Who counts as a carer
A carer is anyone who gives unpaid help to a person with disability, a medical condition, mental illness or frailty. It might be a parent, partner, child, sibling, friend or neighbour. Paid support workers are not carers in this sense, even though people sometimes call them that.
The NDIS Act says the role of families, carers and other significant people in the lives of people with disability is to be acknowledged and respected, and so is the relationship between people with disability and their families and carers.
How the NDIS treats the help carers give
The NDIS calls unpaid help from family, friends and community informal support. When the NDIA decides whether a support is reasonable and necessary, it considers what it is reasonable to expect families, carers, informal networks and the community to provide. NDIS funding is meant to sit alongside that help, not replace the bond you have with the people close to you.
The NDIA also looks at whether the caring arrangement is sustainable. It considers:
- How old the carer is and their capacity to keep providing support
- Whether other family and community members can help
- The intensity and type of support needed, and whether it is appropriate for a family member to give
- The long term health, safety and wellbeing of the carer
- That a child should not have their schooling affected because they provide care
Carers of children
Parents are expected to provide most of the care that any child of the same age needs. The NDIS funds the extra support a child needs because of their disability. From 1 February 2027 the law spells out what parents are expected to provide anyway, including supervision, personal care, transport, emotional support and behavioural support, and it does not include the extra support a child needs because of disability compared with children of a similar age. The NDIA must also consider the risk of harm to families and informal supports if a support is not funded.
NDIS supports that help carers
The NDIS funds supports for the participant, but many of them also help the people who care for them:
- Short term accommodation, which includes what used to be called respite, giving the participant a change of scene and the carer a break
- Support workers for personal care or community access, so family are not doing everything
- Training for family and carers, for example in mealtime support, manual handling or behaviour support strategies
- Support coordination, to take some of the organising load off family
- Assistive technology and home modifications that make caring safer
Carers in planning and reassessment
You can bring your carer to your planning meeting or reassessment, and it helps the NDIA to hear from them directly. Carers can describe what they do across a typical day and night, what is getting harder and what would happen if they could no longer help. Changes in informal support, such as a carer becoming unwell or moving away, can count as a significant and ongoing change for an unscheduled reassessment.
Being a carer does not automatically make you a nominee. A plan nominee or a child representative has legal authority to act for the participant, which is a separate arrangement.
Help for carers outside the NDIS
Carers can get support in their own right, whether or not the person they care for is an NDIS participant.
- Carer Gateway: an Australian Government program with free services for carers, including counselling, coaching, peer support, online skills courses, planned and emergency respite and tailored support packages. Call 1800 422 737
- Carer Payment: an income support payment from Services Australia if you give constant care to someone with disability or a medical condition, or an adult who is frail aged
- Carer Allowance: a supplementary payment if you care for someone who needs daily support
- Your GP, for your own health and wellbeing