The three ways to manage your funding
Plan management is about who handles the money, not which supports you get. Your budgets are the same whichever option you choose. What changes is who pays providers, which providers you can use and how much paperwork you do.
- NDIA managed (agency managed): the NDIA pays your providers directly. Every provider must be registered with the NDIS Commission, and prices cannot go above the price limits
- Plan managed: a registered plan manager receives invoices, pays providers and keeps records. You can use registered and unregistered providers, but prices must stay within the price limits
- Self managed: you pay providers and claim from your plan. You can use any provider and agree prices above or below the limits, but you do the admin and keep the records
Mixing options
You do not have to choose one option for everything. Many people self manage the supports they buy most often, use a plan manager for therapy and equipment, and leave some supports NDIA managed. Some supports, such as SDA, have their own rules about how they are paid.
Comparing the options
- Choice of providers: NDIA managed is registered only. Plan managed and self managed include unregistered providers and independent workers
- Price limits: NDIA managed and plan managed are bound by them. Self managed is not
- Paperwork: lowest for NDIA managed, low for plan managed, highest for self managed
- Cost to you: none for any option. Plan management is paid from separate funding the NDIA adds to your plan, up to $104.45 a month in 2026/27
- Records: participants and plan managers must keep NDIS payment records for 3 years
How the NDIA decides
You tell the NDIA how you want your funding managed at your planning meeting, and you can ask to change it at any time. If you only want to change how your funding is managed, it is usually done as a plan variation, although adding or removing plan management funding may need a reassessment.
The NDIA can decide that some or all of your funding is NDIA managed if you do not choose, or if self managing or using a plan manager would pose an unreasonable risk to you. If that happens, it must tell you why.
Which option suits you
- Choose NDIA managed if you want no admin and are happy to use registered providers only
- Choose plan managed if you want wide choice of providers, including independent support workers, without doing the paperwork yourself
- Choose self managed if you want the most control over who you use and what you pay, and you are organised with invoices and claims
- Ask for capacity building support in your plan if you want to learn to self manage over time
What is changing
- From 1 December 2026: claims must be made within 90 days of the support, for self managed and plan managed funding
- From 1 April 2027: under new framework plans, plan management can be added separately from the assessment of your support needs, if you ask and are eligible
- From 1 October 2027: plan managers will come from a government approved panel. If yours is not on it, you will have 6 months to switch
- From 1 July 2027: mandatory registration starts expanding to higher risk supports such as personal care, which will narrow the unregistered options for those supports over time