Ok, so you’ve got your NDIS plan… now what? It’s often a long process to get an NDIS plan that meets your needs and now is the fun part- turning your funding into supports! Using your plan effectively is critical to achieving your goals and getting the support you need.
There are three different ways of using your NDIS funding.:
- Self-management: when you manage your own NDIS funding. It gives you the flexibility and choice to decide what supports to purchase to meet your plan goals.
- Plan-management: when a plan-manager provider supports you to manage your funding. Plan management means you can use registered and unregistered providers. If you choose to plan-manage your funding the NDIA will pay your plan manager (separately from your other supports) who will pay your other providers.
- NDIA (Agency) management: when your plan is managed by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) you can only choose NDIS registered providers. These organisations will submit payment requests through the NDIS portal, get paid directly by the NDIA and will keep all their own records.
It’s your decision how you would like to manage your funding however in exceptional circumstances the NDIA may include some high-risk supports as NDIA (Agency) managed so only registered NDIS providers can deliver this. Each method of management has its pros and cons. We’ve listed these below.
Management Type: Self-management
The Good
- Self-directed.
- More control.
- Choice of registered and unregistered providers meaning you can choose your own supports.
The Bad
- More paperwork.
- Responsible for keeping records and compliance e.g. paying super, tax etc. .
- Have to closely monitor how funds are used.
- In charge of hiring and firing your own supports.
- Risk of unregistered providers/supports not being appropriately trained or skilled.
Management Type: Plan-management
The Good
- Choice of registered and unregistered providers meaning you can choose your own supports.
- Plan manager pays your invoices and meets compliance requirements so you don't have to deal with the paperwork and administrative burden.
The Bad
- You have less oversight of your supports and funds than if you self-managed (typically you will receive monthly statements).
- Risk of unregistered providers/supports not being appropriately trained or skilled.
- Reliance on plan-manager to pay all invoices and to process invoices on time.
Management Type: NDIA (Agency) management
The Good
- Only using NDIS registered providers means all supports will have been deemed compliant through an NDIS audit against the NDIS Practice Standards demonstrating appropriate safeguards, skills and experience.
- You don't have to deal with the paperwork and administrative burden.
The Bad
- You can't be supported by a person that does not work for an NDIS registered provider.
- Less self-direction and oversight on funds as providers make payment requests directly from the NDIA on the provider portal (you can still view your plan and budget in real-time through the 'My NDIS mobile app').
Conclusion
How you choose to manage your NDIS funding is a personal decision. You may have a person in your community that you would like to support you that is not an NDIS registered provider in which case you could explore plan or self-management. You could feel strongly that you would like to be supported by only NDIS registered providers that you know have been through an assessment of their safeguards and skills.
You might have the type of personality that likes to be in control and have oversight over your funding which would lend itself to self-management. Or, alternatively the paperwork aspect of self-management might be too much of a burden for you right now meaning you are more suited to plan or NDIA (Agency) management.
When making the decision on how to manage your plan, weigh up the pros and cons. Consider your personality and think about how your life might look in the foreseeable future. You can always change your mind if you try one way and it doesn't suit you by completing and sending a plan variation form to the NDIA.
