NDIS Sydney

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Persons with a significant and permanent living in Sydney, New South Wales can get the opportunity to apply to get funding for reasonable and necessary support and services for their disability through the NDIS or National Disability Insurance Scheme. The National Disability Insurance Scheme is rolling throughout Australia and is now available in New South Wales for people with disabilities needing necessary support to live normal lives.

From the latest data, there are now over 121,500 people with a significant and permanent disability that receives funding from the NDIS in New South Wales and over 53,828 of whom that received this kind of support for their disabilities for the first time, including people with disabilities living in Sydney.

People with a disability in Sydney who needs additional support to live their lives normally because challenges brought by their disabilities are highly encouraged to apply for the NDIS at their local NDIA office in Sydney. The funding they will receive will go directly to the support and services that they need to alleviate the challenge that their disabilities provide, meet their individual need, help them achieve personal goals, and will allow them to live life as normally as possible.

What is the NDIS?

The NDIS is a scheme run by the Australian Government with the goals to help Australian citizens with disabilities through funding the support and services that they need to live daily lives as normally as possible. The funding is meant to go directly to the providers of the support and services that the NDIS participant requires for an efficient administration of support and services.

Administered by the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), the NDIS focuses on giving support to people with a permanent and significant disability who face everyday challenges and have reduced function brought on by their disabilities throughout all of Australia’s states and territories.

NDIS Sydney helps their participants create individualised treatment plans called NDIS plans that comprehensively lays out the support, services, and other resources they can receive funding for their disability with the goals to meet individual needs and achieve their personal goals in life. These NDIS plans are tailor-made for each individual with different support and services laid out in the plan to specifically help meet their needs and achieve their goals.

The NDIS and its many accredited NDIS Sydney providers, qualified organisations or services that give support and services to NDIS participants, understands that treatments for individuals with disabilities do not require an one size fits all solution and thus has developed a detailed process that helps their diverse participants identify the support and services that they need to address the challenge their disabilities brings.

It is also another goal for NDIS to develop their participants’ independence overtime in their daily lives with the help of their chosen support and services as well as to eventually participate in their communities and the workforce. The scheme is focused on providing support to eligible people with disabilities who have shown to have intellectual, physical, sensory, cognitive, or psychosocial disabilities.

There is also a heavy focus on early intervention for both children and adults participating in the NDIS to get treatment for their disabilities as early as possible to prevent the negative impacts that their abilities can cause over time and to quickly and efficiently learn the necessary skills or receive the support that they need to become more independent while living with their disability.

How to Know if You’re Eligible for the NDIS

The National Insurance Disability Scheme has developed an eligibility checklist for people with disabilities who wishes to receive funding for the support and services that they need to manage their disabilities.

To become eligible to apply for the NDIS, a person with a disability must be:

Between the ages of 7 and 65; and
Living in Australia (Applicable to Citizens, Permanent Visa holders and/or Protected Special Category Visa holders); and
Having a permanent or significant disability that requires another person’s support; or
Using special equipment because of a permanent or significant disability; or
In need of support to reduce future needs.

If you’re an aspiring applicant for the NDIS in Sydney, you’ll need to meet the first three requirements and one of the three requirements listed above. For those who did not meet the requirements of the eligibility checklist of the NDIS, the Australian Government has other welfare projects that they can apply to help support its citizens with disabilities, particularly those who didn’t fall into the required age brackets of the NDIS.

People with disabilities living in Sydney eligible for the NDIS can easily apply by making an Access Request at Sydney’s local NDIA office, complete an online copy of the Access Request Form and send it to NAT@ndis.gov.au, or call 1800 800 110 and ask to make an Access Request.

Creating Your NDIS Plan

Once an applicant is accepted and became an NDIS participant, the first step to getting access to funding for the necessary support and services that they need is to make an NDIS Plan.

Depending on the participant’s disability, the NDIS participant themselves, an NDIS support worker, or a guardian will help create the NDIS plan with the participant. The Sydney NDIS participant will go through various meetings and reviews to get approval for their NDIS plan before getting approval for their funding.

What are the Support and Services the NDIS can Fund?

Depending on the approved support budget that the NDIS will provide to the participant, the NDIS participant can receive a selection of different support and services. There are three types of support budgets that NDIS participants can avail and these are:

Core Support Budget

The core support budget is considered to be the most flexible one for NDIS participants to get and includes funding for the following four categories of support and services:

Consumables
Daily Activities
Assistance with Social and Community Participation
Transport

Core Supports Budget

The Core Supports Budget is meant to be allocated for the NDIS participant’s daily needs to alleviate the challenges that their disabilities bring and help them work towards the goals they set. This is the most flexible support budget as the NDIS participant can use their funding to switch across the different four support categories in the Core Supports budget. These different categories are:

Assistance with Daily Life;
Consumables;
Assistance with Community and Social Participation; and
Transportation.

Capacity Building Supports Budget

The Capacity Building Supports Budget is focused more on the NDIS participant gaining independence in their daily life and helping them reach their long-term goals. However, unlike Core Supports Budget, the Capacity Building Supports budgets is not flexible and requires the NDIS participant to only allocate funding for approved individual support that falls in their chosen support category. These Capacity Building categories are:

Support Coordination;
Improved Living Arrangements;
Increased Social and Community Participation;
Finding and Keeping a Job;
Improved Relationships;
Improved Health and Wellbeing;
Improved Learning;
Improved Life Choices; and
Improved Daily Living.

NDIS counselling

Capital Supports Budget

The Capital Supports Budget is meant to allocate to higher-cost pieces that the NDIS participants need to function in their daily lives. These can be assistive technology like medical equipment, or home or vehicle modifications. This support budget is the least flexible of the three as funding can only be spent on: