Short answer: usually yes, where the course teaches rather than simply feeds. Cooking is one of the more commonly funded skills in the scheme, because it affects health, money and independence at the same time — but it has to be claimed against the right part of a plan.
This guide covers which budget pays for cooking programs, what the NDIA is looking for, what it will not cover, and how to work out whether your own funding stretches to one.
Can you use NDIS funding for cooking classes?
Yes, where the class is a structured program that builds a skill. Cooking programs are routinely funded as capacity building, because learning to prepare meals reduces how much ongoing support a participant needs — which is exactly what the Capacity Building budget exists for.
What is not funded is somebody cooking for you under the heading of a class. The distinction the NDIA draws is between a support that gets dinner made and a support that leaves you able to make dinner.
Which part of your plan pays for a cooking course?
Usually Improved Daily Living in the Capacity Building budget, because cooking is a daily living skill. Some programs are claimed instead against community participation supports, where the emphasis is on taking part in a group rather than on the skill itself.
| Category | When it applies |
|---|---|
| Improved Daily Living (Capacity Building) | The program teaches cooking as a practical skill |
| Increased Social and Community Participation (Capacity Building) | The emphasis is on building confidence in a group setting |
| Assistance with Social and Community Participation (Core) | The session is primarily social, with support to take part |
Which one applies depends on the program, the provider’s registration and what the participant’s goals say. The same cooking course can legitimately sit in different categories for two different people.
What makes a cooking program fundable?
Structure, progression and an outcome somebody can point to. A program that runs in a sequence, builds week on week, and leaves a participant able to cook something they could not cook before is straightforwardly capacity building.
What the NDIA is looking for:
- A curriculum rather than a different activity each week with no connection
- Skills that transfer to the participant’s own kitchen
- A link to a goal in the plan about independence or daily living
- Some record of progress, so the capacity building can be seen to have happened
Programs that fail this test are usually the ones where participants watch rather than cook, or where the group is too large for anyone to get hands-on time.
What will the NDIS not pay for?
Your weekly groceries, your own kitchen equipment, and meal delivery as a substitute for cooking. The NDIS funds the teaching, not the ordinary cost of eating.
Meal delivery is a particular point of confusion. Some participants do have meal preparation funded in Core supports, but that is assistance rather than capacity building — and it sits in a different part of the plan from a course.
Where a provider runs the program, the ingredients used in the session are normally part of the program fee. Worth confirming before you enrol, because it is the kind of thing that varies.
How do you get a cooking course into your plan?
Have a goal about preparing your own meals or living more independently, and ask for the program by name with its cost. Funding follows goals, so the goal has to exist before the support can be justified.
A request that works sounds like this: “My goal is to prepare my own meals. I would like to do a ten-week cooking course, which costs this much, because it teaches the skills in order and I will be able to cook several meals on my own by the end.”
Our guides to writing NDIS goals and preparing for a plan review cover how to put the rest of the case together.
What if the funding is already in your plan?
Then nothing needs approving — you can enrol now. If there is money in Improved Daily Living and a goal the course serves, that is all that is required.
This is the situation most people are actually in. In our experience the majority of participants who join a cooking course discover the funding has been sitting in their plan for months, unspent, because nobody had explained what the category was for.
Your plan manager can tell you what is left in a minute. If you are agency managed, the myplace portal shows it.
How much does an NDIS cooking course cost?
Group programs are charged per participant at a rate set by the support ratio, and capped by the NDIS price guide. A small group costs each participant considerably less per session than one-to-one support, which is why a given budget stretches much further.
Ask any provider for the cost per session and the cost of the whole program in writing, and ask which support item they claim against. A provider who cannot answer both clearly is worth a second thought.
How to check whether it fits your funding
Ask the provider directly. Give them your plan management type and the category you think the funding sits in, and a good provider will tell you plainly whether it works — including when the answer is no.
That is worth saying explicitly, because it is the test of a provider. We run a ten-week course at Helensvale and we check this with every participant before they enrol. If your funding does not fit, we will tell you, and point you at whoever is a better match.