Some of the responsibilities of self-management include paying your providers and making claims.
Once you’ve arranged your NDIS supports and providers, you’ll need to pay for them using your NDIS funding.
As a self-manager, you’re responsible for paying your providers, contractors and staff. The NDIA can’t pay your providers for you.
If you don’t pay your providers, they may stop delivering services to you, pursue debt recovery or report your non-payment to the NDIA.
If you can’t keep on top of payments to providers, we may reconsider if self-management is right for you.
Payment options
As a self-manager there are 2 ways to pay for your NDIS supports with your NDIS funding.
1. Make a claim and then pay for your NDIS supports
After you receive an account, invoice or timesheet from your provider or staff, you can make a claim. The quickest and easiest way to do this is online using the portal or through the my NDIS app. Money from your NDIS plan budget will be paid into your nominated bank account. You can then pay your provider, contractor, or direct employment costs.
The instructions for the my NDIS mobile app will help you, your nominee or child representative to access and use the app.
2. Pay for your NDIS supports and then make a claim
After you receive your support, pay your provider or employee using your own money and get a receipt.
You’ll need to make a claim to have the money from your NDIS plan budget paid into your nominated bank account. You’ll be reimbursed, usually within 2 business days.
Make sure the amount of your claim matches the invoice or receipt from your provider, or if you are directly engaging staff, your payroll records. You may be required to upload evidence when you make your claim.
Remember, you can’t make a claim before you receive your support.
New NDIS laws came into effect on 3 October 2024. All claims now need to be made within 2 years of providing the support.
For the first 12 months, we’ll honour all claims made for supports provided before the law came into effect.
Learn about how to claim from your plan in Our Guideline – Your Plan .
Setting up a bank account
When you self-manage, we can’t process your claims until you give us your bank account details.
Where possible, this should be a separate account just for NDIS funding that isn’t used for everyday living expenses.
Having a separate bank account for your NDIS funding makes it easier for you to see what money comes in and what payments go out.
NDIS funding will be paid into an account managed by the person responsible for self-managing the supports.
This will be you as a participant, your plan nominee, or a child representative for a participant under 18 years of age.
You can give us your bank account details at any time. You can talk to your my NDIS contact, call us, or record it in the portal.
Making a claim
Using the my NDIS portal or my NDIS app is the easiest and quickest way to make a claim. If you don’t have a plan in our new computer system, you’ll continue to use the myplace portal.
When you can’t use the portal or the app, you can use the manual self-management claim form.
It’s important you claim after the support is provided. You’ll need evidence you received the support.
To learn more about making a claim, read:
Once you submit a claim, it will usually take 2 business days to be paid into your bank account.
Only you, a child representative, or your plan nominee can make claims in the portal or app.
Using the myplace portal
To make a claim:
- Log in to the portal from the NDIS website or through myGov .
- Select the My Payment Request option.
- On the My Payment Requests screen, select Add My Payment Request.
- Fill out the mandatory details of your request, including:
- payee name
- date of supports
- support category
- amount
- description.
- Enter the provider’s ABN or select the reason why you can’t from the drop-down:
- The ABN was not provided in an accessible way.
- I bought this item or NDIS support overseas.
- I bought this item or NDIS support online.
- I directly engage my own staff.
- The business does not have an ABN.
- We may ask you to upload evidence of the NDIS supports you purchased. For example, invoices and receipts from your provider. Even if we don’t ask you to upload evidence to submit your claim, we recommend that you do.
- Preview, declare and submit your payment request.
The payment request needs to match the invoice or receipt from your provider, or if you are directly engaging staff, your payroll records. It should be made against the support category that matches your support purchase.
Learn more about using the myplace portal.
Using the my NDIS portal or app
To make a claim from your self-managed budget in the my NDIS portal or app:
- Log into the my NDIS portal through myGov, or open the my NDIS app on your device.
- Select the Claim tab.
- On the Claim screen, select Make a claim.
- Select Claim with a new payee, a provider from your Payee list, or a regular claim from Favourites.
- Enter the payee’s details and ABN, or select a reason why you can’t from the drop down:
- The ABN was not provided in an accessible way.
- I bought this item or NDIS support overseas.
- I bought this item or NDIS support online.
- I directly engage my own staff.
- The business does not have an ABN.
- Fill out the mandatory details of your claim, including:
- date of supports
- support category
- description
- amount.
- We may ask you to upload evidence of the NDIS supports you purchased. For example, invoices and receipts from your provider. Even if we don’t ask you to upload evidence to submit your claim, we recommend that you do.
- You can save favourite claims to make claiming for regular supports even faster. Declare and submit your claim.
Visit our Paying for your supports page to learn more about using the portal. You can also visit our Making claims page to learn more about using the app.
These instructions are only for digital claims using the myplace portal or app.
Using the payment request from
When you can’t use the portal or the app, you can use the manual self-management claim form. You can return your form in person, by post or email.
When you return your form, you need to provide evidence of the supports you purchased.
What happens if you make a mistake?
We know self-managers try to do the right thing but sometimes make mistakes. We want to help participants, nominees and child representatives learn how to do the right thing before it becomes an issue.
If you make a mistake, we’ll work with you to fix it.
To fix a mistake in your claim, you can cancel a paid claim in the portal or app, call us, or submit a payment enquiry in the portal. Our payment team will work with you to resolve the issue.
How to avoid common claiming mistakes
It’s important to make sure your claims are complete and accurate, and you have the right invoices and records to match your requests.
To make sure your claims are right, you should check:
- you enter the correct start and end date for the support you’re claiming
- the payment amount you enter in the portal or app matches the amount on the invoice or receipt. Sometimes there might be an extra digit added by mistake or a decimal point in the wrong spot
- you’re making the claim against the right support category and that this category is self-managed
- you have enough funds in the relevant funding component amount for the current funding period to purchase the support
- you have enough funds in your plan for the claim.
Self-management manual claim form
Download the Manual self-management claim form