Avoiding budget blow outs and underspends

There were two participants in the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS).

The first was a keen spender. She saw her budget like free money and didn’t hesitate to use it. Sure, she was investing it to grow her capacity, but she didn’t pace her spending, which eventually left an NDIS-shaped hole in her pocket.

Because she’d burnt through her entire budget in the first six months of getting her plan, it meant that for the next six months before her plan reassessment, she had zero funds to see the providers who were vital to her quality of life. And that meant she had to lean on her family and friends (who weren’t very reliable) and constantly call in favours – even just to fill her fridge.

At the point of her plan reassessment, she’d spent thousands of dollars out of her own pocket on transport to shops and doctors’ appointments, and capacity-wise, she was pretty much back where she started.

The second participant was a conservative spender, and drastically underspent her NDIS plan funds. At her plan reassessment, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) saw she’d underutilised her budget and concluded that she didn’t need it. This meant the next plan she received had a much smaller budget, which cut out access to a raft of providers who were important to improving her quality of life*. Her new plan budget contained the bare minimum, and she hadn’t taken every opportunity to achieve her plan goals.

What these people have in common is they didn’t get help with spending their plan funds. They didn’t have expertise to structure their spending, slow them down when they overspent, or encourage them to spend more. And, because they didn’t track their budgets, they were spending in the dark without a clear picture of how much funding they had available.

If you’re a little like either of these people, or if you’ve experienced what they have, it’s not your fault. The NDIS is a huge area to unpack and understanding a plan budget and the best way to spend it can take time and experience. But what’s clear is, if you’re not utilising your NDIS plan funds correctly, you’re not taking every opportunity to reach your plan goals. This is where expertise to guide you with spending your funding is vital.

At My Plan Manager, we see plans every single day and we know the ins and outs of maximising every dollar. Getting help at the start of your plan can set you on the right track to spending, and make it work the best for you. And the good news is, we’re here to assist.

Talk to us at the start of your plan

Here are three ways we can help you to maximise your funding and avoid a budget blow out when you call us at the start of your plan.

1. We can have a conversation about what’s available in your plan and how you want to use it. Then, we can set up your budgets by asking you how many hours you anticipate utilising each support.
   
   For example, out of an $80,000 Core Supports budget, we may ask you how often you intend on getting support in your home and out in the community. This will help us support you to understand how frequently you can access supports, and help you plan for times when supports may become more expensive, like on weekends. We can also support you to understand other factors that may impact how much support you can access, like provider travel costs.
   
   Once these budgets are in place, you’ll have a clearer picture of how much you can spend with each provider you choose to access.

2. Next, we’ll help you to access our client portal/mobile app, which shows your budget in real time. This will provide complete visibility of how much funding you have available and help avoid a budget blow out. We recommend referring to the budgets that we’ve set up for you and to the client portal/mobile app for the clearest picture of your funds.

3. We’ll work with you to lock in service agreements with your providers – which basically locks in funding to use with them for the stretch of time you want. This will give you confidence and certainty that you won’t run out of funding.

Taking these steps will help set you up to think proactively about using your plan, rather than getting a call from us to let you know your funding has run out – something we never want to see for any of our clients.

Why getting help with your plan is vital – even if you’re experienced in the NDIS or have a support coordinator

We work with NDIS plans every day – and we see a lot of them! Even if you have a support coordinator, you may be able to push their knowledge further if you have a second option from a plan manager like us. A mix of expertise is valuable.

And, because we’re the biggest provider in the country (and we’ve been around the longest!), it means we do more than just plan management. Our team has a detailed knowledge of the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits and can support you to use your funding flexibly when it’s running low. For example, an iPad which supports you to access your speech therapist via telehealth could be claimed via your Core Supports or Capacity Building Supports budget. We've seen all the invoices and can advise you what the NDIS will and won't fund, and where to claim it from, whenever you need help or a second opinion.

Also, you don’t know what you don’t know. If you haven’t accessed the therapies that you’re entitled to, a therapist may not recommend assistive technology. Or, sometimes, supports in your plan have an expiry date – like mid-cost assistive technology – and if you’re not completely across this, you may miss out too. Having a conversation with us early in the picture can mean you’ll know all the requirements to have a smooth experience with purchasing technology.

We’re here to help

If you’d like to speak with us about maximising your plan, we’re here to assist. Call us on 1800 861 272 from 8am-6pm (SA time), Monday to Friday, or email [email protected].

*This scenario isn’t guaranteed to happen, but similar scenarios have happened in the past.