The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has rules around travel and transport, and what expenses you can and can’t claim.
The NDIA funds a range of expenses associated with participant and provider travel and transport, to help you achieve your plan goals.
We’ve unpacked the rules for you and outlined what your funding may – and may not – cover. Funded travel and transport expenses come out of different budgets and categories, shown in the table below*.
| Budget | Category | What’s covered? |
| Core | Assistance with daily life | The time it takes your provider to travel from their office to you and back, plus mileage (cost of kilometres travelled), parking and other travel expenses. This category also covers the cost of Daily Life support charged by a provider. |
| Core | Assistance with social and community participation | The time it takes your provider to travel from their office to you and back, plus mileage (cost of kilometres travelled), parking and other travel expenses. This category also covers the cost of Social Participation support charged by a provider. |
| Core | General transport | Your transport costs for everyday life (e.g. the return cost of a taxi or ride share service to a school, beach, or the movies). |
| Core | Specialised transport | Specialised transport is designed to support you to get to school, employment or a location in the community. A quote is required, and this support must be included in your plan. Specialised transport is infrequently accessed and will typically be included in a plan when a participant cannot access standard transport options. |
| Capacity Building | Improved Daily Living Improved Health and Wellbeing Finding and keeping a job Increased Social and Community Participation Support Coordination Improved Relationships Improved Learning Improved Living Arrangements | The time it takes your provider to travel from their office to you and back, to assist with capacity building activities like finding and keeping a job, plus mileage (cost of kilometres travelled) and parking. This category also covers the cost of capacity building support charged by a provider. |
Reasonable cost of general transport
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits indicate that a ‘reasonable cost’ for general transport is:
Providers can charge fees that exceed what the NDIA considers ‘reasonable’, however it is their responsibility to let you know and explain the implications this can have on your budget. These implications can include not having sufficient funds to access transport throughout the course of your plan.
To serve clients better, providers may want to include transport costs in a service agreement. When you have a service agreement from your provider locked with your plan manager, both you and your provider can be confident there are sufficient funds set aside to meet your plan goals.
Travel categories and codes
When charging for travel, it’s important providers consider what the category, time of day (to determine if they need a Saturday or evening code), and travel expenses (like mileage, parking, and toll costs) are.
If they are delivering support in group activities using the code 04_102_0136_6_1 for example, they might also agree with you to claim for the following:
* This information is current as at September 2022 and is subject to change by the NDIA.
