The Three Cs of NDIS Plans

Understanding your NDIS plan is crucial to ensuring that you can get the most out of it. There are three Cs to understand in your NDIS funding plan: Core, Capacity and Capital. These are three funding groups that your plan is split up into. You may receive funding for all three, for two, or for just one of these budget subdivisions – this will be outlined in your plan.

Let’s have a look at the three Cs:

Core Supports

Your Core Supports budget is your most versatile budget. It is designed to be flexible and is designed to help you work towards your goals. Transport, however, is less flexible. Core funding falls into four sub categories:

  • Assistance with Daily Life – can include things like house cleaning or everyday needs
  • Consumables – Everyday items like continence products or low cost equipment to improve mobility or independence
  • Transport – This can be paid upfront or in installments (depending on your plan) and is designed to help you with travel to work or other places that help you achieve your goals
  • Assistance with Social & Community Participation – can include things like a support worker to assist with social and community activities

While your core budgets are flexible and funding can be spent across the different sub categories, if a budget is not activated, you will not be able to access services from it. The most common case of this is Assistance with Daily Life not being activated, and this can mean you miss out on short term accommodation services. If these types of supports are important to you, make sure you specifically mention them in your planning meeting.

Capital Supports 

These are designed as one-off payments for higher cost pieces of assistive technology or modifications to your home or vehicle. This is the least flexible budget category and can only be used for the specific purchase and for nothing else.

It has two sub categories: Assistive technology (for equipment such as mobility or communication devices or modifications to accommodate such things) and Home modifications (for example a wheelchair ramp, or specialist disability accommodation if required).

Participants who need capital funding should come prepared with an Occupational Therapist’s (or other Allied Health Professional) report clearly outlining the need for assistive technology or capital works and, if possible, a quote for the expense. If you don’t have these things, the NDIA may fund you to get a OT assessment to determine your need and following that, provide capital funding in a future plan. To maximise your chance of accessing funding quickly, it is advisable to come prepared.

Capacity Building Supports

Capacity building supports are designed to help build independence and skills to pursue your goals. Capacity supports are less flexible than core supports and can only be used to purchase approved individual supports within that subcategory.

There are many more sub categories within capacity supports which are listed below:

  • Support Coordination – a Support Coordinator helps you manage your plan
  • Improved Living Arrangements – support for an appropriate place to live
  • Increased Social and Community Participation – development and training for skills to better participate in community, social and recreational activities
  • Finding and Keeping a Job – this can include support, training and assessments that help find and maintain employment
  • Improved Relationships – Support to develop positive behaviours for interaction with others
  • Improved Health and Wellbeing – exercise or diet management support. Doesn’t include gym memberships, however
  • Improved Learning – assistance for education, especially TAFE, Uni or other higher education
  • Improved Life Choices – Plan management to help manage funding
  • Improved Daily Living – assistance with skills to increase independence and community participation. These are delivered either in groups or individually.

Remember, capacity building supports are principally about providing the support to achieve your goals. The more time and effort you put into setting your goals, the better capacity building funding you will get for your needs. For more on this, have a look at our article explaining how the right goals are crucial to getting the right funding.

Reach Social Supports knows the importance of funding to help those who really need assistance in living and participating in their best life. Reach offers a service called Access Support wherein we are able to assist you with getting onto the NDIS and accessing the funding you require.

Reach Access Support helps you manage the process of getting onto the NDIS. We make sure you know what information you need to supply, help you to collate this information, assist you with documentation and forms, and make the process of getting on the NDIS a breeze. Unlike some others, we manage the whole process from start to finish but make sure that you are not just included, but in fact the focus of it.

Reach Access Support is a free service for eligible participants.

For more information, contact us today on 1300 982 339 or contact@reachsocialsupports.com.au