Capacity Building Supports budget: Improved Daily Living

What is Improved Daily Living? 

Your Capacity Building Supports Budget is designed to help you live each day as independently as possible; increasing your ‘capacity’ to live your best life in terms of employment, participation in social and community activities, and your own wellbeing.  

The Improved Daily Living category under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) looks at funding supports like assessment, training, or therapy to increase your capacity for independence and community participation. You might find that this allows you to depend less on other supports over time, as you develop skills to fill that gap. 

Related: Capacity Building Support budget 101: Everything You Need to Know

How NDIS Improved Daily Living funding works 

The NDIS Capacity Building budget has eight sub-categories, each of which aligns with the goals in your plan. You can choose the individual supports you want to purchase within each category, but you can’t transfer the funding to purchase something from a different category. If you have Improved Daily Living funding, you can’t use this to fund an item or support categorised under any other category. 

Improved Daily Living is typically flexible within the sub-category unless your plan states otherwise. 

More information: NDIS Funding Categories Explained 

What can you purchase with Improved Daily Living? 

A wide range of supports are available in this category. Some of these items need to be specifically outlined in your plan before you can claim for them. For others, you may need an assessment first – be sure to check T&Cs, or consult with your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or Support Coordinator (SC) if you’re unsure. 

1. Early Childhood supports 

Improved Daily Living also covers Early Childhood (EC) supports to help eligible children aged 0-6 with developmental delay or disability. The funds can also help to support their family or carers in working toward the child’s increased independence and social participation. This might include funding to engage professionals such as: 

• Qualified Developmental Educators or EC Educators 
• Social workers 
• Therapeutic practitioners including OTs, speech pathologists, psychologists, and exercise physiologists (see the full list in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits schedule). 

If you are looking for help with Early Childhood supports, it’s best to get in touch with your local Early Childhood Partner for more information. 

Related: Early Childhood Approach (ECA) and the NDIS Explained 

2. Therapy Supports 

Therapy supports are designed to be delivered by an appropriately trained professional. These can be broken down into: 

• Assessments and reporting: These help you figure out and prove the level of support you need, by funding assessments and reports from professionals such as: 
• Functional Capacity Assessments (FCA) 
• Assistive Technology (AT) Assessments 
• Occupational Therapy (OT) Assessments 
• Training: You can think of this as “developing your daily living skills” rather than “training” in the traditional sense. This area helps you perform everyday tasks like personal care, personal hygiene, cooking; or learning new social skills; or, it could cover training to help you learn to use new assistive technology. 
• Therapies: This applies to therapies that have been approved as NDIS supports, delivered by qualified practitioners, to help you handle daily challenges and overcome barriers related to your disability. For example: speech therapy, occupational therapy (OT), art therapy, music therapy, or behavioural therapy. You may need to be assessed first to access some of these therapy services.

3. Hearing Supports 

This aims to provide hearing services by an audiologist or audiometrist, outside of what is provided under Medicare and accessible to everyone. You can only have these services provided by relevant audiology and audiometry professionals. 

4. Multidisciplinary Team Supports 

This is a great support if you need flexibility to reflect your changing needs; funding for multidisciplinary team supports means you can work with several professionals and they will claim against just the one support item. This makes it easier for you to go between these professionals as your needs change. 

Note: To claim this support, you need prior National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) funding approval. 

5. Delivery of Disability Related Health Supports by a Nurse 

Exactly what it sounds like – this provides nursing care to eligible participants if your care is not the usual responsibility of the health system. There are line items for supports by an enrolled nurse, a registered nurse, a clinical nurse, and a nurse practitioner. 

Note: The pricing arrangements for these items differ depending on when you use them – for example, weekend or after-hours supports would be more expensive to purchase than regular weekday supports. 

6. Specialised Driver Training Support 

If your ability to take driving lessons has been impacted by your ability, this support can help. You will need to be assessed by a specialist Driver Trained Occupational Therapist first. This is a stated item, so you’ll need to have this added to your plan first before you can claim it. 

7. Other Supports 

Somewhat ambiguously named, this support category is designed to directly help you increase your skills and capacity for independent living and increased community participation, including: 

• Assistance with decision making daily planning and budgeting 
• General life skill development and training (including public transport training) 
• Training for carers/parents (so they can provide better care for a person living with disability) 
• Choosing and/or manufacturing customised or wearable technology 

8. Assistive Technology Mentors (AT Mentors) 

While AT Mentors can’t provide assistive technology assessments, they are qualified, independent advisors who can assist you to select and use the appropriate AT for your disability-related needs.  

How to add NDIS Improved Daily Living to your Plan 

Your NDIS plan accounts for what is ‘reasonable and necessary’ in direct relation to your specific disability support needs. These supports help you reach your goals, and be more independent in your daily life. All NDIS funding, including Improved Daily Living, is allocated on a case-by-case basis. 

As an NDIS participant, it’s your right to ask for a change to your Plan at any time. The NDIS will work with you to decide the best course of action. You can request this funding in your next Plan Meeting, or by asking for a reassessment.  

You’ll need to come prepared to discuss how having this funding would help you to achieve your goals, along with any supporting evidence – such as a recommendation from your GP for certain therapeutic interventions. 

Make the most of your budgets with Plan Management 

Given the recent and ongoing changes to the NDIS, as it rolls into PACE, it can be difficult to determine what is in or out unless you are dedicating significant time to keeping up with the evolving system. This is why it can be much more challenging than anticipated to self-manage your plan; the NDIS system is complex at the best of times, and the NDIA is still defining areas of the new budgets.

One benefit of being plan-managed is that you do not need to worry about how your budgets are going. Budget tracking is part of plan management services. That means if you are at risk of overspending, or underspending, your plan manager will be able to alert you before it becomes a problem.

You could also lean on their expertise for any NDIS-related questions – for example, determining if a particular therapy qualifies as a line item funded by your Improved Daily Living budget.  

Plan management is also funded in your Capacity Building budget, under Choice and Control (Improved Life Choices).

NDSP: Your Plan Management Specialists 

Our team is well-versed in the latest NDIS info. We work with you to make sure you get the most out of your plan (and your time) by taking the burden of financial administration off your plate… without taking away your ability to choose your providers. 

NDSP’s easy-access online Nappa portal is available 24/7 with real-time budget data, and our friendly team is available on 1800 63 63 77 if you would prefer to chat about anything in person. Our live support is available 8.30 AM – 5.30 PM ACT. 

Related reading: The Myth of 1:1 Support in Plan Management 

Just as Improved Daily Living supports you to be more independent, NDSP supports our clients by managing the financial aspects of their plans, making your NDIS journey as seamless as possible. You’ve got better things to think about – like doing more of what you love!