The Continence Aids Payment Scheme (CAPS) Explained

For anyone managing ongoing continence needs, the cost of products adds up quietly but relentlessly. The Continence Aids Payment Scheme, almost always called CAPS, exists to help with exactly that. It is one of the more straightforward funding schemes to understand once you are on it, and it sits entirely outside the NDIS, which is worth knowing from the start.

What CAPS is

CAPS is an Australian Government scheme that pays a yearly amount towards continence products for people who meet its criteria. It is run by the health department, not the NDIA, and it has its own rules, its own eligibility test, and its own application. The CAPS checker shows the current annual payment and sets out what the scheme looks at.

The scheme is built around a single, ongoing need: the everyday cost of continence products for people whose need is permanent rather than temporary. That framing explains most of how it works. Because the need is continuing, the help is an annual payment rather than a one-off grant, and because it is about product cost rather than a specific item, the payment is a lump sum you direct yourself.

Who it is for

CAPS is for people with a permanent and severe loss of bladder or bowel control that results from an eligible neurological condition or another specified condition. The words permanent and severe carry weight here: the scheme is not aimed at short-term or mild continence issues, but at established, significant need.

There are also age and residence conditions, and the scheme excludes people already receiving certain other continence support that would overlap with it. Because the clinical criteria are specific, a health professional usually helps confirm that a qualifying condition is present, and the official scheme is the place that actually decides eligibility. No summary can tell you whether you will be accepted, which is why the scheme itself is where an application belongs.

How the payment works

The mechanics are refreshingly simple. CAPS makes a payment towards continence products, and it is not tied to receipts for specific purchases. You use it towards products of your choice, which is what makes the scheme easy to live with once you are on it: there is no itemised claiming, just a contribution towards the ongoing cost.

You can choose how the payment arrives. It can come as a single payment in July, or as two payments spread across July and January, whichever suits your budgeting. The payment is pro-rated from the date a complete application is received, so it is not backdated to the start of the year, and it is not counted as income for tax purposes. These details rarely change the decision to apply, but they help you plan around the money once it comes.

CAPS and the NDIS are separate

This is the point most worth holding onto. CAPS is its own program, and the NDIS is another, and the rules of one do not apply to the other. Some people receive continence support through CAPS, some through an NDIS plan, and how the two interact in any individual case is set by each program rather than by a single overarching rule.

Because they are separate, the sensible approach is to treat them as separate questions. Whether CAPS suits you is a question for the CAPS scheme and your own circumstances. Whether continence products sit in an NDIS plan is a question for that plan. Trying to reason about one using the rules of the other is where confusion creeps in, so it is cleaner to check each on its own terms.

Choosing products with the payment

Once the payment is in hand, the choice of products is yours, and that freedom is genuinely useful. It means you can match products to what actually works for you rather than to what a rigid list allows, and you can adjust over the year as needs change. Continence needs are individual, and the lump-sum design respects that.

The practical habit that helps is to think about the year rather than the week. Because the payment is annual, planning purchases across the year, and buying in sensible quantities where products keep well, tends to stretch it further than ad hoc buying. That is ordinary budgeting rather than a scheme rule, but it is what turns a fixed annual payment into steady, year-round cover.

If your needs or situation change

CAPS is built around a permanent need, but life around that need still changes, and it is worth knowing the scheme moves with you within its rules. A change of address, a change in the products that work for you, or a change in other supports you receive can all matter, and the scheme rather than guesswork is the place to check how. Keeping your details current with the scheme means the payment keeps reaching you without interruption.

The same applies if your circumstances shift in a way that touches the eligibility criteria. Because a health professional is usually involved in confirming the qualifying condition, they are also the natural person to raise a change with, and they can advise whether anything needs updating. The scheme is not something you set up once and forget; a light touch each year, checking that details and products still fit, keeps it doing its job.

Where to go next

For the wider picture of funding beyond the NDIS, the Equipment funding beyond the NDIS guide sets CAPS alongside aged care and veterans’ schemes, and the Other Schemes and Aged Care guide ties them together. The official Continence Aids Payment Scheme page carries the current criteria, payment amount, and application form.

CAPS eligibility and payments are decided by the scheme on your circumstances. This is general information only; confirm what applies to you with the official scheme or a health professional.