Life in and around the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has been more than a little unsettling of late, with participants and providers caught in a lightning-fast whirlwind of change that looks set to continue for a while yet.
Recently, the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) pulled one of its strongest financial management levers, announcing the introduction of funding periods to all NDIS plans created on or after 19 May this year.
While the concept of funding periods isn’t entirely new – they landed in some plans after changes were made to the NDIS Act in late 2024 – many people were caught off guard when the broader roll-out was announced with only a few weeks’ notice.
To help you catch up, we’ve pulled together all the must-know information and laid it out in this NDIS funding period explainer.
In simple terms, funding periods are blocks of time the NDIA puts into an NDIS plan to break a participant’s overall funding package (or specific components of it) into bite-sized chunks.
Some people think of funding periods as being a bit like mini plans within a plan.
Designed to help reduce the risk of overspending, maintain consistency of supports, and minimise a participant’s exposure to harm, fraud or financial exploitation, funding periods mean only part of a person’s total funding amount will be made available to them at any given time.
As an example, someone with a three-year plan might receive a block of funding every three months across the lifetime of their plan – so they’d have 12 blocks of funding allocated in total.
The NDIA has confirmed that unused funds will roll over from one funding period to the next – so those hard-fought-for dollars won’t be lost if they aren’t spent in time.
However, if a participant doesn’t use all their funding by the end of their plan, it won’t be added to the budget in their new plan.
Funding periods will take a bit of getting used to for everyone, and that’s why the NDIA is introducing them gradually by adding them to new and reassessed plans.
The Agency says it will be guided by legislation and the needs and circumstances of each participant when it decides on the periods to be applied.
When a participant gets a new plan, it will include:
This NDIS guideline explains how the NDIA includes funding in a participant's plan.
NDIA Chief Executive Officer, Rebecca Falkingham, says ‘receiving all your funding at the start of your plan can make budgeting hard’, so a new approach has been designed to reduce the risk of participants running out of funds early.
“This change will be rolled out gradually,” says Ms Falkingham. “Participants will not be impacted until they receive a new or reassessed plan following discussion with them to understand their circumstances.”
The Agency says funding periods will usually be set at three months to provide flexibility for participants while also making sure their budgets last the full duration of their plan.
“Funding periods won’t change your total funding amount, they only change when you can access your funds,” says Ms Falkingham.
When it comes to payments for things like home and living supports, Supported Independent Living (SIL) and other high-cost, regular supports, the NDIA is implementing monthly funding periods, which it says ‘better align with service delivery’.
Some participants may also see more of their total funding made available at the start of their plan if upfront costs need to be met – e.g. to purchase assistive technology, like a custom wheelchair.
Participants can find information about their funding periods in the NDIA’s participant portal, as well as in the my NDIS app and their plan document.
They can see how much funding is available, how much they’ve used, how much has been released overall, and when the next amount will become available – and with their consent, their plan managers and support coordinators can see the same information in the NDIA’s provider portal.
We all know that circumstances can change quickly for people with disability, and that means participants may require more or less funding at different points in their lives. It appears the Agency recognises this too, with recent communications indicating flexibility will be adopted for participants who, in exceptional circumstances, need to access funding from a future funding period.
Examples may include where:
Future funding may also be released if the participant needs to pay for reasonable and necessary supports that have been included in their plan.
However, when it comes to ongoing supports – such as therapies – participants and their providers need to make sure they stay within budget. Providers can only deliver supports that are within the available funding for each period, and claims should be submitted as soon as services have been delivered.
Providers can claim for services delivered during previous funding periods, as long as the dates on their invoice fall within the period of the plan. The current funding period must have sufficient remaining or unspent funds rolled over from the previous period to cover the claim.
Open communication between participants and their providers, careful scoping of requirements, service agreements aligned to each funding period, timely invoicing, and accurate budget tracking are key.
If a participant isn’t happy with the funding periods and total budget amounts in their plan, they can request an internal review, but they can’t overspend.
This page on the NDIA website provides further information about funding periods.
While it will certainly take some time for everyone to get to grips with the new world of funding periods, the NDIA says the change will ultimately benefit participants by helping them to ‘manage their NDIS funding by providing access to regular, manageable amounts over time, rather than all at once’.
Support coordinators should work with their clients to establish a schedule of supports that can be delivered within the funding allocated to each period, and it’s recommended that participants who don’t have access to a support coordinator get in touch with their NDIA contact to find out more.
If you have any questions, you can email us at enquiries@myplanmanager.com.au or call us on 1800 861 272 from 8am-5.30pm (SA time), Monday to Friday.
