What is short-term accommodation in the NDIS?

Short-term accommodation, also called respite, is a support that gives a participant time away from their usual care arrangements. It also gives the family, friends, or carers who usually help a short break, so they can keep providing care afterwards. It covers a stay plus support during it.

What does STA pay for during a stay?

STA can cover everyday support like help with showering, cooking, and getting around, plus standard accommodation such as a motel, cabin, or respite house. A stay at home with a support worker can fit too, where someone usually needs overnight support. Guidance sets out how it works.

How many days of STA can I get?

Guidance describes a limited number of days each year, used flexibly, such as a longer block or a weekend at a time. The funding still has to last the whole plan period even though usage is flexible. Your own plan sets what is available to you.

Who is STA usually suitable for?

It suits participants who live with primary informal support, or get daily drop-in help, and who receive disability-related support for a large part of each day. The break helps carers keep going. Whether STA sits in a plan depends on the person's goals and how their funding is managed.

Short-Term Accommodation (STA) and NDIS Respite

Q: What can't STA funding be used for?

STA does not cover holidays, cruises, holiday packages, airfares, or travel documents, nor food and meals or costs for family and support workers holidaying alongside the participant. It also does not replace ordinary time apart like school or work, or mainstream services such as crisis accommodation.

Short-term accommodation, shortened to STA and also called respite, is an NDIS support that gives a participant time apart from their usual care arrangements. It does two jobs at once: it gives the participant a stay somewhere with support, and it gives the family, friends, or carers who usually help a genuine break, so they can keep caring afterwards.

That dual purpose is the key to understanding it. STA is not a holiday and it is not just a bed for the night. It is a supported stay, funded so that the everyday care a person relies on continues while their usual carers step back for a while.

What STA actually is

At its core, STA covers a short stay away from a person’s normal living arrangement, together with the support they need during it. The support side is what separates it from ordinary accommodation. A stay might include help with everyday activities like showering, cooking, and toileting, delivered by support workers across the time the person is there.

The break for carers is written into the purpose, not a side effect. Guidance frames STA around participants who live with primary informal support, or who receive daily drop-in help, and who need disability-related support for a large part of each day. Giving those carers time to rest is treated as part of keeping the whole care arrangement sustainable.

What it covers

STA can pay for a few things bundled into one stay. Everyday-activity support during the stay is the first. Standard accommodation is the second, and it can take various forms, from a hotel, motel, or short-stay rental to a cabin, cottage, hostel, or purpose-built respite house.

There is also a stay-at-home option. Where a person usually needs overnight support, STA can fund a support worker to stay with them at home, or a homestay arrangement, rather than a stay somewhere new. As a rule, STA is used within the participant’s home state or territory, though the NDIA may fund it further afield for people living in remote areas where local options are thin.

How much and how often

The amount of STA is described in guidance rather than fixed by a simple headline number. Guidance sets out a limited number of days each year, meant to be used flexibly. That flexibility is the point: the days might be taken as a single longer block, or spread across the year as the odd weekend, depending on what suits the person and their carers.

One constraint travels with that flexibility. The funding still has to last the whole plan period, even though you can use it in different shapes. Spending it all early leaves nothing for later in the plan, so it pays to think about the year as a whole. Your own plan sets out what is available to you.

What STA does not cover

STA has clear limits, and knowing them saves an awkward knock-back. It cannot be used for holidays, cruises, holiday packages, holiday accommodation, or airfares, and it does not cover passports, visas, or travel and vehicle insurance. Food and meals are excluded, as are entertainment costs like theme parks, cinema, sporting events, and conferences.

It also will not pay the accommodation or travel costs of family members or support workers holidaying alongside the participant. And it is not a substitute for ordinary time apart, such as school, work, or community activities, or for mainstream and community supports like crisis accommodation. STA fills a specific gap; it is not a general travel budget.

Working out if STA fits

STA tends to suit people who live with, or rely daily on, primary informal support and who need disability-related help for much of each day, where a planned break keeps the whole arrangement going. Because it is a support like any other, whether it sits in a plan turns on the person’s goals and evidence.

The Services & Therapies guide sets STA alongside the other supports the scheme lists, and types of NDIS supports shows where it fits in the wider picture. To find providers who deliver respite and accommodation supports, the provider directory lists them by service.

Whether short-term accommodation can be claimed depends on your individual plan, your goals, and how your funding is managed. Your plan manager or support coordinator can confirm what applies to you.

Short-Term Accommodation (STA) and Respite in the NDIS