NDIS terms, in plain English
Every NDIS term, acronym and bit of jargon, explained the way you would explain it to a friend. 259 terms, each with its own page.
A
AAC Assessment
An assessment, usually by a speech pathologist, that works out how a person communicates now, which augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) options suit them, and what to trial. Its report is the evidence the NDIA uses to fund a communication device or system.
ABAS 3 (Adaptive Behavior Assessment System)
The Adaptive Behavior Assessment System, Third Edition (ABAS 3) is a standardised rating scale that measures the everyday practical, social and thinking skills a person uses, compared with people of the same age. It is often used in intellectual disability, autism and developmental assessments.
Access Decision
The NDIA's formal decision about whether you meet the access criteria to join the NDIS. If the answer is yes you become a participant, and if it is no you can ask for a review.
Access Request
An access request is your formal application to join the NDIS. You can make it by phone, with the Access Request Form, or with help from a local area coordinator or early childhood partner, and it must include evidence of your age, residence and disability.
Active Overnight Support
Overnight NDIS support where a worker stays awake during normal sleeping hours because you need help through the night. It is different from a sleepover, where the worker sleeps and only provides occasional help.
Activity Based Transport
The cost of a provider transporting you to, from or during a community participation or certain capacity building support, such as kilometres in the worker's car, tolls, parking or fares. It is claimed from your plan with your agreement, separately from the worker's time.
Administrative Review Tribunal (ART)
An independent tribunal 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 Animal
A trained animal, most often a dog, that does specific tasks to reduce the impact of a person's disability. The NDIS can fund an eligible assistance animal and its upkeep when it is stated in your plan.
Assistance with Daily Life
Assistance with Daily Life is Core support category 01 in an NDIS plan. It funds help with everyday tasks such as personal care, household tasks and meal preparation, so you can live as independently as possible.
Assistive Technology (AT)
Assistive technology (AT) is equipment, devices and technology that help you do things you otherwise could not do, or could not do safely, because of your disability, such as wheelchairs, hoists, communication devices and shower chairs.
Assistive Technology Assessment
An assistive technology assessment is a report from a qualified professional, often an occupational therapist, physiotherapist or speech pathologist, that recommends a specific piece of equipment and explains why it is reasonable and necessary. The NDIA needs one before it funds high cost assistive technology.
AT Repairs and Maintenance
NDIS funding to service, maintain and repair assistive technology you need for your disability, such as wheelchairs, hoists, prostheses and communication devices. It sits in the Capital budget, usually as a set amount for the year.
AT Trial and Rental
NDIS funding to try assistive technology before you buy it, or to rent it instead of buying, for example when a child will soon outgrow it or you only need it for a short time.
Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC)
Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) is any tool or method that adds to or replaces speech, from picture boards and signing to speech generating devices and eye gaze systems. The NDIS can fund AAC as assistive technology when it is related to your disability and reasonable and necessary.
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.
Australian Disability Enterprise (ADE)
A business that employs people with disability who need substantial ongoing support at work, often called supported employment. ADEs are funded for that support through participants' NDIS plans, and wages are set under the Supported Employment Services Award.
Autism Assessment
An autism assessment is a clinical process, carried out by a paediatrician, psychiatrist, psychologist or a team, to work out whether a person is autistic and what support they need. The NDIS does not pay for the diagnosis, but the assessment is often key evidence for NDIS access.
B
Behaviour Support
NDIS funded specialist support to understand why behaviours of concern happen and to reduce them in a positive way, through assessment, a behaviour support plan, training for supporters, and the safe reduction of restrictive practices.
Behaviour Support Plan
A written plan, developed by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner with the person and their supporters, that sets out positive strategies to improve quality of life and reduce behaviours of concern, and any regulated restrictive practices that may be used.
Behaviour Support Practitioner
A person the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has found suitable to do behaviour support assessments and write behaviour support plans, including plans that use restrictive practices.
C
Cancellation Policy
The NDIS rules on when a provider can charge your plan for a support you cancelled at short notice or did not turn up to. Generally that is less than 7 days notice for support worker supports, and less than 2 clear business days for other supports.
Capacity Building
Capacity Building is the part of an NDIS plan that funds supports to build your skills and independence, such as therapy, support coordination, plan management, skills training and help to find work.
Capital
One of the three NDIS budgets, for higher cost, one off investments such as assistive technology, home modifications, vehicle modifications and Specialist Disability Accommodation. Capital funding is tied to specific items.
Care and Needs Scale (CANS)
The Care and Needs Scale (CANS) is a clinician rated tool that measures how much support and supervision a person with a brain injury needs, giving a level from 0 to 7. The NDIA lists it first as evidence for adults with acquired brain injury.
Carer
A family member, friend or other person who gives unpaid support to someone with disability. The NDIS calls this informal support, considers it when building plans, and can fund supports that help keep caring sustainable.
Carer Gateway
An Australian Government program that gives unpaid carers free services and support, including counselling, coaching, peer support, skills courses, tailored support packages and planned and emergency respite. It is separate from the NDIS and supports carers directly.
Carer Payment
Carer Payment is a Centrelink income support payment for people who give constant care to someone with disability, a medical condition or who is frail aged. Carer Allowance is a separate, smaller fortnightly payment for people who give daily care. Both can be paid alongside the NDIS.
Certification Audit
The more detailed of the two NDIS registration audits, required for providers of higher risk or more complex supports. An approved quality auditor checks you against the core module of the NDIS Practice Standards and any supplementary modules, in a desktop stage and an onsite stage.
Change of Circumstances
A change in your life, health or support that may affect your NDIS plan or eligibility. You must tell the NDIA about it, and you now ask for either a plan variation or an unscheduled plan reassessment rather than lodging a change of circumstances form.
Child Representative
The person who makes NDIS decisions and does things on behalf of a child under 18. Usually this is the parent or parents with parental responsibility, but the NDIA can appoint someone else in some situations.
Choice and Control
A founding principle of the NDIS: you decide how your supports are delivered, who delivers them and how your plan is managed. It still applies in 2026, but within clearer limits on what NDIS funding can buy and which providers can deliver some supports.
Chronic Condition Management Plan
A GP chronic condition management plan (GPCCMP) is a Medicare plan for people with a long term health condition. It gives you a Medicare rebate for a small number of allied health sessions each year, separate from anything the NDIS funds.
Community Participation
NDIS funded support that helps you take part in social, recreational, cultural and community life, usually a support worker going with you. It is funded from the Core budget called assistance with social, economic and community participation, and from 1 October 2026 that funding is reduced by 50% at your next plan change.
Companion Card
A free card for people with significant, permanent disability who need a support person to go out. At participating venues and events, the cardholder's companion gets in free.
Compensation and the NDIS
If you receive or can claim compensation for a personal injury that caused your disability, such as from a car accident or work injury, the NDIA takes it into account so the NDIS does not pay twice for the same supports.
Complex Home Modifications
Larger or structural changes to your home, such as a full bathroom redesign, widening doorways or adding a lift, that the NDIS can fund when they are reasonable and necessary for your disability. They usually need building approval, a specialist assessor, builder quotes and often a project manager.
Complex Support Needs
Complex support needs means disability combined with other serious challenges, such as mental ill health, unstable housing, contact with the justice system or frequent crises. The NDIA's complex support needs pathway gives these participants more specialised planning and coordination.
Consumables
Consumables is Core support category 03 in an NDIS plan. It funds everyday disability related products you use up or replace often, such as continence products and enteral feeding supplies, and low cost assistive technology under $1,500.
Continence
Support and equipment, funded where reasonable and necessary, to manage bladder and bowel needs related to disability.
Continence Assessment
An assessment, usually by a continence nurse, that looks at your bladder and bowel needs and recommends products, equipment, routines and support. Under the NDIS it is evidence for continence supports and consumables in your plan.
Continuity of Support
A Commonwealth programme for older people with disability who were getting state specialist disability services but were not eligible for the NDIS. It was replaced by the Disability Support for Older Australians (DSOA) Program on 1 July 2021.
COPM (Canadian Occupational Performance Measure)
The Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) is a client centred interview that helps you name the everyday activities that matter most to you, then rate how well you do them and how satisfied you are. Therapists repeat it to measure progress.
Core Supports
Core supports are the NDIS budget for everyday activities: help with daily life, transport, consumables and taking part in the community. Core funding is usually flexible across its categories.
Counselling
The NDIS can fund counselling as a therapy support when it helps you build skills and capacity related to your disability. Counsellors are paid up to the NDIS counselling price limit, which is lower than the limit for psychologists.
D
Daily Living Skills Training
NDIS funded support that teaches you to do everyday tasks yourself, such as cooking, budgeting, using public transport or managing a routine, rather than having someone do them for you. In the NDIS it sits under the registration group called development of daily living and life skills.
Developmental Assessment
A developmental assessment checks how a young child is progressing in areas such as movement, communication, thinking, play and self care, compared with other children the same age. It can show developmental delay and guide early support, including evidence for the NDIS.
Developmental Delay
In the NDIS, developmental delay is a legal term for a child under 6 whose development is substantially behind in self care, language, cognitive or motor skills because of an impairment, and who needs coordinated early support. A formal diagnosis is not required.
Dietitian
An allied health professional who provides evidence based advice on food, nutrition and managing diet related conditions.
Dignity of Risk
Dignity of risk is the right of a person with disability to make their own choices and take reasonable risks, as everyone else does, even when others would choose differently. In the NDIS it sits alongside a provider's duty of care.
Disability Employment Services (DES)
The Australian Government's specialist employment program for people with disability, injury or a health condition. It was replaced by Inclusive Employment Australia on 1 November 2025.
Disability Requirements
The disability requirements are the rules in section 24 of the NDIS Act that decide whether your disability qualifies you for the NDIS. Your impairment must be permanent, substantially reduce your functional capacity, affect your social or economic participation, and mean you are likely to need NDIS support for life.
Disability Support Pension (DSP)
The Disability Support Pension is a Centrelink income payment for people whose condition stops them working enough to support themselves. It is separate from the NDIS, which funds disability supports rather than income.
Driving Assessment
An assessment by an occupational therapist with driver training that checks whether you can drive safely with your disability, and what vehicle modifications, licence conditions or lessons you need.
E
Early Childhood Approach (ECA)
The way the NDIS supports children younger than 9 with developmental delay or disability, and their families. It is delivered by early childhood partners, who can help with or without a diagnosis and before or instead of an NDIS plan.
Early Childhood Intervention
Specialised support for young children with developmental delay or disability, and their families, delivered in everyday settings like home, childcare and kinder. Under the NDIS it is mainly for children younger than 9.
Early Childhood Partner
A local organisation funded by the NDIA to deliver the early childhood approach for children younger than 9. It is the first contact for families worried about a child's development, and helps children with NDIS plans use them.
Early Connections
The help an NDIS early childhood partner gives families of children younger than 9, before or instead of an NDIS plan. It ranges from information and links to local services, to short term early supports for children younger than 6.
Early Intervention Requirements
The early intervention requirements are the rules in section 25 of the NDIS Act that let someone join the NDIS because support now is likely to reduce the support they will need later. They apply to children with developmental delay and to people of any age with a permanent impairment.
Eligibility (Access Criteria)
The NDIS access criteria are the legal tests you must meet to join the NDIS: an age requirement, a residence requirement, and either the disability requirements or the early intervention requirements, set out in sections 21 to 25 of the NDIS Act.
Exercise Physiology
Therapy that uses tailored exercise to improve health, function and independence for people with disability or chronic conditions.
F
Finding and Keeping a Job
A Capacity Building support category in NDIS plans that funds help to prepare for, find, keep or change a job. It covers things like employment assistance, school leaver employment supports and employment related assessment and counselling.
Flexible Budget
The part of a new framework NDIS plan that you can spend on any NDIS support that is right for you, rather than on specific supports. New framework plans start rolling out from 1 April 2027 and have a flexible budget plus funding for stated supports.
Foundational Supports
Disability supports delivered outside the NDIS, jointly funded by the Australian Government and the states and territories. They include general supports for everyone with disability and targeted supports for people with extra needs who do not need an NDIS plan.
Functional Behaviour Assessment
A functional behaviour assessment (FBA) is the process of working out why a behaviour of concern happens: what triggers it, what keeps it going and what purpose it serves for the person. Under the NDIS, it is the foundation of every comprehensive behaviour support plan.
Functional Capacity Assessment
A report, usually written by an occupational therapist, that describes how your disability affects what you can do day to day and what support you need. It is used as evidence for NDIS access, plans and reassessments.
Functional Independence Measure (FIM)
The Functional Independence Measure (FIM) is an 18 item rating of how independently a person does everyday tasks, scored from 18 to 126. It is mainly used in hospital rehabilitation to track progress, and FIM scores often appear in discharge reports used as NDIS evidence.
Funding Periods
The blocks of time, usually 3 months, in which part of your NDIS funding becomes available. You can only spend what has been released for the current period, and unspent money rolls into the next period within the same plan.
G
Getting the NDIS Back on Track Act 2024
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1) Act 2024, which changed the NDIS Act from 3 October 2024. It defined NDIS supports, introduced total funding amounts and funding periods, and created new framework plans built on a needs assessment.
GMFCS (Gross Motor Function Classification System)
The Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) describes how a person with cerebral palsy moves around, using five levels from I (walks without limitations) to V (transported in a manual wheelchair). The NDIA uses it as its preferred evidence for cerebral palsy.
Goal
The things you want to work towards, written in your own words in the statement of goals and aspirations at the front of your NDIS plan. Goals help guide which supports are funded and how you use them.
Group and Centre Based Activities
NDIS funded activities you do with other people, either out in the community or at a centre, such as day programs, social groups, art, music and sport. They are funded from the Core budget for social, economic and community participation, and the cost is shared according to the staff to participant ratio.
GST and the NDIS
Many supports supplied to NDIS participants are GST free, but only when four conditions in the GST law are met: a plan in effect, a reasonable and necessary support in that plan, a written agreement, and a supply covered by the NDIS GST determination.
H
High Cost Assistive Technology
Assistive technology items that cost more than $15,000 each. The NDIA needs an assessment from a qualified assistive technology assessor and a quote before it funds them from your Capital budget.
High Intensity Daily Personal Activities
Personal care supports with higher clinical risk, such as complex bowel care, enteral feeding, tracheostomy and ventilator management, that need workers with specific training. Registered providers delivering them must meet an extra NDIS Practice Standards module.
Home and Living Assessment
A home and living assessment is a report, usually from an occupational therapist, that describes the support you need at home across the day and night and recommends the living arrangement that suits you. It is the main allied health evidence for requests for Supported Independent Living, an Individualised Living Option or Specialist Disability Accommodation.
Home and Living Supporting Evidence Form
An NDIA form you use to explain the home and living supports you need, such as Supported Independent Living, an Individualised Living Option, Specialist Disability Accommodation or Medium Term Accommodation. It goes in with a request to change your plan or a review request.
Home and Living Supports
Home and living supports are NDIS supports that help you live where and how you want, such as Supported Independent Living, Individualised Living Options, Specialist Disability Accommodation, Medium Term Accommodation and Short Term Accommodation.
Home Modifications
Home modifications are changes to the structure, layout or fittings of your home, such as grab rails, ramps or a step free shower, so you can live there safely and move around more easily because of your disability.
Home Modifications Assessment
A home modifications assessment is a report, written by an occupational therapist, that recommends changes to your home so you can live in it more safely and independently, and explains why they are reasonable and necessary for NDIS funding.
Household Tasks
NDIS funded help with essential jobs around the home that you cannot do yourself because of your disability, such as cleaning, laundry, meal preparation and basic yard maintenance. Often called domestic assistance, it is funded from your Core budget.
How to Complain About the NDIA
The process for raising a complaint about the National Disability Insurance Agency itself: its service, delays, communication or staff. You complain to the NDIA first, and if you are not satisfied you can go to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.
I
I-CAN Assessment
I-CAN, the Instrument for the Classification and Assessment of Support Needs, is the support needs assessment tool the NDIA is adapting for new framework planning. Trained assessors will use it with participants aged 16 and over to help set plan budgets.
ILO Exploration and Design
The first stage of an NDIS Individualised Living Option (ILO), where a provider works with you to explore how and with whom you want to live, and designs a package of paid and unpaid supports to make it work. It is usually funded for between 30 and 100 hours.
Improved Daily Living
Improved Daily Living Skills is the NDIS Capacity Building category, number 15, that funds therapy, assessments and training to build your independence in everyday life. It used to be called CB Daily Activity.
Improved Health and Wellbeing
A Capacity Building budget for supports that improve your physical health and wellbeing where it is affected by your disability, mainly exercise physiology, personal training and dietetics.
Improved Learning
A Capacity Building budget for skills training, advice and help with arrangements so you can move from school into further education, such as TAFE or university. It does not pay for school or course fees.
Improved Life Choices
The Capacity Building support category that pays for plan management. It is called Choice and Control in newer PACE plans, and the money can only be used to pay a plan manager.
Improved Living Arrangements
A Capacity Building budget that helps you find and keep a suitable place to live, such as help applying for a rental or meeting your tenancy obligations. It does not pay your rent.
Improved Relationships
A Capacity Building budget for supports that help you build social skills and positive relationships, and, in older plans, specialist behaviour support. Newer plans list behaviour support separately.
Inclusive Employment Australia
The Australian Government's specialist disability employment program. It replaced Disability Employment Services on 1 November 2025 and helps people with disability, injury or a health condition prepare for, find and keep work.
Independent Support Worker
A support worker who runs their own business, usually as a sole trader with an ABN, and works directly with NDIS participants instead of through an agency. Most are unregistered, so plan managed and self managed participants can use them.
Individualised Living Option (ILO)
An NDIS home and living support that funds a support package designed around you, so you can live in a home of your choice with a mix of paid and unpaid support, such as a host, a housemate or drop in workers.
Informal Supports
The unpaid help you get from family, friends, neighbours and your community. The NDIA must consider what it is reasonable to expect them to provide when deciding what to fund, along with the risks to them if they carry too much.
Information, Linkages and Capacity Building (ILC)
NDIS grants that fund community organisations to make the whole community more inclusive, available to people whether or not they have a plan.
Interim Behaviour Support Plan
A short, safety focused behaviour support plan written by an NDIS behaviour support practitioner while a full assessment is done. Where regulated restrictive practices are involved, it must be developed within 1 month of the specialist behaviour support provider being engaged.
Interim Plan
A short, temporary plan the NDIA can put in place quickly when someone has an urgent need that cannot wait for a full plan.
Internal Review
The first step if you disagree with an NDIA decision: someone at the NDIA who was not involved in the original decision looks at it again. You have 3 months from receiving the decision to ask. It is also called a section 100 review.
Interpreting and Translation
Help to communicate in another language or in sign language. Spoken and community language interpreting for NDIS participants is free through TIS National, while Auslan and other disability related interpreting can be funded in your NDIS plan as an interpreting and translation support.
IQ Assessment (WISC and WAIS)
An IQ assessment, also called a cognitive assessment, is a standardised test of thinking and reasoning skills given by a psychologist, most often the WISC for children or the WAIS for adults. Together with an adaptive behaviour assessment, it is used to diagnose intellectual disability.
K
Key Worker
One professional, chosen with your family, who is your main contact in early childhood intervention. They coordinate information and supports for your child and bring in advice from the rest of the team.
L
Letter of Support
A letter from your GP, specialist or other treating professional that confirms your disability and explains how it affects your daily life. It is one of the ways the NDIA accepts evidence when you apply or ask for supports.
List A Conditions
List A is the NDIA's list of conditions that are likely to meet the NDIS disability requirements. If a treating professional confirms you have a List A condition, the NDIA usually accepts you meet the disability requirements without further evidence of how it affects you.
List B Conditions
List B is the NDIA's list of permanent conditions whose impact varies from person to person. The NDIA accepts a List B condition is permanent, but you still need evidence that it substantially reduces your functional capacity.
List D Conditions
A list published by the NDIA of permanent conditions in young children for which early intervention is known to help. A child younger than 7 with a confirmed List D diagnosis meets the NDIS early intervention requirements without further assessment.
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 with disability aged 9 to 64 understand and apply for the NDIS, prepare their plan, use it, and connect with community and mainstream services.
Low Cost Assistive Technology
Low cost assistive technology is any assistive technology item costing less than $1,500, such as a walking stick, non slip bath mat or basic shower chair. It is paid from the Consumables category of your Core budget.
LSP-16 (Life Skills Profile 16)
The Life Skills Profile 16 (LSP-16) is a short rating scale that measures everyday living skills and functioning in people with a mental illness. The NDIA lists it first among its preferred functional assessments for psychosocial disability.
M
Mainstream Services
Services that governments provide to everyone, such as health, education, public housing, transport and justice. The NDIS works alongside them and cannot fund supports that are their responsibility.
Meal Preparation and Delivery
NDIS funded help to prepare meals, or to have prepared meals delivered, when your disability means you cannot do it yourself. The NDIS pays for the preparation and delivery, not the food.
Mealtime Management Plan
A written plan, usually by a speech pathologist, that sets out how a person with swallowing or eating difficulties can eat and drink safely and enjoyably: food and drink textures, positioning, equipment, assistance and what to do if they choke.
Medium Term Accommodation (MTA)
NDIS funding for somewhere to live for up to about 90 days when your long term home is confirmed but not ready because your disability supports, such as SDA or home modifications, are not in place yet.
Mental Health Treatment Plan
A plan your GP prepares if you have a diagnosed mental health condition, giving you Medicare rebates for up to 10 individual and 10 group sessions a year under Better Access. It is health care, separate from NDIS funded supports.
Mid Cost Assistive Technology
Assistive technology items that cost between $1,500 and $15,000 each. They are funded from the Capital budget and need written evidence from an assistive technology advisor, but no quote.
Minor Home Modifications
Simple, non structural changes to your home, such as grab rails, handheld showers, lever taps or a small ramp, that the NDIS can fund when they relate to your disability. They cost under $20,000 and are split into Category A and Category B.
Mixed Plan Management
Using more than one way to manage the funding in a single NDIS plan, for example self managing your support workers, having a plan manager for therapy and leaving some supports NDIA managed.
Modified Monash Model (MMM)
A system that rates every location in Australia from MM 1 (major cities) to MM 7 (very remote). The NDIS uses it to decide which price limit applies and how much provider travel can be claimed.
My NDIS Portal
The my NDIS participant portal is the NDIA's secure website for participants, reached through myGov, with a matching my NDIS app. You use it to see your plan and budgets, check payments, manage your providers and, if you self manage, make claims.
my NDIS Provider Portal
The NDIA's online portal for providers working with participants whose plans are in the NDIA's new computer system (PACE). It sits alongside the older myplace provider portal, which is still used for claiming.
My Providers (Endorsement)
My providers are the providers you record against your NDIS plan so they can claim from it without the NDIA checking with you first. They used to be called endorsed providers, and some supports cannot be paid unless the provider is recorded.
N
NDIA
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) is the Australian Government agency that runs the NDIS: it decides who can join, builds and funds participants' plans, and pays for supports. It is different from the NDIS itself and from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
NDIA-Managed (Agency-Managed)
A way of managing NDIS funding where the NDIA pays your providers directly from your plan and keeps the records. You can only use NDIS registered providers for supports that are NDIA managed.
NDIS
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is Australia's national scheme that funds reasonable and necessary supports for people with permanent and significant disability, run by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA).
NDIS Act 2013
The National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 is the federal law that creates the NDIS. It sets out who can join, how plans and funding work, your review rights, and how providers are regulated.
NDIS Age Requirement
To join the NDIS you must be under 65 on the day you make your access request. If you are already a participant when you turn 65, you can stay in the NDIS or choose to move to aged care.
NDIS and Aged Care
How the NDIS and the aged care system fit together for older people with disability. You must apply to the NDIS before 65, can stay in it after 65, and leave it if you start permanent aged care at home or in residential care after turning 65.
NDIS and School
Schools are responsible for a student's learning and the adjustments needed to take part in school. The NDIS funds supports for the everyday impact of disability, mostly outside the classroom, with a few supports that can reach into the school day.
NDIS Audit
An independent quality audit of a registered or applying NDIS provider against the NDIS Practice Standards, carried out by an approved quality auditor under the oversight of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
NDIS Claim Types
Claim types tell the NDIA what kind of activity a payment request is for under a support item, such as the support itself, provider travel, a short notice cancellation, non face to face work, an NDIA requested report, telehealth or irregular SIL.
NDIS Code of Conduct
A set of rules for how everyone who delivers NDIS supports must behave, from large registered organisations to independent support workers. It covers rights, privacy, safety, honesty, raising concerns, preventing abuse and sexual misconduct, and fair pricing.
NDIS Commission
The independent government agency that regulates NDIS providers and workers. It registers providers, sets quality and conduct standards, handles complaints about providers, and oversees incidents, behaviour support and restrictive practices.
NDIS Fraud
NDIS fraud is deliberately getting or using NDIS funds dishonestly, such as charging for supports that were never delivered. You can report it to the NDIS Fraud Reporting Hotline on 1800 650 717.
NDIS Holidays and Camps
The NDIS does not pay for holidays themselves, such as flights, accommodation or holiday packages, but it can fund the disability supports you need while you are away. Respite stays and some skill building camps can also be funded.
NDIS Invoice
The bill a provider sends for NDIS supports, which the participant, their plan manager or the provider itself uses to claim from the participant's plan. It needs enough detail to match the support to the plan and the price limits.
NDIS Number
Your NDIS number is the 9 digit participant number the NDIA gives you when you become a participant. Providers, plan managers and the NDIA use it to identify you and your plan.
NDIS Planner
An NDIA staff member, also called a delegate, who makes decisions about your NDIS plan on behalf of the NDIA's CEO, including what is funded and approving the plan.
NDIS Practice Standards
The quality and safety standards registered NDIS providers must meet, checked through an independent audit. They are organised into a core module, supplementary modules for particular supports, and a verification module for lower risk supports.
NDIS Price Guide
The common name for the official list of NDIS support items and the maximum prices that can be paid for them. For 2026/27 it is the NDIS pricing schedule, made under the Minister's pricing determination.
NDIS Progress Report
An NDIS progress report is a report from a provider, usually a therapist, that explains the supports delivered, the progress made towards the participant's goals, and what support is recommended next. It is sometimes called an end of plan report or plan reassessment report.
NDIS Provider Register
The NDIS Provider Register is the public list, kept by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, of providers registered to deliver NDIS supports. It also records banning orders and other compliance actions, and a list of SIL and platform providers waiting on a registration decision.
NDIS Provider Registration
NDIS provider registration is the process of applying to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, passing an independent audit against the NDIS Practice Standards and a suitability check, and receiving a certificate of registration.
NDIS Registration Groups
The numbered groups of supports, such as 0107 Daily Personal Activities or 0128 Therapeutic Supports, that a provider chooses when registering with the NDIS Commission. They decide which audit and which Practice Standards apply.
NDIS Residence Requirement
One of the NDIS access criteria. You must live in Australia and be an Australian citizen, a permanent visa holder, or a New Zealand citizen who holds a protected special category visa.
NDIS Supports Lists
The legal lists that set out what you can and cannot spend NDIS funding on. They have applied since 3 October 2024, under section 10 of the NDIS Act, and new versions are being consulted on in 2026.
NDIS Worker Orientation Module
A free online course from the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, called Quality, safety and you, that explains what the NDIS Code of Conduct means for workers. It is mandatory for workers of registered NDIS providers and gives you a certificate when you finish.
Neuropsychological Assessment
A detailed assessment of thinking skills such as memory, attention, planning, language and problem solving, done by a clinical neuropsychologist. It explains how a brain injury or neurological condition affects everyday life and what support would help.
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.
Non Face to Face Supports
Work a provider does for a specific participant without the participant there, such as writing a progress report or preparing a tailored resource. It can be claimed from the plan only when the rules allow it for that item and the participant agreed in advance.
Nursing (NDIS)
The NDIS can fund nursing care you need as a direct result of your disability and as part of your daily life, such as catheter, bowel, wound, feeding tube or respiratory care. Hospital, acute, palliative and short term nursing stay with the health system.
O
Occupational Therapy (OT)
Therapy that helps you do the everyday activities that matter to you, from self care to work, through skills, strategies, equipment and changes to your environment. Under the NDIS, OTs also write many of the assessments and reports the NDIA relies on.
Our Guidelines (NDIS Operational Guidelines)
Our Guidelines are the NDIA's published explanations of how it makes decisions under the NDIS Act and rules. They replaced the older Operational Guidelines and now sit on the main NDIS website.
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
PACE
The NDIA's newer computer system for building NDIS plans, recording supports and processing claims. PACE plans use my providers instead of service bookings and have 21 support categories instead of 15.
Parent and Carer Training
NDIS funding for training parents, family members and carers in how to support a participant with their disability, such as using equipment safely, communication strategies or a behaviour support plan.
Participant
A person the NDIA has decided meets the NDIS access criteria. The NDIS uses the word participant instead of client or patient, because the scheme is built around you directing your own supports.
PEDI-CAT
The PEDI-CAT (Pediatric Evaluation of Disability Inventory Computer Adaptive Test) is a standardised questionnaire, usually answered by a parent, that measures a child's everyday abilities compared with other children the same age. The NDIA and early childhood partners use it to understand how a child's development affects daily life.
Peer Support
Support between people who share similar experiences of disability. It can be informal or run as a structured group or programme.
Permanent Impairment
For the NDIS, an impairment is permanent, or likely to be permanent, when there are no known, available and appropriate evidence based treatments likely to remedy it. It is one of the tests in the NDIS disability requirements.
Personal Care
Hands on help or supervision with everyday personal tasks such as showering, toileting, dressing, eating and getting in and out of bed. In the NDIS Pricing Arrangements it is called assistance with self care activities and is funded from your Core budget.
Personal Mobility Equipment
Equipment that supports or replaces your ability to move around indoors and outdoors and to transfer, such as walking aids, manual and power wheelchairs, mobility scooters, hoists and transfer devices. The NDIS can fund it when it relates to your disability and is reasonable and necessary.
Physiotherapy
Therapy focused on movement, strength, balance and managing pain, so you can move as well and as safely as possible. The NDIS funds physiotherapy that relates to your disability, while rehabilitation and treatment for medical conditions sit with the health system.
Plan
The document that sets out your goals and the NDIS funding you have for reasonable and necessary supports, how that funding is managed, and when the plan will be reassessed.
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 funding in your NDIS plan is managed and paid. There are three options: NDIA managed, plan managed by a registered plan manager, and self managed, and you can mix them across your plan.
Plan Management Fees
The fee a registered plan manager charges for managing your NDIS funding. It is paid from separate plan management funding in your plan, so it does not come out of the money for your other supports.
Plan Manager
A registered NDIS provider who manages the funding in your plan for you: they receive invoices, check them, pay your providers, claim from your plan and keep the records.
Plan Reassessment
When the NDIA looks at your plan again and either varies it or replaces it with a new plan. It happens before your plan's reassessment date, or earlier if your needs or circumstances change in a significant and ongoing way.
Plan-Managed
A way of managing NDIS funding where a registered plan manager pays your providers and keeps the records for you. You can use registered and unregistered providers, but prices must stay within the NDIS price limits.
Planning Meeting
The conversation with an NDIA planner, local area coordinator or early childhood partner where your NDIS plan is worked out: your goals, support needs, funded supports and how your funding will be managed. It is also called a plan meeting or planning conversation.
Positive Behaviour Support
An evidence, values and rights based approach that improves a person's quality of life by understanding the reasons behind their behaviour and meeting their needs, rather than punishing or simply controlling behaviour.
Pre Planning
The preparation you do before an NDIS planning meeting: thinking through your support needs and goals, logging a typical week, gathering reports and deciding how you want your funding managed, so your plan reflects your real life.
Price Limit
The maximum amount that can be paid from an NDIS plan for a particular support. Price limits apply when funding is NDIA managed or plan managed, and since 27 August 2026 they are set by the Minister for the NDIS.
Pricing Arrangements
The rules and price limits that control how much can be charged and claimed for NDIS supports. For 2026/27 they are set by the Minister in a pricing determination and the NDIS pricing schedule, which replaced the old Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document.
PRODA
PRODA (Provider Digital Access) is a Services Australia login system that lets providers securely access government online services. NDIS provider portals have moved from PRODA to myID and Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM).
Prosthetics and Orthotics
Custom made devices that replace part of the body, such as an artificial limb (a prosthesis), or support it, such as a brace, splint or custom foot orthosis (an orthosis). The NDIS can fund their assessment, design, fitting, training, maintenance and repair when they relate to your disability.
Provider
Any person or organisation paid to deliver supports or services to NDIS participants. A provider can be a large organisation, a small business or a sole trader, registered or unregistered.
Provider of Last Resort
A situation where the NDIA steps in to ensure support continues when no provider is available, often in thin markets.
Provider Travel
The NDIS rules that let some providers claim for the time their worker spends travelling to you, and for travel costs such as kilometres, tolls and parking, if you agree in advance.
Psychology
The NDIS can fund psychology that builds or maintains your functional capacity because of your disability, such as strategies for everyday tasks, emotional regulation or behaviour. It does not fund clinical treatment of a mental health condition, which is the health system's job.
Public Guardian
A state or territory appointed decision maker for someone who cannot make certain decisions and has no suitable private guardian.
Q
Quotable Supports
NDIS support items that have no set price limit. The provider gives the NDIA a quote, and the support can only be claimed once it is approved and included as a stated item in the participant's plan.
Quote
A written price from a provider for a specific item or piece of work. The NDIA needs one before it funds higher cost items such as assistive technology over $15,000 and complex home modifications, and before it adds any quotable support to a plan.
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 in section 34 of the NDIS Act that every support must pass before the NDIA can fund it in a plan. A support must relate to your disability, help with your goals, be value for money, be effective, take account of informal supports and be an NDIS support.
Reasonable Rent Contribution
The rent an NDIS participant pays to their Specialist Disability Accommodation provider, on top of the SDA funding in their plan. It is capped at 25% of the basic Disability Support Pension rate plus any Commonwealth Rent Assistance, and 25% of some supplements.
Registered Provider
A provider that has been audited against the NDIS Practice Standards, passed a suitability check and been issued a certificate of registration by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Registered providers can support every participant, including those whose plans are NDIA managed.
Regulated Restrictive Practices
Practices that restrict the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability, which the NDIS regulates closely. There are five: seclusion, chemical restraint, mechanical restraint, physical restraint and environmental restraint.
Replacement Supports
Items that are normally not NDIS supports, such as tablets, smartphones and standard household items, which the NDIA can approve you to buy with NDIS funding because they replace a support already in your plan.
Reportable Incidents
A serious event, or alleged event, connected with delivering NDIS supports that registered providers must report to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission within set timeframes, such as a death, serious injury, abuse or neglect, or an unauthorised restrictive practice.
Respite
A break for carers and the person they care for, where someone else provides support for a while. Under the NDIS, respite is funded through supports such as Short Term Accommodation, support workers at home and group activities.
Restrictive Practice
Any practice or intervention that has the effect of restricting the rights or freedom of movement of a person with disability. Under the NDIS they are tightly regulated, must be a last resort and must be authorised, planned and reported.
Reviewable Decision
A decision by the NDIA that the NDIS Act allows you to challenge, first through an internal review by the NDIA and then, if needed, through the Administrative Review Tribunal. The full list is in section 99 of the NDIS Act.
Revocation of Participant Status
A decision by the NDIA that a person is no longer an NDIS participant, usually because they no longer meet the residence, disability or early intervention requirements. It is a reviewable decision.
Roster of Care
A document, usually prepared by a Supported Independent Living provider with the participant, that sets out a typical week of support in the home, including shared and individual support and overnight support. The NDIA can use it to help decide SIL funding.
S
Safeguards
The checks and protections that keep NDIS participants safe, including worker screening, provider registration and the work of the NDIS Commission.
SCHADS Award
The Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award sets minimum pay and conditions for many disability support workers. NDIS price limits for support workers are calculated from what it costs to employ staff under it.
School Leaver Employment Supports (SLES)
School Leaver Employment Supports (SLES) are NDIS funded supports for young people in their final year of school or who have recently left, to build work skills, try different jobs and move into employment, generally for up to 2 years.
SDA Assessment
An SDA assessment is allied health evidence, usually from an occupational therapist, that shows whether you meet the eligibility rules for Specialist Disability Accommodation and recommends the design category and building type you need.
SDA Building Types
The four kinds of Specialist Disability Accommodation home set out in the SDA Rules: apartment, villa, duplex or townhouse, house, and group home. Your building type, with the design category and location, decides the SDA funding in your plan.
SDA Design Categories
The levels of specialist design that Specialist Disability Accommodation is enrolled under. New SDA is built to one of four: Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust or High Physical Support. Basic only applies to older existing and legacy homes.
SDA Provider
An organisation or person registered with the NDIS Commission to provide Specialist Disability Accommodation, the specialist housing funded by the NDIS. An SDA provider enrols each home with the NDIA and acts as landlord, separately from whoever provides support in the home.
SDA Vacancy
An available room or home in Specialist Disability Accommodation. Participants with SDA in their plan look for vacancies that match their funded design category, building type and location.
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 way of managing NDIS funding where you, your nominee or child representative pay providers and keep the records yourself. It gives the most choice, including prices above or below the price limits, but you can only buy NDIS supports in line with your plan.
Sensory Assessment
A sensory assessment, also called a sensory processing assessment, is an evaluation, usually by an occupational therapist, of how a person notices and responds to sounds, touch, movement, sights, tastes and smells, and how that affects daily life. It leads to practical strategies for home, school, work and the community.
Sensory Profile 2
The Sensory Profile 2 is a set of questionnaires that measure how a child responds to sensory experiences in everyday life, such as noise, touch and movement. Occupational therapists use it to understand sensory processing and plan strategies at home and school.
Service Agreement
A written agreement between you and a provider that sets out which supports they will deliver, when and how, what it costs, and the rules for changes, cancellations and ending the arrangement.
Service Booking
A record in the NDIS system that sets aside part of an agency managed participant’s funding for a particular provider.
Short Term Accommodation (STA)
NDIS funding for a short overnight stay away from home, with support, so you and your usual carers can have time apart. It is the main way the NDIS funds respite.
SIL (Supported Independent Living)
NDIS funding for help or supervision with daily tasks at home, for people with higher support needs who need support at all times or most of the day, often in a shared home. It pays for the support, not the housing.
Sleepover Support
Overnight support where a worker sleeps at your home for a continuous 8 hour period and is available to help if needed. The NDIS pays a flat price per night, which covers up to 2 hours of active support.
Sole Trader
An individual who runs their own business under their own ABN, a common structure for independent support workers and therapists.
Specialised Driver Training
Driving lessons with a specialised vehicle driving instructor, and training to use adapted equipment or vehicle modifications, that you need because of your disability. The NDIS can fund it when a driver trained occupational therapist recommends it.
Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)
Housing designed or modified for people with an extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. The NDIS funds the home itself, paid to a registered SDA provider, while support is funded separately.
Specialist Support Coordinator
A qualified practitioner, such as a psychologist, occupational therapist or social worker, funded at level 3 of NDIS support coordination to help participants whose situation is especially complex. They focus on reducing that complexity and getting past barriers to using the plan.
Speech Pathology
Therapy that supports communication and swallowing, from speech, language and social communication to eating and drinking safely and using communication aids. Speech pathologists are often called speech therapists.
Stated Supports
Stated supports are NDIS supports your plan describes specifically, so the funding for them can only be spent on that support. They are the opposite of flexible funding, which you can spend across a range of NDIS supports.
Substantially Reduced Functional Capacity
Substantially reduced functional capacity means your impairment stops you doing, or means you usually need help or equipment to do, at least one of six everyday activities: communication, social interaction, learning, mobility, self care or self management. It is one of the NDIS disability requirements.
Support Budget
The funding in your plan, grouped into the three categories Core, Capacity Building and Capital.
Support Catalogue
A spreadsheet published by the NDIA that lists every NDIS support item providers can claim, with its number, category, registration group, unit, price limits and the claim types allowed. It is read alongside the NDIS pricing schedule.
Support Categories
The numbered groups the NDIS uses to organise funding in a plan and to classify every support item, such as 01 Assistance with Daily Life or 15 Improved Daily Living Skills. Each sits under one of three support purposes: core, capital or capacity building.
Support Coordination Levels
The NDIS funds support coordination at three levels: support connection (level 1), coordination of supports (level 2) and specialist support coordination (level 3). Each level is for a different amount of complexity and has its own price limit.
Support Coordinator
A person funded in your NDIS plan to help you understand your plan, find and connect with providers, sort out problems and build your own skills to manage your supports. Support coordination is being redesigned, with a new service starting from 1 July 2028.
Support Determination
A legal instrument that lets the Minister for the NDIS reset funding for certain types of supports across current NDIS plans. The first ones, made on 1 October 2026, cut community participation budgets by 50% and daily living skills budgets by 10%.
Support Item Number
The unique code for each NDIS support, such as 01_011_0107_1_1, also called a line item number. Providers claim against it, and its parts show the support category, registration group, outcome domain and support purpose.
Support Ratios
A support ratio shows how many workers support how many participants at the same time. 1:1 means one worker with one person, 1:3 means one worker shared between three people, and 2:1 means two workers supporting one person.
Support Worker
A worker who gives hands on, day to day support to a person with disability, from personal care and household tasks to getting out into the community and building everyday skills.
Supported Accommodation
Housing where people with disability receive a high level of support at home. Under the NDIS it usually means Supported Independent Living in a shared home, often a group home, sometimes in Specialist Disability Accommodation.
Supported Decision Making
An approach where a person with disability gets the information, time and help they need to make their own decisions, rather than someone else deciding for them.
Supporting Evidence Form
The NDIS supporting evidence form is a form your treating health professional fills in to describe your disability and how it affects your daily life. It goes to the NDIA with your access request, as evidence that you meet the NDIS access criteria.
Supports in Employment
NDIS funded day to day help in the workplace so a participant can keep working. Formerly called specialised supported employment, it is often delivered in Australian Disability Enterprises but can be used in any workplace.
T
Taxi Subsidy Scheme
A state or territory program that pays part of the taxi fare for people with severe and permanent disability who cannot use public transport. It is run separately from the NDIS, and rules for NDIS participants vary by state.
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.
Time of Day Rates
The different NDIS price limits for support worker, accommodation and nursing supports depending on when the support is delivered: weekday daytime, evening or night, Saturday, Sunday or a public holiday.
Transport Funding
NDIS transport funding helps you get to work, study, appointments and community activities when your disability means you cannot use public transport without substantial difficulty. It sits in the Core Transport category or is paid as recurring transport.
Travel Training
Support to learn to travel on your own, most often on public transport, so you can get to work, study, appointments and activities without relying on a support worker or lifts.
Treating Health Professional
A treating health professional is a registered health practitioner who knows and treats you, such as your GP, specialist, psychologist or therapist. When you apply for the NDIS, the NDIA asks for evidence of your disability from the treating professional most appropriate to your primary disability.
U
Unregistered Provider
A business or independent worker that delivers NDIS supports without being registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Self managed and plan managed participants can use them for most supports, but not for SIL, SDA, specialist behaviour support or plan management.
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.
Vehicle Modifications
Changes to a car or van that let you travel in it, get in and out, or drive it despite your disability, such as hand controls, ramps, hoists or wheelchair restraints. The NDIS can fund them when they relate to your disability and are reasonable and necessary.
Verification Audit
The simpler of the two NDIS registration audits, for providers who only deliver lower risk, lower complexity supports. An approved quality auditor does a desktop review of your documents against the verification module of the NDIS Practice Standards.
Vineland-3
The Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, Third Edition, is a standardised assessment of the everyday skills a person uses at home, at school and in the community. The NDIA lists it as preferred evidence of functional capacity for autism and intellectual disability.
W
What the NDIS Does Not Fund
The NDIS does not pay for everyday living costs, things another system is responsible for, such as health, education and housing, or therapies that are not evidence based. Since 3 October 2024 these are set out in a legal list of supports that generally are not NDIS supports.
WHODAS 2.0
The World Health Organization Disability Assessment Schedule 2.0 is a short standardised questionnaire that measures how much a health condition or disability affects everyday functioning across six areas of life. The NDIA accepts it as evidence of functional capacity, including for psychosocial disability.
Worker Screening
A national background check, done by your state or territory worker screening unit, that decides whether a person is cleared or excluded from working in risk assessed roles with NDIS participants. A clearance lasts 5 years and is recognised across Australia.
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.
Y
Yard Maintenance
NDIS funded help with basic upkeep of your yard, such as mowing, weeding, pruning and clearing paths, when your disability means you cannot do it yourself. It is a household task funded from your Core budget, and the NDIS pays for the labour, not plants or tools.
Young People in Residential Aged Care
The national effort, often called YPIRAC, to stop people under 65 entering residential aged care and help those already there move to age appropriate homes with the support they need, often through the NDIS.
Social Skills Groups
Small group programs, often run by speech pathologists, psychologists, occupational therapists or skilled support workers, that teach social and communication skills. The NDIS can fund them from Capacity Building where reasonable and necessary.