By Tina Kraja
This article is part of My Plan Manager's guest blogger series.
I want to share how to budget. I hear stories from families who do not know how to share out their funding, saying things like, ‘we used it all in 3 months, there is nothing left’. This needs to change! Many people just do not understand how to budget the funds in their plans. Here are my tips for parents to plan ahead and get the most out of their child’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan.
I religiously budget down to that last dollar. I divide and conquer, quite literally. I take the full amount in my plan and I divide it by the hourly rate, so I know how many hours I have for a year. I then divide this by therapists, taking into account which therapist we will use fortnightly and who will be more beneficial to use weekly. This way I know exactly how many appointments to book for each therapist, so I get the most out of my plan without overspending.
I search for good therapists who are flexible to stretch my hours, for instance my physio and occupational therapist (OT) for my six-year-old both do 45 minute appointments, which saves us 30 minutes a week compared to having 1-hour appointments. This means we then get an extra hour a month to use on a weekend group session. Look out for those added extras, like travel charges. These can certainly eat into your funding, so have a look for providers that don’t charge for travel, or go to the office for appointments, as long as it won’t be too tiring for your child or too disruptive to their routine.
I study the school terms and see where our appointments fall. If we do weekly appointments, I might cancel week 10 as most kids finish early and have a fun day that Friday so OT is pointless this day. For speech therapy, my daughter will be so overwhelmed at the beginning of term 1 that weekly will be too much, but in term 2 and 3 she will be more settled, so more therapy is ok.
There are some other things you can consider to make every dollar go further. Some therapists hold appointments at the school and do not charge travel.
Weekend group sessions are cheaper with our Occupational Therapist, so they are a good option for both the budget and for extra social skills outside of school. We pay for an hour with both the OT and Physiotherapist.
Therapy tools can be purchased cheaply from retail giants like Kmart – just do some online research.
Visit the Special Education Resource Unit (SERU) and toy libraries for therapy tools also.
If you are finding that you’re still struggling to make your funds last you can ask your GP about a Medicare chronic disease management plan or mental health care plan. These can help cover part of the cost of therapy appointments – but they are separate to the NDIS, which means you may need to pay a gap yourself. You can find out more about chronic disease management plans or mental health care plans on the Department of Health website.
My Plan Manager also has some advice about keeping your plan in good health and what to do if you’re overspending.
Don’t let that money fester because you are on a waiting list, get on lots of lists, ask on social platforms. Use My Plan Manager to help you see the most used therapists and ensure you have continuity of therapy. We asked our school which organisations regularly visit, as we knew they were likely trusted in the industry.
Don’t be scared - be smart!
Tina is a mum of two girls: Miss 6, who is on the Autism Spectrum level 2 and also has Sensory Processing Disorder, severe phonological speech delay and severe anxiety, and Miss 8, who has severe anxiety and has recently been referred for an assessment. Tina loves numbers and is passionate about helping other families to get the most out of their NDIS plans. She is studying to be an individual disability support worker and is awaiting the world to return to normal so she can do some work experience and get her certificate 3. Tina has been a client of My Plan Manager for two years.
Are you looking for more control over your National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan? Both plan-managed and self-managed options give you a lot more control than agency-management – which is probably the reason these have now overtaken agency management as the most popular choice. NDIS participants who choose self-management or plan-management have access to around four times as many providers, but what are the real differences between plan-managing and self-managing?
By choosing to self-manage your NDIS funding, you do everything yourself. You are in full control over your supports and all the finances. You can engage any provider (NDIS registered or non-registered), and you are not bound by the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. However, this does come with a few extra responsibilities that being agency or plan managed doesn’t.
You can access services such as book-keeping or support coordination out of your core budget to assist you to self-manage. You need to make sure you request extra funds to cover this when you have your planning meeting.
You like to be in full control of your NDIS funding and manage all the administrative tasks such as paying your providers, keeping your records and claiming from the NDIS portal, self-management is a great option for you.
If you choose plan management, you get similar benefits to self management but you don’t have to do any of the admin for your plan. You can use both registered and non-registered providers but are bound by the upper price limits in the NDIS price guide.
Plan Management is free to all NDIS participants, with all fees paid by the NDIS. A good plan manager provides tools and technology to help you keep on top of your spending.
Plan managers are NDIS-registered providers who provide financial administrative services to NDIS participants. Independent plan managers like My Plan Manager specialise in providing plan management services and do not provide any other services to NDIS participants.
You like to be in control of your NDIS funding and choose from a wide range of providers, but don’t want to worry about keeping records or paying your providers.
Find out more about what a good plan manager does in Wait... what does a plan manager actually do?
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) is described as insurance for the nation – insurance that’s helping to build inclusive communities for Australia’s 25 million residents and fund support for more than 500,000 Scheme participants.
A program of the size and scope of the NDIS requires a lot of different people to implement it, and it can be tricky to understand what they all do.
This article outlines five key roles in the NDIS and what they do to support you at different stages in your journey – from when you first discover the Scheme to when you have a plan reassessment.
A planner is a person who works for the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) and is a delegated decision maker. They determine what funding you’ll receive in a plan.
| Awareness | After you’ve gained access to the NDIS, you’ll be linked with an NDIA planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) to develop a plan in relation to your goals. |
| Planning | If you’re initially linked with a LAC, after they’ve met with you at a planning meeting, gathered your information and submitted it to the NDIA, the LAC and the NDIA planner will collaborate by discussing the information gathered and reviewing any progress reports, quotes, and recommendations provided to determine plan funding. The NDIA planner will also approve your plan. A planner can play the role of a LAC as well. For example, many clients with more complicated supports deal directly with a planner instead of a LAC. |
| Using a plan | NDIA planners can help you to understand and implement your plan if you don’t have a LAC. |
| Plan reassessment | NDIA planners conduct participant check-ins, run plan reassessment meetings, and approve plans. |
If you decide you don’t need a LAC to apply for access to the NDIS, once you’ve met access requirements, the NDIA will either allocate you to a LAC who will send you an invitation to a planning meeting, or you may be allocated directly to an NDIA planner. If you’re allocated to a LAC, you can’t opt out to work with an NDIA planner instead.
Local Area Coordinators (LACs) are people with a deep understanding and knowledge of disability and its impact on individuals, families, and carers.
| Pre-access to the NDIS | LACs hold a range of discussions to help you understand and access the NDIS. They talk to people who haven’t heard of the Scheme, who want to know more, or who want help applying. If you’re thinking about applying for access to the NDIS and are aged seven to 64 years, the first step you can take is to contact a LAC. This is completely up to you. If you’re not eligible for the NDIS or don’t want to apply, a LAC can link you to services in the community (like community centres and volunteer transport services) to help you participate in day-to-day life. |
| Planning | Once you have access to the NDIS, your LAC will contact you to conduct a planning meeting where they will gather information to start creating a plan. They’ll send the plan they draft to an NDIA planner for consideration, and the planner will either approve it or recommend changes. LACs cannot approve NDIS plans, but they can put forward recommendations in a draft. They can also connect you mainstream services to help you participate in day-to-day life. |
| Using a plan | If a plan is approved and you don’t agree with what’s in it, or it doesn’t meet your needs, your LAC can help you to identify your review rights and next steps. A LAC can also help you to understand and implement your plan. |
| Plan reassessment | A LAC will conduct a plan reassessment meeting where you and they will reflect on what’s working well for you, what you’d like to change, and how you can use your NDIS plan to achieve your plan goals. They can help you prepare for a plan reassessment. If you don’t know what your goals are before your plan reassessment, you can develop new goals with your LAC in the meeting. |
Click here to find the closest LAC office to you. There is zero out-of-pocket cost to access their services.
Early Childhood Partners (ECPs) deliver the early childhood approach and are funded by the NDIA. The NDIA’s ECPs have teams of professionals with experience and clinical expertise in working with young children with developmental delay or disability, as well as their families and carers.
| Awareness | ECPs can connect a child, their family and carers to local mainstream and community services like playgroups, childcare providers, parent support groups, education options and recreation. They may also provide practical information about a child’s development. ECPs use observations and information from assessments or reports to understand the impact of a child’s delay or disability – but they don’t complete assessments for diagnosis. They can identify if a child is likely to benefit from early support and, where appropriate, provide a short period of early supports to help a child and their family work towards goals. ECPs can also assist a child’s parent or carer to apply to access the NDIS on the child’s behalf. They can help put together information and evidence to help work out if a child is eligible to access the Scheme. |
| Planning | Once a child and their family have access to the NDIS, the ECP will contact them to conduct a planning meeting where they will gather information to start creating a plan. They’ll send the plan they draft to an NDIA planner for consideration, and the planner will either approve it or recommend changes. |
| Using a plan | If a plan is approved and a child’s family doesn’t agree with what’s in it or it doesn’t meet their needs, an ECP can help them to identify their review rights and next steps. An ECP can also help to understand and implement a plan and connect a child, their family, and carers to mainstream services. |
| Plan reassessment | ECPs conduct plan reassessment meetings where they reflect on what’s working well for a child, their family, and carers, what they'd like to change, and how they can use their NDIS plan to achieve their goals. They can help prepare for a plan reassessment. If the goals are unclear before a plan reassessment, new goals can be developed in the reassessment meeting. ECPs also conduct participant check-ins. |
If you have concerns about your child’s development, you can first speak to your doctor, child health nurse, or other health professional. They’ll help you work out what supports you and your child may need, and they may connect you with an early childhood partner.
A support coordinator is a plan-funded support delivered by NDIS providers (both registered and non-registered).
While a LAC is a starting point if you want to request access to the NDIS, seek help to gather information, or have a plan implemented, if you require extra support, that’s when you may turn to a support coordinator.
A LAC is free, whereas a support coordinator is funded in an NDIS plan and has a stronger focus on capacity building.
| Awareness | A support coordinator comes into the picture later. |
| Planning | A support coordinator comes into the picture later. |
| Using a plan | If a plan is approved and you don’t agree with what’s in it, or it doesn’t meet your needs, your support coordinator can help you to identify your review rights and next steps. A support coordinator may assist you to: • understand and use your NDIS plan to pursue your goals • connect with NDIS-registered and unregistered providers, community supports, and government services • build your confidence and skills to coordinate and leverage your supports |
| Plan reassessment | If you have a support coordinator, they’ll support you in a plan reassessment meeting where you’ll reflect on what’s working well for you, what you’d like to change, and how you can use your NDIS plan to achieve your goals. They can help you prepare for the meeting. If you think your goals need to be reviewed before your plan reassessment, you can develop new goals with your support coordinator. |
To access a support coordinator, you’ll need to have support coordination funded in your NDIS plan. A good NDIA planner or LAC will automatically identify this need when your plan is being developed – however, you may need to request this service to ensure you receive appropriate supports.
If you initially planned with a LAC and you have a plan approved that includes support coordination, your LAC will contact you and ask if you have chosen a support coordinator who you want to work with. If you haven’t, they can assist you to find one.
Here’s some information about finding a support coordinator.
A plan manager is a provider that supports you to manage funding in your NDIS plan. My Plan Manager is Australia’s largest (and leading!) plan management provider.
| Awareness | We come into the picture later, but you may see us out in the local community explaining how we can support you by taking plan management off your plate and letting you focus on what’s important – growing capacity to achieve your plan goals. |
| Planning | Once you have access to the NDIS, your NDIA planner or LAC will discuss plan management with you in your planning meeting. If you tell them you want to be plan managed, they’ll put that forward to for approval by the NDIS. |
| Using a plan | At My Plan Manager, we process your invoices, reduce time-consuming paperwork, and support you to quickly and simply track your NDIS plan spending. We also work with you to maximise your NDIS plan and ensure it includes the important items that really make a difference to achieving your goals. We have a dedicated team of NDIS experts who can advise you on what supports, services and providers you can access through your funding, giving you the confidence and certainty to use your plan. We can also help you to find the right providers and, if ever you happen to run out of funding in one category, we can show you the different categories you may be able to claim from. We can help you to budget your plan to ensure you have supports in place for its entire duration. And we check that providers aren’t charging you more than the rates set out in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (formerly known as the NDIS Price Guide), which lists the maximum prices that registered providers can charge for specific supports. |
| Plan reassessment | Here’s our advice on how to prepare for a plan reassessment. |
An NDIA planner or LAC will first discuss plan management in a planning meeting once you have been approved to access the NDIS. If you tell them you want to be plan managed, they’ll put that forward for approval by the NDIS.
If you’re already funded for plan management and would like to join My Plan Manager, click here.
If you’re not happy with your existing plan manager, you have every right to change. Click here to switch to My Plan Manager.
If you have any questions, we’ll happily assist. You can email us at [email protected] or call us on 1800 861 272 from 8am-6pm (SA time), Monday to Friday to speak with our friendly team.
Getting set up for National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) plan management is easy - you just need to ask your NDIA planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) to set up your plan as plan managed and include plan management funding in your budget at your initial planning meeting or review meeting. If your plan has already started you can contact the NDIS to ask for a light touch review.
You can access our guide to plan management here.
This is the perfect time to learn about plan management and how it can help you once you have your plan. Here are some tips for getting your NDIS plan if you haven’t applied for the NDIS yet.
Once you start the planning process you’ll need to do some preparation – My Plan Manager’s budget calculator can help you to work out how much funding you may need. When you attend your planning meeting with your NDIA planner or LAC, to have plan management included in your plan all you need to do is ask. Plan management is free to you and your planner will include funding in your plan to cover our fees.
Your current plan is about to finish and you now have to reflect on what went well in your last plan and what you might like to change. You might want to consider what providers you want to use in next plan to achieve your goals. Being plan managed will give you access to all providers and businesses across Australia. If you want to be plan managed simply ask your planner or LAC to include funding for plan management in your budget.
If you're mid-way through your plan and you're agency or self managed but want to make the switch to plan management, you will have to contact your planner or LAC and request they do a 'light touch' review to add plan management.
If plan management funding is included in your NDIS plan, you can go ahead and sign up with a plan manager. My Plan Manager offers quick and easy online sign-up. You’ll need to fill in all your details, then read and accept our service agreement. You can also sign up over the phone with one of our Welcome team members. It’s really helpful if you can give us a copy of your NDIS plan so we can make sure your budget allocations are right when we set up your account.
If you are switching from another plan manager during the dates of your current plan, there are some steps you need to take first:
Then, to sign up with My Plan Manager: Call us and we’ll get you set up over the phone or quickly and easily register online.
By now, you may already know that plan management is one of four fund management options available to National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants (the others are agency management, self management, or a combination of two or more options).
And, if you’ve been plan managed for a while, you’re probably aware of some of the upsides – like being able to access more providers and having someone on hand to take time-consuming paperwork off your plate.
But at My Plan Manager, there’s a lot more to what we do – and that translates into a whole lot more that our clients and their supports can expect from us!
We believe that utilising our services to their full capacity is your basic right as a customer. Our core responsibility is to support our clients to manage their NDIS funds, and to educate them about the opportunities, resources and services available, so they’re better supported to exercise choice and control in every area of life.
We’re Australia’s largest (and leading!) plan management service, and we’ve been around the longest too! That means we’ve learned a lot along the way and refined our systems and processes so they’re the best in the business.
Not all plan managers are created equal, and that’s why choice and control is everything! Weighing up your options? Here’s just a few of the benefits of life as a My Plan Manager client.
We see NDIS plans every single day – hundreds, if not thousands of them come across our desks each week, so our people know the ins and outs of using them effectively and maximising every dollar. We also have a commitment to ensuring you have the opportunity to achieve your goals, like every other Australian, and that vision drives every aspect of our business.
If you have a sticky question about your plan – like what it will fund or how to use it – we’re here to answer it. No question is too tricky for our plan management experts, who’ll give you more confidence and certainty with using your plan.
Budgeting your NDIS funding can help you to access the supports you need for the entire duration of your plan. Here’s how we can help you do this:
This can create a clearer picture of how much funding you have available to spend with the providers you want to use.
If you haven’t had this conversation with us, it’s not too late to get in touch. If one of your budgets is running low, we’ll send you an SMS to let you know, and we can have a conversation about what to do next – like what other budgets you may be able to claim from.
We can also work with you to lock in service agreements with providers, which basically locks in funding to access them for the period of time you want. This can create confidence and certainty with using their services, because you and they know right from the start that there’s funding set aside.
It’s true – a plan manager exists to remove time-consuming paperwork so you can focus on what’s important, like growing capacity to achieve the outcomes you’re after. However, just one of the many things that sets great plan managers apart from the rest is the technology they use to support clients to self service and gain greater oversight of their funding.
At My Plan Manager, we’ll help you to track plan spending, see your budget in a snapshot and check the payment status of invoices to give you more control over your plan. This all happens via our simple-to-use client portal and mobile app, which show your budget in real time whenever you want to access it.
Our tech tools will also give you complete visibility of how much funding you have left, to help avoid a budget blow out. For the clearest picture of your funds, we recommend referring to the budgets we’ve set up with you and to the client portal/mobile app.
We scrutinise every invoice to make sure providers aren’t charging more than the rates set out in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (formerly known as the NDIS Price Guide). Our technology is the most sophisticated system in the sector and allows 32 checks (and counting) to be completed on every invoice, to provide confidence that your finances are in safe hands.
We can also help you to verify the services you’ve been invoiced for, and to make sure they’re being billed against the correct budgets. You can also let us know if you have any concerns about invoices or the charges being made by your providers, and we’ll happily assist you.
Today, there are more than half a million Australians participating in the NDIS, and a substantial number of those people and their families place their trust and confidence in My Plan Manager. They invite us into their lives to assist them with managing their funding, and to educate them about the opportunities, resources and services available to them, so they are better supported to exercise choice and control in every area of life.
However, our role also brings with it a responsibility to promote and protect the rights and dignity of people with disability, and to ensure their voices are heard and prioritised in every discussion about them. It is through this lens that My Plan Manager actively promotes an environment of zero tolerance of violence, abuse, neglect and exploitation of people with disability.
We know that people with significant or profound disability are particularly vulnerable to systemic and opportunistic harm, and we’re often their first line of defence in raising concerns about actual and potential risks. That’s why we proactively work to detect and report vulnerability, safety and safeguarding concerns, to improve outcomes for the thousands of Australians with disability who we support.
We work to promote and protect the rights of people with disability and to ensure their voices are heard. If you have concerns about fraud, if something goes wrong with your supports or services, or if you’re at risk of danger, we’re here to listen, and we can provide guidance on who to report to and how.
With your permission, we can speak with your providers to improve the invoicing process. This includes meeting Australian Taxation Office and NDIA requirements, and providing every piece of information we require upfront to avoid a payment delay which may impact their services.
If you’re a client of My Plan Manager, we hope this information has reinforced your decision to entrust your plan to Australia’s largest (and leading!) plan manager. If you’re not yet a client, we hope it’s given you confidence and certainty with choosing a plan manager that’s right for you.
If you have any questions, or if you want to know more about the services we offer at My Plan Manager, be sure to call or email us:
Existing clients – email [email protected] or call us on 1800 861 272 from 8am-6pm (SA time), Monday to Friday.
Not a client? Email [email protected] or call us on 1800 934 170 from 8am-6pm (SA time), Monday to Friday.
Managing your National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) funding to achieve a perfect spend is challenging. If you find yourself at the end of your plan with funding left over, here are three helpful things to know.
Firstly, it’s important to know unspent funds won’t be rolled over from your current NDIS plan into your next one.
So, does that mean you should spend as much as you can while you can? Well, if you have time before your plan ends, there’s no reason why you shouldn’t access services and supports with your funding. But if you don’t have time, it’s a good idea to think about why funds were underspent in preparation for your next plan reassessment. Doing so will help you to make clear for your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or NDIS planner what your reasonable and necessary needs are so your next plan supports you and your goals!
Everyone’s individual circumstances are unique, but there are some common reasons why funding goes unspent. Do any of these apply to you?
Record the reasons why there are left over funds in your NDIS plan and share them with your LAC or planner. You might also find it helpful to use the My Plan Manager budget calculator to make a personalised budget to inform your plan reassessment. Your budget will show your LAC or planner what funding you require to meet your needs and achieve your goals when you have your supports, services and providers in place.
Your providers can also provide you with reports to share with your LAC or planner. The reports can detail any periods you were unable to access services, and what ongoing support they recommend and why.
Engaging a support coordinator and a plan manager (like My Plan Manager!) can assist you to understand your plan, to find the right service providers and to keep on top of your budgets so you don’t underspend or overspend your funds next time. Consider talking to your LAC or planner about including funding for support coordination and plan management in your next plan, and learn more about what My Plan Manager can do for you here.
