Every NDIS plan is divided into budgets, and the two that cause the most confusion are Core Supports and Capacity Building. They fund different things, follow different rules about flexibility, and a request filed against the wrong one gets declined for reasons that are never obvious at the time.
This guide covers what each budget is for, the categories inside them, which is flexible and which is not, and how to tell which one a particular support belongs to.
What is the difference between Core Supports and Capacity Building?
Core Supports pay for the help somebody needs to get through daily life now. Capacity Building pays for building skills so that less help is needed later. Core keeps life running; Capacity Building changes what is possible.
It is the difference between a support worker who cooks dinner and a course that teaches somebody to cook. Both are legitimate supports. They come out of different budgets, and only one of them is still paying off in two years.
What are the NDIS support categories?
Plans are organised into three budget types — Core, Capacity Building and Capital — and each contains several categories. These are the ones most participants encounter.
| Budget | Categories you will commonly see |
|---|---|
| Core | Assistance with Daily Life · Transport · Consumables · Assistance with Social and Community Participation |
| Capacity Building | Support Coordination · Improved Living Arrangements · Increased Social and Community Participation · Finding and Keeping a Job · Improved Relationships · Improved Health and Wellbeing · Improved Learning · Improved Life Choices · Improved Daily Living |
| Capital | Assistive Technology · Home Modifications |
Not every plan has every category. What appears depends on the goals in the plan and what the NDIA considered reasonable and necessary to pursue them.
What does Core Supports pay for?
Core pays for day-to-day assistance: help with personal care and daily tasks, transport, everyday consumables, and support to take part in community and social activities.
- Assistance with Daily Life — personal care, help around the house, support in shared living
- Transport — getting to activities and appointments where ordinary transport is not workable
- Consumables — everyday items like continence aids and low-cost assistive products
- Assistance with Social and Community Participation — support to get out and take part
What does Capacity Building pay for?
Capacity Building pays for therapy, training, courses and programs that build a participant’s ability — in daily living, health, relationships, learning, work, and community participation.
- Improved Daily Living — therapy and skill development for everyday independence
- Increased Social and Community Participation — courses and programs that build confidence in community life
- Finding and Keeping a Job — employment preparation and support
- Improved Relationships — behaviour support and social skills
- Improved Health and Wellbeing — exercise and dietetic supports connected to the disability
- Improved Learning — support moving into or through further education
- Improved Life Choices — plan management
- Support Coordination — somebody to help put the plan into action
Two of these have their own guides: Improved Daily Living and Increased Social and Community Participation, and our guide to Capacity Building supports goes through all nine.
Is Core funding flexible between categories?
Mostly yes. Core funding can usually be moved between most Core categories as circumstances change, which means unspent money in one can often be redirected to another. Transport funding is commonly the exception and is often fixed.
This flexibility is genuinely useful. If support hours are going unused but there is a group program you want to join, Core funding can often cover it without going back to the NDIA for anything.
Is Capacity Building funding flexible?
Generally not. Capacity Building budgets are normally tied to the category they were approved in. Funding allocated to Improved Daily Living stays in Improved Daily Living, and cannot be spent on a support that sits under a different heading.
That has a consequence worth understanding. Unspent Capacity Building funding does not help anywhere else — it simply goes unused, and at the next reassessment the NDIA may reasonably conclude the category was not needed. Unspent categories are the ones most likely to shrink.
How do you tell which budget a support belongs to?
Ask what the support leaves behind. If it gets a task done and the same help will be needed next week, it is Core. If it builds a skill, so that less help is needed next week, it is Capacity Building.
Three cases that trip people up:
- A cooking program. Capacity Building, if it teaches. Core, if a worker is simply cooking alongside you each week.
- A group outing. Core, normally — unless it is a structured program building a specific skill.
- Therapy. Capacity Building, in nearly all cases, because therapy is about change.
If you are not certain, ask the provider which support item they intend to claim against and which category it sits in. A registered provider will know immediately, and the answer tells you which part of your plan needs to have room in it.
What if the right category has no funding in it?
You cannot move money into it yourself. If a support sits in a Capacity Building category with nothing allocated, the options are to wait for the scheduled reassessment, or to request an early reassessment if circumstances have changed materially.
Going into that conversation with a specific program, a price and a goal it serves is far more effective than asking for a category to be increased in the abstract. Our guide to preparing for a plan review covers how to put that case together.