Understanding your plan

The three budgets

Core supports

Everyday assistance. Personal care, help around the home, community access, consumables, and transport. Core is usually the most flexible budget — in most plans you can move funding between its categories.

Capacity building

Supports that build skill and independence over time: support coordination, therapies, employment support, help with daily-living skills. Capacity building funding is allocated per category and generally cannot be moved between them.

Capital

Higher-cost items — assistive technology, equipment, home or vehicle modifications, and Specialist Disability Accommodation. Capital funding is tied to the specific item it was approved for.

How your plan can be managed

• Agency-managed — the NDIA pays providers directly. You must use registered providers. Famycare is registered, so agency-managed participants can use us.
• Plan-managed — a plan manager pays your invoices and keeps the records. You can use registered and unregistered providers.
• Self-managed — you pay providers and claim back. The most flexibility and the most administration.
• A combination — different budgets can be managed differently in the same plan.

Getting more out of the plan you have

• Know your end date and your remaining balance. Underspending is one of the most common reasons a plan is reduced at reassessment.
• Keep service agreements and invoices. They are the evidence for what you needed and what it cost.
• Ask providers to bill against the right category. A support booked to the wrong budget can exhaust funding you needed elsewhere.
• If your circumstances change significantly, you can request a plan reassessment rather than waiting for the scheduled one.

Before a plan reassessment

Come with evidence, not just a wish list: what you have used, what worked, what did not, and what has changed. Reports from your treating professionals carry weight. So does a clear statement of the goals you are working towards.

We can help you use it

Famycare delivers supports across eight NDIS service streams and can talk through how your plan maps to what you actually want. Get in touch, or see how we charge.