FAQ’s

If your child is aged 0-6 years, he/she doesn't need a diagnosis of disability to benefit from the NDIS.

Your child must:

Be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or other visa holder with a Protected Special Category Visa

Live in an area where the NDIS is operating.

If your child is aged seven years or older, to access the NDIS your child must:

Have a permanent and significant disability that affects her ability to take part in everyday activities

Be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or other visa holder with a Protected Special Category Visa

Live in an area where the NDIS is operating

Children with longer-term needs might be able to access an NDIS support plan. Your child's individualised plan will be based on his goals or the goals you have for your child. It will cover the support Your child needs to meet these goals.

Your child's NDIS plan will include:

Informal support that you and your family give your child

Support from community and mainstream providers (not funded by NDIS)

Support that is funded by the NDIS

NDIS-funded support might include therapies, technologies or equipment to help Your child with daily living activities, or modifications to your home.

NDIS won't fund support that is the responsibility of mainstream services like the education or health systems.

The NDIS funds reasonable and necessary support that helps your child reach her goals in a range of areas. For example, these goals might include taking part in social and community activities, and looking after his/her health and wellbeing.

To be considered reasonable and necessary, support must be:

Related to your child's disability

Value for money

Likely to work and benefit your child

Based on evidence

Reasonable and necessary support doesn't include day-to-day living costs that aren't related to your child's disability support needs.

Your child's reasonable and necessary support takes into account any informal support that your child already has. This means the informal arrangements that are part of your family life or broader community network, as well as other mainstream support like that provided by the health and education systems.

When the NDIA makes decisions about what supports are reasonable and necessary for your child, it refers to rules and guidelines in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (NDIS Act).

When you and Your child meet with an NDIS professional to develop your child's NDIS plan, you'll also talk about how you want to manage your child's funding. You can have as little or as much help as you need.

There are four options:

Self-managed

You can choose to manage the funding for your child's support. You can do this yourself, or you can have a nominee do this on your behalf. This nominee might be a member of your family, a friend or a carer.

Registered plan management provider

You can choose to have a registered plan management provider manage some or all of the funding for your child's support. A registered plan management provider can find and organise support for you, pay service providers, take care of the paperwork, and work with your service providers to decide how and when your child gets support.

NDIA managed

You can choose to have the NDIA manage the funding for your child's support. Under this option, you choose the service providers you want from the registered provider list on the NDIS website, and you organise the support your child needs directly with them. The NDIA can help you find and get in touch with the registered service providers. The NDIA then pays the providers directly.

A combination of the management options above

You can choose different options for different support. Your child's plan might have a combination of options.