Understanding Core Supports in Your NDIS Plan
Core supports are a critical part of a participant’s NDIS funding. They’re among the top three support categories utilised by NDIS, with the other two known as capital and capacity building. The NDIS defines core supports as the following:
“Core Supports help you with everyday activities, your current disability-related needs and to work towards your goals. Your Core Supports budget is the most flexible, and in most cases, you can use your funding across any of the four support categories.”
The four core support categories include:
1. Daily living
2. Consumables
3. Social/community participation
4. Transport.
This guide describes each Wrong in detail and provides details on what you should know regarding core supports.
Why are core supports important in your NDIS plan?
Like the name implies, core supports are central to your plan and they often comprise a large portion of your NDIS funding. While there are four main categories of core supports, every participant has different needs, so the NDIS provides some flexibility with re-allocating funds.
For example, you may find that your social/community participation funds are far more than what’s needed, but you could use additional funding to cover consumables. Most categories offer some level of flexibility so that you can meet your core needs.
Understanding the four areas of core supports
Core supports are separated into these categories:
- Daily living – daily living refers to any items or services a participant needs that are related to daily activities. This could include help with administering medication, getting dressed, 24-hour care, nursing assistance, household chores, yard work, hygiene activities, and anything else that’s needed as part of day-to-day living. This can vary greatly between participants since every person has different needs.
- Consumables – consumables are daily items required to help manage personal disability related needs. Examples include absorbent products for incontinence, equipment for vision or hearing assistance, service animals, special feeding equipment, customised prosthetics, or language or sign language training, interpretation and translation.
- Social Community/Participation – community involvement is important for personal development and mental health. This funding category covers the cost for support workers who may take participants to events, group activities, one-on-one activities, social and recreation activities, exercise, shopping, and other social events.
- Transport – from keeping appointments with providers to attending social events, transportation is key daily living. Transportation funding can cover public and private transport for the NDIS participant along with activity-based transport where service providers may charge a fee. If a participant is unable to use public transport, they can pay for someone to drive them around.
What you should know about flexibility in core supports spending
While core supports funding is allocated between categories, you can move funds around within certain categories to meet your needs. However, some categories such as transportation don’t allow for flexibility. the NDIS will also sometimes include funding in stated supports which means that the funding is for specific items which often may require quotes.
If you have questions about which funding categories are flexible vs non-flexible, speak with your coordinator of support or plan manager for additional guidance, and review your NDIS plan for more information.
Certain expenses may be unclear or hard to categorise. If you have any questions about items or services you may want that aren’t mentioned under core supports, or items in other categories that may be eligible for funding under core supports, ask your plan manager for assistance in understanding your options.
