Reference
NDIS words explained
The NDIS is full of short forms and jargon, and nobody explains them when you actually need them. Here are the ones that come up most, in plain words.
- NDIS
- The National Disability Insurance Scheme. It is the government scheme that pays for supports for Australians under 65 who have a permanent, significant disability. The agency that runs it is called the NDIA.
- Registered NDIS provider
- A provider that has been checked and approved by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. If the NDIA pays your providers directly, you must use a registered one. If you are plan-managed or manage your own plan, you can use either.
- Core Supports
- The part of your budget that pays for everyday help — personal care, housework, getting out, everyday items and transport. It is usually the most flexible part of your plan.
- Capacity Building Supports
- The part of your budget that pays for things that build your skills over time — life skills, help with work, therapy and support coordination. Unlike Core, you usually cannot move this money between categories.
- SIL (Supported Independent Living)
- Money that pays for the people who help you with daily life in a shared home. It pays for the help, not for the house.
- SDA (Specialist Disability Accommodation)
- Money that pays for the house itself, when it has been specially built or changed for people with very high support needs. SDA pays for the home. SIL pays for the help inside it.
- Support coordination
- A funded service that helps you understand your plan, find the right providers, and learn to manage your supports yourself over time.
- VSG support coordinator
- Our own support coordinator. They go through your plan with you, work out what the funding will actually stretch to, set up the supports, and keep checking that what was arranged is still working. Funded from the support coordination in your plan.
- Plan management
- How your NDIS money gets paid. Either the NDIA pays your providers directly, or a plan manager pays them for you, or you pay them yourself.
- High intensity supports
- Daily care that could cause harm if it is done wrong — like tube feeding, tracheostomy care, a ventilator, bowel care, help with swallowing, or seizure medication. Workers must be specially trained and checked before they do it.
- Service agreement
- The written agreement between you and your provider. It says what help you are getting, how often, what it costs, how to cancel, and how to complain. You sign it before any support starts.
- NDIS Practice Standards
- The quality rules that registered providers are checked against. They cover your rights, how the organisation is run, how supports are delivered, and how riskier supports are handled.
Still not sure what something means?
Just ask us. Explaining how your plan works is not a sales pitch, and we will not treat it like one. Our plain-English guides go further on the topics that need more than a definition.