NDIS Plan Management

Key Learnings

There are four ways to manage the money in your budget to pay for your supports
Self management provides the most flexibility but it is the most work
If you choose to agency manage you can only hire NDIS registered providers

How Should You Manage Your NDIS Plan?

There are four ways to manage the money in your NDIS budget to pay for your supports.

These are:

NDIA managed (the NDIS looks after this for you)
Plan managed (the NDIS pays a Plan Manager to do this for you)
Self managed (you or a family member manage your plan yourselves)
A mix of these three (in a way that you decide and suits you)

Which way your NDIS plan is managed can affect what supports are available to you and how flexibly you can use your funding. There are positive and negative things about each of these management options, which we will explain.

In the table below you can see the things you can and can’t do under each option.

I can…	Self managed	Plan managed	NDIA managed
Have choice and control over the providers I use	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use NDIS-registered providers	Yes	Yes	Yes
Use non-registered providers	Yes	Yes (Although your plan manager must be a registered provider)	You must use registered providers when your plan is NDIA managed.
Negotiate pricing to pay less than the NDIS price guide	Yes	Yes	Yes
Pay more than the NDIS price guide	Yes	Providers delivering supports to a participant using a plan manager cannot charge more than the NDIS price guide.	Providers delivering supports to a participant whose plan is managed by the NDIA cannot charge more than the NDIS price guide.
Make value-for-money decisions in line with my plan	Yes	Yes	Yes
View my plan on the myplace portal to keep track of my budget	Yes	Yes	Yes
Manage book-keeping and records of my spending	Yes	Your plan manager will do this for you.	The NDIA will do this for you.

As you can see, the self-managed option provides the greatest flexibility. NDIA or Agency managed, as it is sometimes called, is the simplest way to manage your plan BUT is not as flexible and means you can only ever access supports from NDIS registered providers. This can limit the amount of support providers you're able to use.

You get to choose which plan manager you want to use. Asking to use a plan manager does not mean you miss out on other supports because funding for them is added to your plan.

Still not sure which management option you would prefer? Watch this video to learn more.

When you have your planning meeting with an LAC or NDIS planner to develop your plan, you will be asked which plan management option you want to use. Whichever you select, you still remain in control of which providers you select and when and how your supports are delivered. You can also ask to change the way your plan is managed at plan review meetings, which we will talk about more later in this workshop.

For more information about ways to manage your NDIS plan, check out the 6 tabs on this page Managing your plan on the NDIS website.

How Do You Currently Manage Your NDIS Plan?

Let’s look again at the supports in your current NDIS Plan, that you listed in the previous section of this topic. Fill out column 4 and write how you manage each of the supports you listed in column 1 (plan, self or agency). Are there any changes you want to make to this in the future? List these in column 5.

Things To Think About For Plan Managing:

If you choose plan management we have some tips to get you started.

Before you select a plan manager you can ask these questions to see if they are right for you:

Do you have good technology?
How will you look after my needs and be flexible?
Do you require service agreements?
Have all your staff received training and completed police checks?
How will you help me navigate price and find the best supports for me?

Things To Think About For Self Managing:

If you choose to self manage you get maximum choice and control over your plan but there is more work involved. You need to have good computer skills - but if you don’t, you can use your NDIS Plan to find someone to help you develop them.

By self managing you will have the:

Flexibility to use any provider to help you meet your plan goals
Ability to employ staff directly
Ability to negotiate the costs of your supports so you get the best value for money and more out of your plan
Control and responsibility over your NDIS funding so you can manage your own budget for the duration of your plan

Here Are Some Tips For Getting Started With Self Management:

There is really useful information and resources that are worth checking out on the Self-management page on the NDIS website.
Create a separate NDIS bank account for easy tracking of your payments
Set up your MyGov account
Apply for an activation code to link your NDIS My Place Portal to your MyGov account
Read the My Place Portal Guide
Keep all your invoices in one place, whether paper copies or online copies