentional act, caused by you or another person, like a fracture, contusion, wound, burn or concussion
you being physically assaulted by a carer, support person, family member or member of the community, which causes serious harm or injury
serious unexplained injury to you while receiving NDIS supports
you having a history of habitual or continued substance abuse within the last 12 months.

Examples of mental harm might include if there is evidence of a family member, carer, or support person:

denying you food as ‘punishment’
threatening to harm you
abandoning you by denying support permanently
consistently not letting you go out and do activities
secluding or restraining you.

Mental harm might also include an allegation of you being subject to offensive, abusive, or demeaning language by a family member, carer, plan manager, or support person.

This may also create an unreasonable risk to you.

Examples of financial harm might include if there is evidence of:

you being financially exploited
frequent changes in nominee or child representative
you, your nominee or child representative having a gambling addiction
you, your nominee or child representative being the victim of coercion, such as being coerced to sign for a loan or power of attorney
you, your nominee or child representative being insolvent under administration in the past 5 years
deliberate misuse of, or fraud, in relation to plan funds, by you, your plan manager, nominee or child representative
you, your nominee or child representative having been involved with the criminal justice system in relation to funds management or fraud.

Learn more about how we identify, think about and manage risks in our Participant Safeguarding Policy .

What supports or strategies can we use to reduce risks?

We’ll talk to you about how we can support you to manage any risks to your funding, whether you are self-managing or using a registered plan manager.

Before we make a plan management decision, we’ll think about:

supports and strategies that can reduce the risk to you
supports and strategies that have reduced the risk to you in a previous plan.

This includes informal, mainstream and community supports.

In many cases this means you, your plan nominee, plan manager or child representative, will still be able to manage part or all of your funding.

We just need to make sure the risk to you is not an unreasonable risk.

We’ll consider the specific risk to you and look at suitable ways to help you manage the risk.

If you want to self-manage your funding, we can give general advice and information, which might be enough to manage any risks to you.

This includes information on things like employing your own staff and working with providers.

If you’re new to self-management, we can work with you to try and solve any problems you have.

We might be able to fund a support coordinator or a registered plan manager to help you get started.

Or include funding for training in self-management.

Other strategies we can consider to reduce risks to you include:

giving you a plan with a shorter length of time or shorter funding periods
having regular check-ins with you
stating how a support in your plan needs to be purchased. For example, there might be only a few providers who can safely provide a specialised support.

When we think about risks, we also think about the types of supports you want to manage.

If there is an unreasonable risk to you if you, your plan nominee or child representative self-manage some supports, you might be able to manage other supports in your plan.

You might also be able to manage some of your funding now and manage more in the future if you’re ready.

For example, you may want to self-manage your funding but haven’t done it before.

You may be unsure how to set up your budget and pay your providers.

It might be a good idea to start small.

We could support you to link to a peer support network to get information from other self-managers about how they manage their payments.

For example, you might be able to start with self-managing the funding component amount for core supports such as social and community participation.

At regular check-ins you can let us know if you need any help to self-manage your funding, or if you want to manage more of your funding.

Once you’re familiar with the process of paying providers and keeping records, you might be ready to self-manage other parts of your funding.

If we can reduce the risk to you with supports and strategies, we’ll put funding in your plan for additional supports, if needed. We’ll also record what we have done and why.

If we can’t reduce the risk to you with supports and strategies, we may decide that:

part or all of your plan should be managed by a registered plan manager
part or all of your plan should be Agency-managed.

We’ll tell you why we have made this decision and talk about what we can do to support your plan management choice in the future.

If we decide to make part, or all, of your funding Agency-managed, you can only use NDIS registered providers for your supports.

We’ll work with you to make sure you have the NDIS supports you need.

How do we decide who manages your funding?

On this page:

How do we decide if you will spend your funding on NDIS supports and in line with your plan?

How do we decide if there is an unreasonable risk to you?

How do we decide if there is possible physical, mental or financial harm to you?

What supports or strategies can we use to reduce risks?