What it covers
Assistance with Daily Life is usually the biggest part of a Core budget. It covers help with, or supervision of, the tasks of daily life, at home and sometimes in the community:
- Personal care: showering, toileting, dressing, grooming, eating and help with medication
- Household tasks: cleaning, laundry, linen services and basic yard maintenance
- Meal preparation and delivery
- Overnight support, including sleepover support
- High intensity support for complex needs such as tube feeding, complex bowel care or catheter care
- Short term accommodation, often used for respite
Where it sits in your plan
It is Core support category 01. Core funding is usually flexible, so a single Core amount can cover assistance with daily life, transport, consumables and community participation, and you choose how to spread it within the plan's descriptions.
In plans made in the NDIA's PACE system, some home and living supports, such as Supported Independent Living, can appear in a separate Core category called Home and Living, category 16.
2026/27 price limits
Support worker help is priced per hour, by time of day. The standard price limits for assistance with self care activities in most of Australia, from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026/27, are:
- Weekday daytime: $73.58
- Weekday evening: $81.07
- Weekday night: $82.57
- Saturday: $103.54
- Sunday: $133.50
- Public holiday: $163.46
- Night time sleepover: $311.79 a night
- High intensity, weekday daytime: $79.60
- House cleaning and other household activities: $60.10
Daily life help or skills training?
Assistance with Daily Life pays for someone to help you with, or do, a task. Teaching you to do it yourself is skills training, funded from improved daily living skills in Capacity Building. Many people have both, and good providers look for chances to build independence while they help.
Protected from the 2026 funding reset
The government lists supports in the home, such as help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry, cleaning, community nursing and medication, among the supports not affected by the October 2026 reset. Only social, economic and community participation and improved daily living skills budgets are reduced.
If you receive 24 hour support and your plan is reduced by the reset, a separate high support needs plan variation pathway may help protect that support.
Registration from 2027
From 1 July 2027 mandatory registration starts expanding to higher risk supports, and the government lists personal care and daily living supports as examples. All providers in scope must be registered by December 2030, and the final list is still being worked out. Once the rules apply to a support, you will need a registered provider for it however your plan is managed. Until then, self managed and plan managed participants can use unregistered providers.
Choosing a provider
- Ask about experience with your disability and any specific training you need
- Check workers hold an NDIS worker screening clearance
- Agree times, tasks and cancellation terms in a service agreement
- Ask for a consistent small team if that matters to you
- Ask about registration plans if you use an independent worker for personal care