Support purposes: core, capital and capacity building
Every support category sits under one of three support purposes, which you may know as the budgets in your plan:
- Core: supports for everyday activities, such as personal care, transport, consumables and community access
- Capital: investments such as assistive technology, home modifications and Specialist Disability Accommodation
- Capacity building: supports that build your skills and independence, such as therapy, support coordination and plan management
The 21 support categories in PACE
Plans made in the NDIA's PACE system use these category numbers and names. Older plans used 15 categories, some with slightly different names, such as Improved Relationships instead of Relationships.
- Core: 01 Assistance with Daily Life, 02 Transport, 03 Consumables, 04 Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation, 16 Home and Living, 21 Young People in Residential Aged Care cross billing
- Capital: 05 Assistive Technology, 06 Home Modifications, 17 Specialist Disability Accommodation, 19 Assistive Technology Maintenance, Repair and Rental
- Recurring: 18 Recurring Transport
- Capacity building: 07 Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches, 08 Improved Living Arrangements, 09 Increased Social and Community Participation, 10 Finding and Keeping a Job, 11 Relationships, 12 Health and Wellbeing, 13 Lifelong Learning, 14 Choice and Control, 15 Improved Daily Living Skills, 20 Behaviour Support
How categories affect what you can spend
Your plan sets funding at the category level, and each category can be described as flexible or stated. Flexible funding lets you choose any NDIS supports that fit the category description. Stated funding must be spent exactly as the plan describes.
You cannot move funding between funding components, for example from capacity building into core. Funding periods, usually 3 months, also apply to many categories, so check how much is available now, not just the yearly total.
Categories and the 2026 funding reset
The support determinations made on 1 October 2026 reduce two types of supports when a plan is created, reassessed or renewed: social, economic and community participation supports by 50%, and improved daily living skills supports by 10%. Some supports inside those groups are protected, including supports in employment and high intensity supports. Other categories, such as help in your home, are not affected.
Categories, registration groups and the NDIS supports lists
Three different numbering systems often get mixed up:
- Support categories (01 to 21): how plan funding is organised and claimed. They are the first part of a support item number
- Registration groups (four digits, such as 0107 Daily Personal Activities): what a registered provider is approved to deliver by the NDIS Commission. They are the third part of a support item number. Groups 0137 for NDIS digital platforms and 0138 for SIL were added in 2026
- NDIS supports lists: the legal lists under section 10 of the NDIS Act of what NDIS funding can and cannot be spent on. When made in 2024 they had 36 categories, closely following the registration groups
For providers
Check the category of every item you claim against the categories funded in the participant's plan. If the plan has no funding in that category, or the current funding period is spent, the claim will fail. The support catalogue shows both the old and PACE category for every item.