Pay registered and unregistered providers to expand your choice of supports.
Receive invoices from your supports, draw down funds from the NDIS portal and pay your supports quickly.
Receive invoices from yourself or your providers via email: [email protected] .com.au
Provide you with their mobile number and be available, as agreed.
Send monthly statements showing your current expenditures and remaining balances. Download our app.
Help you enjoy the flexibility of self-management, minus the administrative burden.
A Plan Manager will help you organise the financial side of your NDIS plan, much like an bookkeeper. Their role is to ensure that funds are being spent in line with your budget.
The best Plan Managers are well qualified, either as accountants, bookkeepers or general accounts people, and also have experience in health or disability fields. They are expected to follow payment and price controls set by the NDIA.
Plan Management is funded by the NDIS. At your planning meeting, simply tell your NDIS Planner that you would like a Plan Manager to support you.
The Plan Manager’s role is to submit claims to the NDIS for supports and services after they have been provided, as well as pay the actual providers of those supports. This is done by claiming money from the right budget categories on the NDIA portal.
Receiving invoices from your providers should be made simple for all parties (whether it’s you passing these on to your Plan Manager, or the providers invoicing your Plan Manager directly.)
Paying providers should also be done as quickly as possible. Auscare Support currently pays providers within 3-4 days and is working towards 1-day turnaround.
Your Plan Manager needs to supply you with regular reports and statements and let you know if you’ve over- or underspent your budget, but their role isn’t to choose or develop service agreements with providers. (See Support Coordination).
If you’re using a Plan Manager, providers cannot charge more than the price limits outlined in the NDIS price guide.
Your NDIA Planner may ask you how you would like to manage your NDIS funding as part of your NDIS Plan or Plan Review meeting.
You might also have decided before your meeting that you would like funding for Plan Management and should therefore be prepared to let your NDIS planner or Local Area Coordinator know.
Our simple Plan Management Request form is a helpful tool to facilitate your request.
Plan Management falls under your Capacity Building – Improved Life Choices budget.
You can choose Plan Management for your full budget, or just part of it. (Other options are Self-Managed or NDIA Managed.)
For example, your Assistive Technology budget may be NDIA Managed.
Circumstances change and it’s not unusual to realise that too much or too little Plan Management is allocated to your budget. If you choose to have more (or less) of your budget Plan Managed in between Review Meetings, you can request a Light Touch Review.
You are also free to change Plan Managers throughout your plan and you don’t need to consult the NDIS.
Simply double check the service agreement you have with your current provider to understand their notice period, inform them of your intentions, and make the switch.
When it comes to paying supports, you can either choose to self-manage your supports, ask the NDIS to pay on your behalf, or ask a Plan Manager to manage your payments.
These are referred to as:
You can choose to be Plan Managed, or a combination of all three, in whatever combination you’d like.
When you are Self Managed, you can select from a range of registered and non-registered providers, which expands your choice of supports. Being Self Managed also means you are not governed by the NDIS price guide, so you can pay as much or as little for a service as you like.
While Self Management offers you maximum flexibility, the administration and reporting are onerous and not suited to everyone.
If you are Agency Managed, you are able to choose from a range of NDIA-registered providers but cannot use unregistered supports. You are also bound to follow the NDIS price guide. This means you can negotiate to pay less than the price guide, but never more.
Being Agency Managed offers you the greatest level of support. The NDIA will pay service providers on your behalf and manage the bookkeeping and reporting via their myplace portal, which you can view to track your spending.
If you’re Agency Managed, you might want to choose providers who are not registered with the NDIS. You could achieve this through having a portion of your budget Plan Managed.
This could give you access to registered and non-registered providers, but still offer you the convenience and support of someone else providing the bookkeeping and reporting services.
You could also Self Manage a portion of your plan to test out and build up your independence or to access supports not bound by the price guide.
The NDIS is all about exercising choice and control, so the key is to work with those who know and assist you to find the best combination of management for you.
Plan Management and Support Coordination are similar in that they both help you make the most of your NDIS budget, but they differ in some key respects.
Plan Managers are there to manage your NDIS finances – they’re like your own NDIS bookkeeper.
Invoices from your providers are received and paid by your Plan Manager. Plan Managers also claim your funds from the NDIS portal and will provide you with a snapshot of where you are at.
Your Support Coordinator will not handle the finances, but will assess your situation and goals, interpret your plan and work out what combination of providers are the best fit for your needs.
They will also help build connections with providers, community and government networks to help you live a more fulfilled life.
Both Plan Management and Support Coordination are funded by the NDIS and you need to ask for both in your planning meeting. With Support Coordination, you need to prove that it is ‘reasonable and necessary’ for you to build your capacity and meet your goals.
With Plan Management, there are no conditions for funding and there’s a good chance that you’ll receive it, if you ask for it in your planning meeting.
You can receive funding for Plan Management and Support Coordination in the one plan. Since your Plan Manager and Support Coordinator offer complementary services, they can work closely to ensure that most of your bases are covered in bringing your plan to life.
The great thing about Plan Managers is that they allow you to access both registered and non-registered providers, giving you choice and opportunity. They don’t, however, help you choose the right provider, that’s the role of your Support Coordinator.
There are three types of support budgets that may be funded as part of your NDIS plan. They are your:
Plan Management falls under number 2, Capacity Building Supports Budget, and under the sub-category of Improved Life Choices: Plan Management.
It is designed to help you manage your plan, funding and paying for services.
The current price guide lists the following:
14_033_0127_8_3 Plan Management And Financial Capacity Building – Set Up Costs $232.35. This is a one off set up cost issued per plan.
14_034_0127_8_3 Plan Management – Financial Administration $104.45. These are the monthly account keeping fees.
Your Capacity Building Supports Budget can only be used to purchase approved, individual supports. These might also include:
Unlike Capacity Building, your Core Supports Budget is designed to assist you with everyday living. This can include assistance with daily needs around the house; consumables; participation in social and community activities and transportation.
Your Capital Supports Budget could include higher-cost assistive technology (lower cost normally falls under Core Support) and home modifications.
When it comes to funded supports, the non-NDIS-related assistance from family, friends and other community and government services do not fall under any of these support categories.
Belinda – Logan’s Mum
Is there someone who you think could benefit from Auscare Support’s services? Then let them know by entering their name below. We’ll do the rest…
Auscare Support is an NDIS registered provider, specialising in Plan Management,
Support Coordination, Budget Builder and finding the best support staff to assist you in achieving your goals.
We enable you to implement your NDIS plan in a way most suited to you and your unique situation.
That’s fine, you can always build your case load from scratch.
That’s great, it’s always easier to build a case load when you already have some momentum.
You might want to reconsider this role as you do need to build your own client list
That’s great, feeling confident that you have the skills to grow your case load is important for this role
You might want to reconsider this role as building a client list relies on you being able to call up a list of contacts
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You might want to reconsider this role as building a client list relies on you being integrated with your community and its services
That’s great, being integrated with your community and its services is important for this role
You will need to register your own ABN before you can contract with us as a Support Coordinator
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COVID-19 Coronavirus information for our clients, carers, families, and community members who access Auscare Support’s services and sites.
At Auscare Support we understand the COVID-19 outbreak through our communities may be causing concern or anxiety and we are here to support all of our people during this time.
The safety of our clients, employees and contractors and community members who engage with our services and sites is our priority. We continuously monitor the COVID-19 situation closely and make the necessary changes to our protocols to align with Government advice and laws.
We are all in this together.
What we will do to keep you safe:
What you can do to keep us safe:
It is important that we only trust reliable sources of information about the virus. We recommend the World Health Organisation, or the Australian Department of Health.
Australia introduced a positive COVID-19 milestone on Sunday 21 February, when the Federal Government kicked off Australia’s COVID-19 vaccine program.
Since that date, Auscare Support has been encouraging its clients, employees, and contractors to get vaccinated.
We believe the vaccine is an important line of defence against COVID-19, and for that reason it is a condition of employment for employees in NSW to be vaccinated if they are providing in person supports. In Victoria any Auscare Support employees or contractors must also be vaccinated, regardless of their role.
Any Auscare Support employee or contactor who is not fully vaccinated will not be able to provide in person supports to any of our clients. We are working through that detail at the moment.
Some Easy English resources
NDIS Easy Read – COVID-19 (Coronavirus) information
Council for Intellectual Disability - Staying Safe from COVID-19 (Coronavirus)