Stated Supports – What’s the latest?

First 2 Care Team
Oct 2
3 min read

Stated supports have dominated the spotlight of NDIS “grey areas” for several months, and many participants and their support networks will have encountered varying guidance on how stated supports influence what can be claimed. This has not been helped by a lack of clarity from the NDIA, who have published and retracted their guidance on multiple occasions.

Stated Supports

A stated support is a particular element of funding that is intended for a specific purpose. Section 32G of the NDIS Act describes how a support or class of supports can be explicitly identified as stated within a plan.

This is echoed by the Operational Guidelines for using a plan, which notes:

“When your NDIS supports are stated, we describe the support specifically. It means you must buy NDIS supports in the way we have described in your plan. We’ll be clear when we describe a support category as stated in your plan.” (page 9)

What is clear between the two is the specific reference to the Plan - everything comes down to how the Plan is written. The challenge? More legislation! Section 46 of the Act requires that participants and Plan Managers must spend NDIS money “in accordance with the plan”.

Therefore, if the Plan says that a support or class of supports is “stated”, it must be used it the manner that is described in the Plan. There are some well-known examples such as Home Modifications, Capital AT, and Home and Living (primarily SIL and MTA), though this causes the most challenges in Capacity Building, particularly the Improved Daily Living (IDL) budget which under PACE is always a stated category.

Practical Examples in IDL

Example 1

With the detail out of the way, here are some examples of how this can play out. Let’s say a participant’s plan includes IDL. The description says:

“Funding is included for a speech pathologist, physiotherapist, and occupational therapist…”

In this case, the budget can be used only on those three supports. To do otherwise would not be in accordance with the plan. To examine this more closely, let’s think about it from the NDIA’s perspective. If a participant submits evidence to receive certain supports related to their disability, obtains funding in the Plan, and then spends the funds on therapies that don’t relate to this funding, it doesn’t line up with the Planning process.

Example 2

Another type of Plan description we see might be:

“Funding is included for allied health professionals to help build your skills. You can use your therapy budget flexibly for a combination of allied health therapy, including a Therapy Assistant to put therapy strategies into practice.”

This Plan can be used on any allied health professional support within IDL, but only therapy. It can’t be used for non-therapy supports from that budget.

Myth

A support must be stated in Improved Daily Living to be funded.

Actual

The entire category/component is stated (in PACE). This means that whatever is written must be followed, so as shown in example #2 this can include types of supports that are not specifically mentioned if the wording of the plan permits it.

What you can do?

Be clear in planning meetings or discussions with the NDIA that you understand the limitations of stated supports, and that you want flexibility inside the stated category wherever possible.

Discuss how your plan is funded with your myNDIS Contact. This is often a Local Area Coordinator or sometimes an NDIS Planner. Sometimes if the plan is vague or unclear, they can assist in providing clarity to the intent behind what is funded.

If a Plan has been created incorrectly, a Variation can correct it without the need for a full reassessment.