The NDIS is the new way of providing support for Australians with disability. The NDIS puts you at the centre of decision making about how you want to live your life, your choice of supports and who you want to deliver your supports. For the first time in Australia, funding goes directly to the person with disability to choose the services they need, rather than funding going straight to service providers.

NDIS pays for supports that are ‘reasonable and necessary’ for you. This means they must help you to:

• increase your independence
• increase your social and economic participation; and
• develop your capacity to actively participate in the community.

This can include things you’d like to access for daily living, learning, work, relationships, equipment/assistive technology, transport and hobbies.

If you turn 65 years after you have become an NDIS participant, you will have a choice. You can either continue to receive disability supports in the NDIS or receive supports through the Commonwealth aged care system

Goals describe what you want to achieve, develop or learn. A key part of your plan is identifying short-term and long-term goals. These goals are included in your participant statement and are essentially how the NDIA work out what’s important to you, and how they can best help you. Your NDIS plan is based on these goals, and the supports that are funded are those that help you meet your goals. It’s important to think ahead about the goals you would like to include in your participant statement. For example, your short-team goal may be to ‘learn to do your own washing’, ‘make new friends’ or ‘maintain your current accommodation’. A long-term goal, for example, may be to ‘learn to live more independently’, ‘go on a holiday’ or ‘get a job’.