Improvements to requesting Home and Living supports

At Healthcare Australia, we always want to make sure you are up-to-date with any changes that may impact your care and support you can receive.

The NDIA want to deliver the fastest pathway to make decisions about home and living supports that respect a participant’s individual circumstances and often complex needs.

What’s changed?

From 9 June 2022, the process of requesting home and living support will change for participants. Home and living support are considered part of your overall NDIS plan. This means that there is no need to ask for a change to these supports separately from your regular plan reviews.

To request home and living supports, you can use the new Supporting Evidence Form – Home and Living in one of these ways:

• within 100 days of a participant’s plan end date, for consideration during a scheduled plan review
• with a Change of situation or change of details form, or
• with a Request for a review of a decision form.

This form will be an excellent guide to select the correct option based on your current needs. It is recommended that this form be supported with all relevant information.

Once the form is complete, the form can be returned in one of three ways:

Email: [email protected]

Mail: NDIA, GPO Box 700, Canberra ACT 2601

In person to your local NDIS or partner office.

What are the benefits?

Changes have been made to:

• Make the process quicker so you receive support sooner
• Allow the process to align to our timeline’s commitments under the Participant Service Guarantee
• Simplify and streamline the process for all participants, allowing all to expect the same level of service.

After conversations with everyone who interacts with the NDIA, they were able to identify these improvements and an opportunity to streamline their processes. The NDIA wants to make sure decisions are made quickly and consistently.

What about an upcoming review?

This form can be brought along to a scheduled plan review or if help is required from your planner. If you want there to be a consideration for new or additional home and living supports to the current plan, follow the existing process to request a plan review.

If you are submitting before a scheduled plan review, do so within 100 days of your review. All this means is that it will ensure all information that is needed is gathered early which reduced the need to ask for further clarification or information.

What if I already submitted the previous form recently?

If you have already submitted and Home and Living Supports form, you will not need to do anything else. The request will still be processed and considered.

What home and living supports does the NDIS fund?

The NDIA has published a new ‘Would We Fund It’. It provides real-life examples of how they make decisions for funding diverse kinds of support. New examples include-

• A participant with a degenerative condition
• a participant requesting two bedrooms and living alone in specialist disability accommodation
• a participant requesting a ratio of 2 to 1 support

a participant who requests to live alone

Healthcare Australia

Healthcare Australia services the healthcare industry with the highest quality staffing solutions, while also offering a wide variety of services aimed at supporting community health and wellbeing.