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Since the release of the NDIS Guide to Plan Management back in September 2020, and even long before that, the NDIA has been clear that there are two types of services a plan management provider can offer:
1. The financial administration of a participant’s plan, including:
- managing and monitoring a participant’s budget in accordance with the plan
- managing service agreements
- managing the NDIS claims and disbursing funds to providers for delivered services
- maintaining records for a participant and producing regular (at least monthly) statements
- providing access as required to a wider range of service providers, including non-registered providers, while ensuring compliance with the price limits contained within the NDIS Price Guide.
2. Capacity building and training, which includes but is not limited to:
- building participants’ financial and administration skills, so they can set and monitor budgets, pay providers in line with service agreements, and gain financial organisational skills
- enhancing a participant’s ability to direct their own supports. Including deciding who provides their supports and how they are delivered. And, where possible and appropriate, developing a participant’s skills to self-manage their own NDIS plan.
Yet, among the 14,233 plan managers registered at some point during Q2 2024-25, only a handful provide the latter.
A challenging environment for Plan Managers
The last price cap increase for ‘plan management financial administration’ occurred way back in 2019, and Plan Managers consistently tell us it's near impossible to deliver a viable service at $104.45 per client per month. Particularly with the rising administration and compliance burdens, including the NDIA getting stricter on plan top ups due to poor budgeting, the rollout of PACE, the implementation of the new NDIS Act, and the NDIA's focus on Payment Integrity.
Statistics shed some light on this issue. The NDIA conducted 14,531 Pre-Payment Integrity Audits and 66,759 Post-Payment Integrity Audits in the 2023-24 financial year. The most recent quarterly report indicated that the Payment Integrity team reviewed 7,000 claims in the last quarter - an increase from 4,912 in the same quarter the previous year. Many of these Payment Integrity Audits involve a Plan Manager as the intermediary between the NDIA, the service provider, and the participant, drawing them into time-consuming communications regarding the suspension of payments and coordination of information requests. These tasks disrupt the smooth processing of payments that is necessary for effective plan management.
Furthermore, anecdotal evidence suggests these changes are increasing the role of Plan Managers in educating participants, their decision-making supports, and service providers about what qualifies as a NDIS support, when funds can be spent flexibly, how funds can be spent, and how to effectively manage limited plan budgets.
It seems to me that the need for financial management capacity building support has significantly increased, and participants, Plan Managers and the NDIA could benefit from a renewed focus on this service. So, let’s take a closer look at what that might involve.
Plan and financial management capacity building
There are three sources that offer insight into what the capacity building and training support in plan and financial management looks like; the NDIS Guide to Plan Management, DIAs Professional Standards of Practice and the PAPL. These documents explain that capacity building and training support in plan and financial management focuses on strengthening a participant’s ability to undertake tasks associated with managing their supports. It encompasses:
- building financial skills
- building organisational skills
- engaging with providers
- enhancing the capacity to direct supports
- developing service agreements
- maintaining records, and
- managing payments and claims from the NDIA.
The service is designed to enhance financial and administration skills, enabling participants to set and monitor budgets, pay providers in accordance with service agreements. Where possible and appropriate, the service can foster skills that allow participants to self-manage their own NDIS plans. This is particularly significant in the context of new funding management rules under the NDIS Act. The NDIA must assess whether self-management of funds would pose an unreasonable risk to the participant. This assessment requires the NDIA to determine if potential risks could be mitigated through supports in the participant's plan, such as financial literacy training. Check out this article to learn more about the new management of funding rule.
Capacity building and training support in plan and financial management can be delivered to individual participants or groups, adhering to the rules set out in the PAPL. Unlike financial administration it’s an hourly unit of support with a standard price limit of $77 per hour and remote and very remote price limits of $107.80 and $115.50 per hour, respectively. In addition to direct service provision, providers can claim for non-face-to-face support, provider travel, and short notice cancellations (up to 7 days). And unlike financial administration, the price cap for capacity building and training support in plan and financial management is pegged against the Disability Support Worker cost model, which means it’s updated annually to reflect changes in the underlying costs to deliver the support.
Because the support item for capacity building and training support in plan and financial management (01_134_0117_8_1) sits in the support category Assistance with Daily Life, it’s part of the flexible core budget. That means that the participant doesn’t need to have the support stated in their plan and can choose to use some of their flexible core budget to cover the cost of the service. And, as with most other NDIS funded supports (SDA and Behaviour Support aside) if the flexible core budget is self- or plan-managed the participant can purchase the support from a plan manager even if they are not registered under the 0117-registration group. Naturally billing for this support requires explicit approval from the participant, ideally with a detailed service agreement outlining what support will be delivered and all the associated costs.
If this raises questions for you and you would like to learn more about the practical delivery of this support, we’ve launched a new workshop. Check out: Diversifying Revenue as a Plan Manager.
