Does the NDIS Fund Gardening, Cleaning and Home Maintenance?

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) may fund supports to help you get tasks like gardening, cleaning and maintenance around your home done if your disability impacts or limits your capacity to do them yourself. These supports help you to become more independent.

This would be funded in your Core Supports budget under the Assistance with Daily Life category. However, there are some T&Cs to keep in mind – and as always with the NDIS, these domestic supports must be considered ‘reasonable and necessary’ to be included in your plan.

At a glance: NDIS funding & help around your home

To have domestic supports funded, you must meet certain criteria. Your specific situation, including where you live and who you live with, will play into whether these are considered necessary.

In the NDIS Price Arrangements and Price Limits schedule, domestic support funding is designed to help eligible participants maintain or develop skills to care for their home. This is particularly relevant if you own your home or have sole or substantial responsibility for its upkeep.

If you live in a sharehouse or with family, you would not typically be able to claim domestic maintenance funding for the upkeep of the home in general – but you may qualify for assistance in your own space, such as support for cleaning your room. Let’s put this in context: 

Example scenario 1 – Sole responsibility

You own your home and need help with tasks like doing laundry, cleaning, or yard work. No one else could reasonably contribute to these tasks. With the right funding, you could engage supports to come and either do the tasks for you or help you build skills to do it yourself in future to promote your independence.

Example scenario 2 – Shared responsibility

You live in a shared household, either with flatmates or with family. Because there are people residing with you who are able to do maintenance tasks like cleaning and yard maintenance (providing informal support), it would not be considered reasonable and necessary for the NDIS to fund formal support for your household’s domestic tasks.

In some cases the criteria can be a little more complex. If you live in a shared household as per the above, you may be able to access funding to cover the spaces you are responsible for but unable to clean – such as your personal living space, like your room.

What domestic help can you access through the NDIS?

If a cost is something everyone must pay regardless of ability, it will not be funded through your NDIS plan.

For example:

• Gardening can be supported as part of your home maintenance, meaning you may be able to engage a gardener to come and do the yard maintenance you are unable to do yourself.
• Soil, plants, and gardening tools are not claimable items as part of this support. These are not related to your disability, as anyone would need to buy these to upkeep their garden.

The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) has provided clarity about what’s in and what’s out in the latest round of NDIS funding changes.

What’s in:

Supports essential for undertaking tasks that a participant is unable to do themselves, in direct relation to their disability.

• House or yard maintenance
• Meal prep and delivery
• Cleaning and laundry services

As well as being used directly for the services themselves, you may also be able to claim for non-face-to-face support provision, provider travel to deliver services in your home, and short notice cancellation (2 clear business days). 

For providers, there are set rules about what can and cannot be claimed for NDIS provider travel. Be sure to check that your services are compliant with requirements before adding Provider Travel – Non-Labour Costs to your invoice.

What’s out:

• Pool cleaning & maintenance
• Standard renovations, home repairs and improvements
• Home security and maintenance (e.g. fences, gates, building or structure repairs)

For more information, see the official guidelines on what is and isn’t an NDIS support at this time.

How domestic supports look in your NDIS Plan

To access NDIS help with domestic tasks you’ll need to determine whether you have funding for Assistance with Daily Life, which sits in Core Supports. If you do not have this funding but feel you need assistance and meet the requirements, you can raise it with the NDIS to see if it can be added to your current or future plan.

Core Supports are the most flexible of your NDIS budgets. It is one of the four top-level support categories under NDIS, and funding is mostly able to be used across the different Core categories within the broader budget. Other categories are not so flexible – for example, Capital Supports must be used for stated supports only.

Specific funding for these tasks generally falls under the line item ‘NDIS Support with Personal Domestic Activities.’ As per the guide, services for this support are billed per hour. 

If you are Plan Managed you will be able to see how much funding you have to pay for these services. For example, NDSP clients can see live budget tracking 24/7 through our online Nappa portal, alongside budget snapshots showing what funding remains in your plan currently.

Related: How Our Mobile-Friendly Portal Empowers You to Manage Your NDIS Plan Effortlessly

How NDSP Plan Managers help you keep track of your budget

Plan Management is a great option for those who want to retain more control over their choice of service providers, without having to handle time-consuming financial admin and record keeping. You have more important things to worry about – like living your best life!

With our easy-access Nappa Portal and our free online Participant Toolbox, we make accessing everything you need to stay informed on your NDIS journey a breeze. An overview of your plan budgets is at your fingertips whenever you want it.

NDSP also provides consistent support no matter where you live. We provide experienced plan management services to NDIS participants across Australia, with expert guidance and helpful support to make sure you can get the most out of your NDIS funding.

If you are looking to switch plan managers, or want to get started with NDIS plan management, contact NDSP today to find out more about how we can help you.