NDIS glossary
The words you'll hear in your first month with the NDIS, in plain English.
The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) has a language of its own. Here's what the terms you'll meet first actually mean. Each one links to where we explain it in full.
Agency managed
A way of managing your plan where the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) pays your providers directly. You can only use registered providers.
How plans are managedCapacity Building budget
One of the four NDIS support budgets. It funds supports that build your skills and independence — such as support coordination, therapy, life skills and help with living arrangements. It is funded by category.
The four support budgetsCapital budget
One of the four NDIS support budgets. It funds assistive technology, home and vehicle modifications, and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), for specific items. It is not flexible.
Core budget
One of the four NDIS support budgets. It funds everyday support: help with daily life, consumables, and taking part in social, economic and community life. Supported Independent Living (SIL), personal care and household tasks sit here. It is usually the most flexible budget.
High intensity daily personal activities
Support for complex health-related needs. The NDIS lists eight: complex bowel care, enteral feeding, severe dysphagia management, tracheostomy management, urinary catheter management, ventilator management, subcutaneous injections and complex wound management. A registered provider can deliver only the ones on its certificate of registration.
High intensity and complex careIndividualised Living Options (ILO)
A home and living support the NDIS funds as an alternative to options like Supported Independent Living (SIL), designed around how, and with whom, you want to live. A Support Coordinator can tell you whether it suits you.
Medium Term Accommodation (MTA)
NDIS funding for somewhere to live for up to 90 days while you move into a more permanent home — when your home isn’t ready yet, or after a hospital stay. It covers the accommodation only, not food or bills, and it isn’t emergency housing.
Medium Term AccommodationNational Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA)
The government agency that runs the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS). It decides who can join, and what goes in each person’s plan.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
Australia’s scheme for funding supports for people with permanent and significant disability. Each participant has a plan with funding for the supports they need.
Understanding the NDISNDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission
The independent regulator of NDIS providers. It registers and audits providers, publishes a register anyone can search, and takes complaints on 1800 035 544.
Our registrationNDIS Worker Screening Check
A clearance that workers in certain roles with registered providers must hold. It checks whether a person poses a risk to people with disability.
Plan managed
A way of managing your plan where a plan manager pays your providers for you. You can use registered and unregistered providers.
Recurring budget
One of the four NDIS support budgets. Its only support is recurring transport — regular funding to help you get around, at one of three set levels.
Registered provider
A provider approved by the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, and audited against the NDIS Practice Standards. Providers delivering Supported Independent Living (SIL) must be registered since 1 July 2026.
How to check a providerRegistration group
A class of support a provider is approved to deliver, each with a number — for example 0115, daily life tasks in a group or shared living arrangement. The groups a provider holds are listed on the NDIS Commission’s register.
The groups we holdSelf-managed
A way of managing your plan where you pay your providers yourself. It gives the most flexibility, and the most paperwork.
Service agreement
The written agreement between you and a provider. It sets out the supports you’ll get, what they cost, and the terms — including cancellations.
Short term respite (STA)
NDIS funding for time apart from your usual care arrangements, so the people who support you get a break. It was called Short Term Accommodation (STA) until October 2025. It is usually funded for up to 28 days a year, in stays of up to 14 days.
Short term respiteSpecialist Disability Accommodation (SDA)
Housing built for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA funds the building, not the support inside it. Complete Choice is not an SDA provider.
Where SDA fitsSupport Coordination
Help to turn your plan into supports that actually happen. There are three levels: Support Connection (Level 1), Coordination of Supports (Level 2) and Specialist Support Coordination (Level 3). It is funded from your Capacity Building budget.
Support CoordinationSupport item
A single line in the NDIS pricing rules, with its own number, describing a support and the most a provider can charge for it. The current rules took effect on 24 September 2026.
Supported Independent Living (SIL)
NDIS funding for support workers to help or supervise you with daily tasks, 24 hours a day — in a shared home or on your own. It pays for the people, not the property: rent, food and bills are yours.
Supported Independent LivingChecked against the NDIS and NDIS Commission websites and the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, 25 September 2026.
A word we haven't covered?
Call us on 08 7009 4462. Explaining the NDIS is a normal first conversation, not homework you should have to finish before you ring.
08 7009 4462Mobile 0424 000 751