Guide to your NDIS home and living options

An overview of home and living support options

We may be able to fund different supports to help you to live independently. While we don’t pay for rent or bills, many other NDIS supports can be funded to help with the best living situation for you.

Speak to your my NDIS contact if you’re not sure which option is right for you. They'll guide you through the process and suggest which options might be right for you. Sometimes you can have more than one home and living support in your NDIS plan.

Not everyone is eligible for home and living supports in their plan. You can ask for a decision to be reviewed if you disagree with a decision we have made. 

Tip: Explore other support options.

You may be able to get help from mainstream or community supports and services if you aren’t eligible for NDIS funding for home and living supports. Your NDIS partner can help you connect with other supports.

What it's like for most participants

We contribute to your disability-related support needs

We may fund supports that:

• help you learn to live more independently
• help with personal care, such as showering and dressing
• help to complete tasks, such as assistance with cleaning and laundry
• improve the accessibility of your home through modifications
• provide assistive technology that makes doing tasks around the home easier
• help you find and maintain suitable housing.

You pay your own rent, bills, and daily costs

You're responsible for your day-to-day living costs. This includes rent, groceries, utilities, telephone and internet. You're responsible for general household items such as a bed, fridge or cooking utensils in most cases. There are some times where we may contribute to these costs. For example, modified cooking utensils or an adjustable bed and pressure care mattress. Learn more about assistive technology.

The NDIS supports lists can help you understand the services, items and equipment we may or may not fund.

Option 1: Assistance with daily life (ADL)

Assistance with daily life (ADL) helps with everyday tasks in your home so you can live as independently as possible, such as cooking and cleaning or personal care support.

Funding for other supports can be added to your ADL budget, unlike other home and living options. Talk to your my NDIS contact if you think you may need this type of support.

Help with daily activities is usually provided within your home. It’s often included in your plan if you only need very targeted NDIS support or if you don’t need support all the time.

You may choose to manage your own supports including directing, planning and rostering your own support workers. This is called self-directed supports and sits within your ADL budget.

Option 2: Individualised living options (ILO)

Individualised living options (ILO) is a package of supports designed to help you choose where and how you live in the way that best suits you. This can include supports such as host or housemate arrangements.

ILO follows a multi-stage process that includes:

• exploring and designing your supports with a health professional
• completing a service proposal for those supports
• putting your supports in place once they're approved.

Learn more about ILO.

Option 3: Supported independent living (SIL)

Supported independent living (SIL) funding is for a support worker to help you for a significant amount of time throughout the day, 7 days a week. They may help with daily tasks within your home like personal care and cooking meals, cleaning, shopping and developing a routine. They may also help you develop skills so you can live more independently.

While it doesn’t cover rent, bills or your actual house, SIL does fund the support workers so you can live as independently as possible.

If you choose to have self-directed supports, this is not considered SIL. Self-directed supports sit within your ADL budget. 

Learn more about SIL.

Option 4: Home modifications

Home modifications are changes made to your home to help you access and use areas of your home.

This involves getting a part of your home changed to meet your needs. Home modifications can help make it safer for you to move around your home and increase your independence.

They can be minor or complex depending on cost and if they change structural parts of your home.

Learn more about home modifications.

Option 5: Specialist disability accommodation (SDA)

Specialist disability accommodation (SDA) is specially designed homes for people with very high support needs or extreme functional impairment.

They may have unique features that other houses don’t have. For example wheelchair-accessible kitchen sinks, wider corridors, ramps and button-operated doors.

SDA is the only NDIS funding that provides the housing itself. It doesn't cover the supports within the home or the cost of rent.

Learn more about SDA.

Option 6: Medium term accommodation (MTA)

Medium term accommodation (MTA) is funding to live somewhere for up to 3 months. It's only available in specific circumstances. For example, if you can’t move into your long-term accommodation because you can’t access it.

It’s sometimes used when we have approved complex home modifications and you can’t stay at home while the work is being done. You might be eligible for MTA if you can’t move into your SDA property because it isn’t ready yet.

You’ll only get MTA as a one-off support. This is because you’ll then move into your long-term home.

Learn more about MTA.

Taking the next step

Talk to your my NDIS contact.  We’ll talk to you about what options you’ve already explored and what’ll best suit your needs when you ask for home and living supports.

Learn more about how to ask for home and living supports.