Some of the changes to the NDIS laws are how we include the funding in your plan.
Your next plan will include:
- a total funding amount
- funding component amounts
- one or more funding periods.
What is your total funding amount?
Your total funding amount is the total amount for all reasonable and necessary supports in your plan. We’ll call this a 'total budget amount' in your plan.
We develop the total plan funding amount by using the information you gave us and the NDIS funding criteria.
For each reasonable and necessary support, we look at:
- if you share this support with anyone
- how much of this support you need, including hours, items or equipment
- how often you need this support, including days, weeks, months or years.
We use price limits to help participants and disability support providers to understand how price controls for supports and services work in the NDIS. You can find more information in the NDIS Pricing and Price Limits guide on the NDIS website.
We then work out the funding for each support and combine these amounts to arrive at your plan’s total funding amount.
We display your total funding amount at the beginning of your plan and in your plan approval letter.
What are funding component amounts?
A funding component amount is the total amount of funding for a specific support, or a group of reasonable and necessary supports in your plan. This will show the total amount of funding you have for these supports over the full length of your plan. You can only use this funding for the NDIS supports included in each funding component.
Your plan could include one funding component or more than one funding component.
We’ll describe any NDIS supports in each funding component.
We are updating our computer systems. Until these are finished, your funding components will look the same as the current support categories within the core, capacity building, capital and recurring budget types.
What are funding periods?
Your funding will also be divided into funding periods. A funding period is the time that part of your funding becomes available and how long it needs to last. You can spend up to the amount of funding that is available in that time. If you don’t spend all your funds in a funding period, it will rollover into your next funding period within the same plan.
Any unspent funds won’t rollover to your next plan, as this is a new plan that we need to make sure meets your disability support needs.
Funding periods can be for either the total budget amount of your plan or for each funding component amount in your plan.
Funding periods can be up to 12 months long. For now, all new plans created after 3 October 2024 will be 12 months. In the future most peoples’ plans will go for much longer than this. If your plan is longer than 12 months, you will always have more than one funding period in your plan.
Your funding periods could be:
- the same for all funding component amounts in your plan. This means all your funding periods start and end at the same time.
- different for different funding component amounts.
For example, you might have one funding component amount with 12-month funding periods, and one funding component amount with shorter, 6-month funding periods.
Your plan will show:
- whether funding periods apply to your whole plan or to funding component amounts
- the dates each funding period starts and ends
- how much funding you can use during each funding period.
Each funding period will start immediately after the previous one, so you won’t be left without funding.
Example
Sal has recently become an NDIS participant and has received their first plan. Their plan goes for 2 years and includes two funding component amounts.
- Their first funding component amount includes $60,000 for Core supports. Sal can use this funding to pay for NDIS supports to help them in their daily life, and to participate in the community.
Their funding period is 12 months, so they’ll receive $30,000 every 12 months to use on these Core supports.
In the first funding period of Sal’s plan, they spend $25,000 on NDIS supports.
This means in the second funding period, they will have $35,000 they can buy NDIS supports with.
- The second funding component amount in Sal’s plan is $1500 for assistive technology, because they need a shower chair. This is the only support Sal needs for assistive technology, so we create a funding component amount for this specific support. We expect Sal to spend most of this funding in one go when they buy the shower chair. So, we include the $1500 for assistive technology in the first funding period of their plan This funding period is for 12 months. Sal won’t need funding for assistive technology included in the second funding period of their plan.
Any unspent funds in the last funding period of a plan, won’t rollover to the next plan. We’ll need to make a new plan to make sure it meets your disability support needs.
Learn more about how to use your funding in Our Guideline - Your plan.