NDIS terms, in plain English
Every NDIS term, acronym and bit of jargon, explained the way you would explain it to a friend. 77 terms, each with its own page.
A
Access Decision
The NDIA decision about whether you are eligible to join the NDIS. If the answer is yes, you become a participant. If it is no, you can ask for a review.
Access Request
The form you submit to the NDIA to apply for the NDIS. It asks for details about your disability and how it affects your everyday life.
Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)
An independent body that can review an NDIA decision you still disagree with after an internal review. It replaced the Administrative Appeals Tribunal in October 2024.
Advocacy
Support to help you understand your rights, speak up and be heard in your dealings with the NDIS. Disability advocacy organisations provide this free and work independently of the NDIA.
Allied Health
Health professionals other than doctors and nurses. Occupational therapists, physiotherapists, speech pathologists, psychologists and dietitians are all allied health professionals.
Assistance with Daily Life
A Core Supports category that covers help with everyday personal tasks such as showering, dressing, eating and moving around your home.
Assistive Technology (AT)
Equipment or devices that help you do things you would otherwise struggle with. Wheelchairs, communication devices, modified vehicles and home aids all fall under AT.
Auslan
Australian Sign Language, the language of the Australian Deaf community. The NDIS can fund Auslan interpreting and training where it relates to your disability.
B
Behaviour Support
Specialist support that helps reduce behaviours of concern by understanding why they happen and building positive alternatives. Delivered by registered behaviour support practitioners.
C
Cancellation Policy
The rules a provider sets for what happens, and what you are charged, when you cancel a booked support. The NDIS limits how much a provider can charge for a short notice cancellation.
Capacity Building
A funding category in your plan for supports that build skills and independence. Therapy, employment support and improved living arrangements all sit here.
Capital
A funding category for one-off purchases like equipment, vehicle modifications or home modifications. Capital funding is usually tied to specific items.
Carer
A family member, friend or other person who provides unpaid support. The NDIS recognises that carers play a key role and may fund supports that give carers a break.
Carer Gateway
An Australian Government service offering carers free counselling, peer support, coaching and short breaks. It is separate from the NDIS and supports carers directly.
Choice and Control
A core NDIS principle. You decide who supports you, what services you receive, and how your plan is managed.
Community Participation
Supports that help you take part in social, recreational and community activities. Funded under Core Supports.
Complex Support Needs
A term for participants whose situation involves several challenges at once, such as disability alongside mental health, housing or contact with the justice system. These plans often include specialist support coordination.
Consumables
Everyday items you use up and replace, such as continence products or low cost aids. Funded under Core Supports.
Continuity of Support
A programme that keeps supports going for some older people with disability who received state services before the NDIS but are not eligible to join it.
Core Supports
A funding category for everyday assistance. Personal care, social participation, transport and consumables sit in Core. The most flexible category in your plan.
D
Developmental Delay
When a young child is significantly behind in two or more areas of development, such as movement, speech or learning. A formal diagnosis is not needed to get early childhood support.
Disability Support Pension (DSP)
A Centrelink income payment for people whose disability stops them from working. It is separate from the NDIS, and you can receive both.
E
Early Childhood Approach (ECA)
The way the NDIS supports children under 9 with developmental delay or disability. Children may receive support through Early Childhood Partners without a formal diagnosis.
Early Childhood Partner
An organisation that delivers the NDIS early childhood approach. Families of young children can approach an early childhood partner first, often before any plan exists.
Eligibility (Access Criteria)
The rules you must meet to join the NDIS. They cover your age, your residency, and whether you have a permanent and significant disability or developmental delay.
F
Functional Capacity Assessment
A report, usually written by an occupational therapist, describing what you can and cannot do day to day. The NDIA uses it to help decide eligibility and funding.
G
Goal
A statement in your plan about what you want to work towards in your life or with your supports. The funding in your plan is meant to connect back to your goals.
H
Home and Living Supports
Supports that relate to where and how you live, including help in your own home, Supported Independent Living and Specialist Disability Accommodation.
Home Modifications
Changes to your home that make it safe and accessible, such as ramps, rails or a modified bathroom. Funded under Capital, usually after a quote and an occupational therapy report.
I
Independent Support Worker
A sole trader who provides direct support, usually personal care or community participation, without working through a larger organisation. Available to plan-managed and self-managed participants.
Informal Supports
Help you receive from family, friends and the community that no one is paid for. The NDIA takes your informal supports into account when deciding what is reasonable and necessary to fund.
Internal Review
The first step if you disagree with an NDIA decision. A different NDIA officer looks at the decision again. It is also called a section 100 review, and you have 3 months from the decision letter to ask for one.
L
Lived Experience
Direct, personal knowledge of disability that comes from living it. Many advocates, peer workers and providers draw on lived experience in their work.
Local Area Coordinator (LAC)
A worker from an NDIA partner organisation who helps people understand the NDIS, apply to join, and put their plan into action. An LAC is a common first point of contact for participants.
Low Cost Assistive Technology
Assistive technology under a set dollar value that you can usually buy without a quote or assessment, such as a basic shower stool or large grip cutlery.
M
Mainstream Services
Services that are not funded by the NDIS but support most Australians. Health, education, transport and Centrelink are mainstream. Your NDIS plan should work alongside these.
N
NDIA
National Disability Insurance Agency. The Commonwealth agency that runs the NDIS, builds plans, approves funding and pays registered providers. Different from the NDIS itself, which is the scheme.
NDIA-Managed (Agency-Managed)
When the NDIA pays your providers directly. You can only use NDIS registered providers under this option. The default for new plans.
NDIS
National Disability Insurance Scheme. An Australian Government programme that funds reasonable and necessary supports for people with permanent and significant disability.
NDIS Commission
The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. An independent agency that registers providers, handles complaints and investigates serious incidents.
Nominee
A person legally authorised to make decisions on a participant behalf, such as a parent of a young person with disability or a court-appointed guardian.
O
Outcomes
The real life changes your supports are meant to lead to, such as greater independence or better health. The NDIA tracks outcomes to see whether plans are working.
P
Participant
A person who is eligible for and receives support through the NDIS. The NDIS uses this word instead of client or patient.
Peer Support
Support between people who share similar experiences of disability. It can be informal or run as a structured group or programme.
Plan
The personalised document the NDIA builds with you, listing your goals and the funding you receive across Core, Capacity Building and Capital.
Plan Implementation
The stage just after you receive your plan, when you choose providers and start using your funding. An LAC or support coordinator can help you with this.
Plan Management
How the money in your plan is paid out to providers. The three options are self-managed, plan-managed and NDIA-managed.
Plan Manager
A registered provider who pays your invoices for you under plan-managed funding. The fee is funded on top of your plan.
Plan Reassessment
The review near the end of your plan, where the NDIA looks at what worked, what did not, and builds your next plan with you. Used to be called a plan review.
Plan-Managed
A funding option where a plan manager pays your providers for you. You can use registered or unregistered providers. The most common funding option.
Pricing Arrangements
The official NDIS price guide that sets the maximum hourly rates registered providers can charge. Self-managed and plan-managed participants can negotiate rates with unregistered providers.
Provider
Any person or organisation that delivers a support or service to NDIS participants. A provider can be a large organisation or a sole trader, registered or unregistered.
Q
Quote
A written price from a provider for a specific item or piece of work, such as assistive technology or home modifications. The NDIA often needs a quote before it releases Capital funding.
R
Reasonable Adjustments
Changes an employer, school or service makes so a person with disability can take part on an equal basis. These are a legal duty and are separate from NDIS funding.
Reasonable and Necessary
The legal test the NDIA uses to decide what to fund. A support must be related to your disability, represent value for money, be effective and beneficial, and take into account informal supports already available.
Registered Provider
A provider who has gone through the NDIS Commission registration process. Required to support NDIA-managed participants. Roughly 17,000 services are NDIS registered.
Respite
A break for carers and participants, where support is arranged so the usual carer can rest. It is often delivered as Short Term Accommodation.
S
Safeguards
The checks and protections that keep NDIS participants safe, including worker screening, provider registration and the work of the NDIS Commission.
Section 100 Review
A formal request to review a NDIA decision you disagree with. There is a strict 3 month window from when you receive the decision letter.
Self-Managed
A funding option where you receive the funds and pay providers yourself. Maximum flexibility, including independent workers and negotiated rates. Admin sits with you.
Service Agreement
A written agreement between you and a provider listing what they will deliver, the rate, the cancellation terms and how the agreement can be ended. Recommended for any ongoing service.
Short Term Accommodation (STA)
Funding for support and accommodation away from home for a short stay. It includes what used to be called respite.
SIL (Supported Independent Living)
Funding for help with daily tasks for people who live in shared or supported accommodation. Covers things like personal care, meals and household tasks.
Specialist Support Coordinator
A higher tier of support coordination for participants with complex needs. Funded only when there is a clear reason a standard support coordinator is not enough.
Stated Supports
Funding in your plan that is locked to a specific purpose and cannot be spent on anything else. It is the opposite of flexible funding.
Support Budget
The funding in your plan, grouped into the three categories Core, Capacity Building and Capital.
Support Coordinator
A funded support whose job is to help you understand your plan, find providers and resolve problems. Funded inside your plan rather than by the NDIA directly.
Supported Decision Making
An approach where a person with disability is supported to make their own choices, rather than having someone else decide for them.
T
Therapeutic Supports
Therapy supports funded under Capacity Building. Includes occupational therapy, speech therapy, physiotherapy, psychology and exercise physiology.
Thin Markets
Places or service types where there are few or no providers available, often in rural and remote areas. The NDIS uses this term when participant demand is not being met.
Transport Funding
Funding to help you get to activities and appointments when your disability stops you using other transport options. It sits in Core Supports.
U
Unregistered Provider
A provider who has not gone through the NDIS Commission registration process. Available to plan-managed and self-managed participants. Many high quality providers and independent workers operate as unregistered.
Utilisation
How much of your plan funding you have actually spent. Low utilisation can be a sign you need help putting your plan into action.
V
Value for Money
Part of the reasonable and necessary test. The NDIA weighs the cost of a support against the benefit it delivers and the other options available.
W
Worker Screening
A national clearance that checks if someone is safe to work with NDIS participants. Required for risk-assessed roles in registered organisations.
WWCC (Working With Children Check)
A state-issued check for anyone working with people under 18. Different states use different names, including the Blue Card in Queensland and the Ochre Card in the Northern Territory.