NDIS stands for the National Disability Insurance Scheme. It’s the Australian Government scheme that funds support for people with a permanent and significant disability, so they can live more independently and take part in everyday life.
Instead of funding disability services directly, the NDIS gives each eligible person their own plan and budget. Participants then choose which supports and providers to use, a principle often described as choice and control.
What the name means
Each word in the name explains part of how the scheme works. It’s national because the same scheme operates across every state and territory. It focuses on disability that has a lasting impact on a person’s daily life. It’s called insurance because it covers every Australian, recognising that anyone can be born with or acquire a disability at any stage of life. And it’s a scheme in the sense of a government program, with its own rules, funding and agency to run it.
Who runs the NDIS?
The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) runs the NDIS. The agency decides who is eligible, builds each participant’s plan and pays for the supports in it.
A separate body, the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, regulates providers and handles complaints. The Commission also oversees behaviour support, and the NDIS can only fund behaviour support from providers registered with the Commission.
Who is eligible for the NDIS?
To become a participant, a person needs to meet three requirements:
- Be younger than 65 when they apply
- Live in Australia as an Australian citizen, permanent resident or Protected Special Category Visa holder
- Have a permanent disability that affects daily life, or evidence that support now will reduce the support needed later
Young children have a separate pathway. Children younger than 6 with developmental delay may be eligible under the early intervention requirements, and early childhood partners help families of children under 9 apply.
A diagnosis alone doesn’t guarantee access. The NDIA looks at evidence from doctors, specialists and therapists that shows how the disability affects everyday life.
What does the NDIS fund?
The NDIS only funds supports that are reasonable and necessary. A support must relate to the person’s disability, help them work towards their goals and represent value for money. It also can’t replace what families, schools, workplaces or the health system already provide.
Funding in each plan is divided into four support budgets:
- Core supports, for everyday assistance such as support workers and consumables
- Capacity Building supports, for therapy and skill development
- Capital supports, for equipment and home modifications
- Recurring supports, for regular payments such as transport
Positive Behaviour Support is usually funded under Capacity Building, Improved Relationships. ABA therapy and key worker support usually sit under Improved Daily Living or, for young children, the early childhood approach.
How is NDIS funding managed?
There are three ways to manage a plan, and they can be combined:
- NDIA-managed, where the agency pays providers directly and only registered providers can be used
- Plan-managed, where a plan manager pays invoices and tracks the budget
- Self-managed, where the participant or their family pays providers and claims the money back
Regardless of how a plan is managed, behaviour support must come from a registered provider.
What’s changing in the NDIS?
The biggest current change affects young children. From 1 October 2026, children aged 8 and under with autism or developmental delay and low to moderate support needs will start to access support through Thriving Kids, a new program run outside the NDIS. Children with high support needs remain eligible for the NDIS, and the new access rules for this group take effect from 1 January 2028.
Getting started with Helping Hands Behaviour Support
Helping Hands Behaviour Support (HHBS) is an NDIS-registered practice working with autistic children, teens and adults, people with ADHD, and children with developmental delay.
We offer Positive Behaviour Support, ABA therapy and early childhood intervention, at home, at school or kinder, or at our centre, across Melbourne’s north, west, east and south-east.
If you’re a participant, parent or carer, call us on 0452 423 822 or get in touch through our contact page, and we’ll talk through what’s going on and check your NDIS plan funding. If you’re a support coordinator, you can make a referral online. Most people start therapy within a week, as long as funding is in place and they’re ready to go.
