NDIS

If you’re an Australian resident with disability, you may be eligible for individualised supports through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

To apply, you must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident and be aged between seven and 64 years of age.

You must also be living with what’s considered a significant permanent disability that has an impact on different areas of your life.

There’s lots of information available for you if you want to apply for NDIS funding, including whether you’re eligible for the NDIS.

The NDIS website has lists of disabilities that are supported under the national scheme, such as List A and List B.

But these lists are only a guide. Your eligibility will be assessed based on your individual circumstances, not what label your disability has.

If you or your carers have any queries about the NDIS, you can call Glenray’s Intake team on 02 6331 2388

To apply for the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), you will need to provide information about your disability and the kinds of supports you need. You can get this information from doctors, specialists, allied health workers and disability support services.

The application process is likely to be long and involved. You’ll need to think about what services or budgets to apply for in your NDIS plan.

Part of the process is to contact the NDIS and fill in an Access Request Form.

Glenray recommends you speak to your doctor about making an application, get all your medical reports together and talk to a disability advocate.

Think about your goals for a good life. What services could you access to help you better participate in society? What supports could help meet your needs?

What disability will you choose to present as a primary disability in your application? What are other secondary disabilities do you have that you need help with to live a full and equal life?

Local Areas Coordination (LAC) partners can support you to understand and access the NDIS.

You can ask your LAC about the supports available in your community, even if you’re not eligible for an NDIS support plan.

LACs can help you to:

• Understand and access the NDIS – This can include workshops or individual conversations about the NDIS.

• Create a plan – If you are eligible for an NDIS support plan, your LAC will have a conversation with you to learn about your current situation, supports, and goals to help develop your plan. It is important to know that LACs cannot approve an NDIS plan, this is done by someone from the NDIA.

• Implement your plan – Your LAC will help you to find and start receiving the services in your NDIS plan. Your LAC can also provide assistance throughout your plan if you have any questions.

• Review your plan – Your LAC will work with you to make changes to your plan through a plan review. This generally occurs 12 months after your plan is implemented.

Linking you to information and support in your community

LACs will help you:

• Learn about support available in your local community;

• Understand how the NDIS works with other government services – this is supports like education, health, and transport;

• Sustain informal supports around you – this is family, friends and local community members.

You can find your local NDIS, LAC office by entering your postcode at this link https://www.ndis.gov.au/contact/locations or by calling 1800 800 110.

If you or your carers have any queries about the NDIS, you can call Glenray’s Intake team on 02 6331 2388

A National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan outlines your goals and aspirations for living a full and equal life. It also names what services or supports you need.

Plans can take into account your current needs and future goals.

NDIS services or supports are provided through three categories of funding you can have in an NDIS plan. These categories are Core Supports budgets, Capacity Building Supports budgets and Capital Supports budgets.

• Core Supports budgets cover everyday needs and help you work towards your goals. Daily activities, consumables, social community and civic participation, and transport are the four Core Supports categories. This budget category is flexible so you can fund and unfund services in any category while keeping your overall Core Supports budget.

• Capacity Building (CB) budgets build your independence to help you meet long-term goals. There are nine Capacity Building categories and budgets are fixed within the categories, so the funding can’t be moved to another category. The categories are: Support Coordination, CB Home Living, CB Social Community and Civic Participation, CB Employment, CB Relationships, CB Health and Wellbeing, CB Lifelong Learning, CB Choice and Control and CB Daily Activity.

• Capital Supports budgets are for specific things to help you. These supports can fall into two categories: assistive technologies or transport. These support budgets can’t be used to pay for anything else.

If you’re approved for the NDIS, your plan will change as you grow and your needs change.

The NDIS website, support organisations and planners can help you think about what to include in your NDIS plan.

Local area support coordinators can also help you, especially if you want to refine plans that already exist.

If you or your carers have any queries about the NDIS, you can call Glenray’s Intake team on 02 6331 2388

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funds activities it considers are reasonable and necessary for you to fully participate in life.

These activities can be education, employment, social participation, independence, living arrangements and health and wellbeing services.

To be considered reasonable and necessary, the NDIS says these supports should be:

• related to your disability

• be value for money

• be likely to be effective and work for you

• take into account supports you already receive from the government, your family, carers, support networks and the community

• not include day-to-day living costs not related to your disability support needs

When working out whether you should ask for supports ask yourself, does this:

• help me pursue my goals, objectives and aspirations

• increase my independence

• increase my participation in work or the community

• develop my capacity to take part in the community

If you have an NDIS plan or are updating the one you have, remember you can get help working out what services can be covered by your budgets.

If you or your carers have any queries about the NDIS, you can call Glenray’s Intake team on 02 6331 2388

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) may fund your services and supports, but these are unlikely to be the only funded services you can access. You can get state or even council funding for some of the things you do, such as access transport to attend appointments.

The NDIS also has a scheme to help you access transportation.

It’s good to keep track of what services you can access as a member of the community.

Sometimes your university or education service provider might have schemes to help out.

Other times you might rely on a family member or friend.

Remember, the NDIS is designed to help you live a full life, but it’s not the only support scheme you can access.

If you’re designing an NDIS plan or updating the one you have, remember to take into account the support you can access from other places.

If you or your supporters have any queries about the NDIS, you can call our, Intake team on 02 6331 2388