NDIS Glossary

Easy to Understand definitions for the terms you meet across a plan, from budget types to provider registration - each one linked back to its official source.

Funding & Budgets

Budget types, support categories, and the rules behind what a plan can include.

Capacity building

Capacity building is a budget type that funds supports designed to build a participant's skills and independence over time.

Capital supports

Capital supports is a budget type for higher-cost items such as assistive technology and home or vehicle modifications.

Consumables

Consumables is a support category within core supports for low-cost items that get used up or replaced regularly.

Core supports

Core supports is a budget type built to be the most flexible category in a plan, covering everyday activities, consumables, and transport.

Price limit

A price limit is the maximum a registered provider can charge for a support item under plan-managed and agency-managed funding.

Pricing Arrangements

Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits is the official NDIA document that sets price limits, claiming rules, and support item codes.

Reasonable and necessary

Reasonable and necessary is the legal test the NDIA applies when deciding whether a support belongs in a participant's plan.

Support Catalogue

The Support Catalogue is the NDIA's published list of support item codes, their categories, and their price limits.

Support category

A support category is the specific grouping within a budget that describes what a particular type of support is for.

Support item

A support item is a single, coded entry in the Support Catalogue describing a specific support and its price limit.

Plans

How a plan is built, managed, and reviewed over time.

Agency-managed

Agency-managed is a plan management type where the NDIA pays registered providers directly from a participant's plan.

Nominee

A nominee is a person the NDIA appoints to make decisions or manage funding for a participant who needs support to do so themselves.

Plan

A plan is the document the NDIA creates with a participant that sets out their supports, budgets, and how funding can be managed.

Plan management

Plan management is the arrangement that decides who pays provider invoices and keeps records for a participant's NDIS funding.

Plan reassessment

A plan reassessment is the formal process where the NDIA reviews and can change a participant's plan, goals, and budgets.

Plan-managed

Plan-managed is a plan management type where a registered plan manager pays provider invoices and handles claims on a participant's behalf.

Self-managed

Self-managed is a plan management type where the participant or their nominee pays providers directly and claims the cost back from their plan.

Providers

The people and organisations participants deal with, and how they are regulated.

Code of Conduct

The Code of Conduct is the NDIS Commission's set of rules requiring providers and workers to act safely, honestly, and respectfully.

Local area coordinator (LAC)

A local area coordinator is an organisation contracted by the NDIA to help people access the scheme and connect with services in their community.

Plan manager

A plan manager is a service provider who handles invoice payments, claims, and financial reporting for a plan-managed participant's funding.

Registered provider

A registered provider is an organisation that has gone through the NDIS Commission's registration process for the supports it delivers.

Registration group

A registration group is a category in the NDIS Commission's framework describing a specific type of support a provider is registered to deliver.

Support coordinator

A support coordinator is a paid provider who helps a participant understand, set up, and use the supports in their plan.

Unregistered provider

An unregistered provider is a business or sole trader delivering NDIS supports without NDIS Commission registration.

Worker screening check

A worker screening check is a national clearance confirming a person is not excluded from working in roles involving NDIS participants.

Services

Supports and assessments participants engage directly.

Functional capacity assessment (FCA)

A functional capacity assessment is an evaluation of what a person can and cannot do in daily life, used to inform plan decisions.

Occupational therapist (OT)

An occupational therapist is a health professional who assesses functional needs and recommends supports and equipment to help with daily tasks.

Respite

Respite is an informal term for short term accommodation or other supports that give a participant's usual carers a break.

Service agreement

A service agreement is a written arrangement between a participant and a provider setting out what supports will be delivered and on what terms.

Service booking

A service booking is the record inside the NDIA's system that reserves funding for a specific provider under agency-managed arrangements.

Short term accommodation (STA)

Short term accommodation is a support that funds a temporary stay away from home, including support, for a short period.

Equipment

Assistive technology and how it sits inside a plan.

Assistive technology (AT)

Assistive technology is equipment or a device that helps a person complete tasks they would otherwise find difficult or unable to do.

Low-cost assistive technology

Low-cost assistive technology is equipment under the threshold set in the Pricing Arrangements, distinguishing it from higher-cost items that need a quote.

Schemes

The scheme itself, its agencies, and how someone joins it.