What SIL covers
SIL is help and supervision with everyday tasks in the home, delivered by support workers, with the aim of building your independence. Depending on your needs it can include:
- Personal care, such as showering, dressing and toileting
- Preparing meals and help with eating
- Cleaning, laundry and other household tasks
- Help with medication and health routines
- Building daily living skills, such as budgeting and cooking
- Overnight support, either active overnight or sleepover
Who SIL is for, and what is not SIL
SIL suits people with higher support needs who need support at all times, or for most of the day. It is often delivered in a shared home, where some support is shared between housemates.
It is not SIL if you only get a few hours of support a day or a week, or if you choose and manage your own support workers, including directing, planning and rostering them. Those arrangements are funded in other ways, such as assistance with daily life or an Individualised Living Option.
What SIL does not pay for
SIL funds support, not housing or living costs. You pay rent, food, utilities and personal costs from your own income. If you live in Specialist Disability Accommodation, the NDIS funds the specialist home separately, and you pay a reasonable rent contribution to the SDA provider.
How SIL funding works
SIL sits in the Core part of your plan. It is funded for you individually, but in a shared home some support is shared with housemates. The NDIA uses evidence about your needs, and often a roster of care from the provider, to work out what is reasonable and necessary.
Most people are funded at standard intensity. Higher intensity applies if you need workers with extra qualifications or experience. Plans can also include a small number of irregular support days for times you unexpectedly need support at home, such as when you are unwell.
To ask for SIL for the first time, or to change it, you usually use the home and living supporting evidence form with evidence from allied health professionals.
SIL providers must be registered from 1 July 2026
Since 1 July 2026, SIL providers must be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission under registration group 0138, assistance with supported independent living. Unregistered providers already delivering SIL had to apply by 1 October 2026 to keep delivering it while their application is assessed. Plan managers have been told to only pay SIL invoices from providers who are registered or have applied.
Registered SIL providers must also meet new SIL Practice Standards, covering supported decision making, safeguarding, practice governance, and agreements about tenancy, housing and support arrangements.
SIL and the October 2026 funding reset
Help in your home, such as personal care, meals, cleaning and medication, is not affected by the 2026 funding reset. But some daytime support for people in SIL is funded from community participation budgets, which are reduced by 50% when a plan is created, reassessed or renewed from 1 October 2026.
If you receive 24 hour funded disability support and your plan had $215,030 or more across daily life, home and living and community participation before the reset, you can ask for a high support needs plan variation within 90 days of the reset being applied. Only you or your nominee can ask, and the NDIA cannot start it for you.
Choosing a SIL provider
- Check registration on the NDIS Commission's Find a registered provider search, and ask about group 0138
- Ask how they will support your goals, not only your care
- Ask how rosters, ratios and overnight support will work for you
- Meet the house and housemates, and ask how decisions in the home are made
- Read the service agreement carefully, including how to leave