Your NDIS Plan: What Happens After Approval
This article is based on information supplied from the NDIA in a document titled “Your Plan,” dated 8 July 2026. Participants should always refer to the current NDIS website for the most up-to-date official guidance
An NDIS plan explains your approved NDIS supports, how your funding is organised, and how that funding can be used. Once the NDIA approves the plan, you can begin using your funding to buy the NDIS supports set out in the plan.
NDIS funding must be spent in line with your plan and only on NDIS supports. NDIS supports are the services, items, and equipment that can be funded by the NDIS, and they must be related to your disability and used in the way the plan describes.
The guideline also notes that the NDIS is moving towards a new planning framework following recent changes to NDIS laws. Until the new framework is introduced, current plans are described as “old framework” plans and continue to be developed under the existing planning framework, including the law changes that are being introduced.
Understanding a plan is not only about knowing the total funding amount. It’s also about knowing what supports are included, what funding can be used flexibly, what must be used exactly as stated, when funding becomes available, and what to do if your situation changes.
What Happens After an NDIS Plan is Approved?
Once the NDIA approved a plan, you can start using it. This mean you can spend NDIS funding on the NDIS supports outlined in the plan, as long as those supports are related to your disability and are in line with your plan.
The NDIA sends a copy of your plan within 7 days after approval. You can also access your plan through the my NDIS portal and app.
If a participant has a nominee or child representative with authority to manage their plan, the NDIA may also send them a copy. You can ask the NDIA to share the plan with other people, but the NDIA can only do this if and when you ask.
You can also choose to show your plan to someone else, such as a health professional, provider, family member, or support person. This is entirely your choice, and you don’t need to share your full plan unless you want to.
There may be extra information the NDIA needs before some claims can be made. For example, self-managed participants need to provide bank account details before making claims, and some supports require the participant to tell the NDIA who their chosen provider is before payment can be made.
Getting Help
After a plan is approved, the NDIA will ask whether you wants to meet and talk about how to use the plan. This is called a plan implementation meeting.
A plan implementation meeting is optional, but it’s often useful when you receive your first plan or when a new plan has many changes from the previous plan. If you want this meeting, the NDIA says it will arrange it within 28 days after plan approval.
A plan implementation meeting may be with your my NDIS contact, support coordinator, or psychosocial recovery coach. A my NDIS contact may be a local area coordinator (LAC), early childhood planner, or NDIS planner.
During a plan implementation meeting, you can get help to understand your plan, what NDIS supports can be bought, what mainstream services may provide, how to connect with community supports, how to find providers, how to use the portal and app, and how to make service agreements.
If your my NDIS contact is an early childhood partner, they may also help families understand best practice in early childhood intervention. This is relevant for children younger than 9 who are supported through the early childhood approach.
Connecting with Informal, Community & Mainstream Support
Not every support you use is funded by the NDIS. Informal supports may include friends, family, and other people in your community.
Community supports may include community groups, sporting groups, clubs, local activities, and other community-based services. These supports can help participants pursue goals, build connection, and participate in community life.
Mainstream supports include services available to all Australians, such as health, education, employment, and other government services. The NDIA doesn’t provide NDIS funding for these supports because they are the responsibility of other systems.
When you start using your plan, the NDIA may help you connect with supports that are available outside the NDIS. This may include finding community clubs, contacting other government services, exploring local activities, or looking at ways to strengthen relationships with family and friends.
Finding Service Providers
A service provider is a person or organisation that delivers NDIS supports. Your my NDIS contact, support coordinator, or recovery coach can help them explore providers, but the NDIA doesn’t recommend specific providers.
Some providers are registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Registered providers must meet strict quality and safety requirements, while unregistered providers aren’t registered with the NDIS Commission but must still follow relevant obligations when delivering NDIS supports.
You can usually choose the provider you want to deliver your NDIS supports. However, if funding is Agency-managed, the participant can only use registered NDIS providers for those supports.
Some types of supports must always be delivered by registered providers, regardless of how funding is managed. The guideline lists specialist behaviour supports, supports involving regulated restrictive practices, plan management, Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), Supported Independent Living (SIL), and NDIS digital platforms.
You can search for registered NDIS providers through the myplace portal or the NDIS Provider Finder. You can also check online, read reviews, speak with different providers, and ask family or friends for advice before choosing a provider.
Buying NDIS Supports
Your plan includes information about the reasonable and necessary NDIS supports you can buy with your funding. NDIS laws determine what the NDIS can and cannot fund.
When buying a support with NDIS funding, you must make sure the support is an NDIS support for them, is not declared to be not an NDIS support, doesn’t include excluded items (sexual services, alcohol, drugs, etc.), is related to your disability, and is in line with your plan.
Spending in line with the plan means spending funding only on supports included in the plan, using funding in the way the plan describes, making sure funding lasts for the full plan length, and following any funding periods or funding component amounts.
If you buy supports that aren’t NDIS supports in your plan or aren’t an approved replacement support, you may need to pay the money back to the NDIS.
Replacement Supports
In limited circumstances, the NDIA may agree that you can spend plan funding on a support that is not usually an NDIS support. This is called a replacement support.
You can only buy a replacement support if the NDIA has approved it in writing. A replacement support must be on the replacement support list, replace one or more existing NDIS supports, cost the same or less than the supports it replaces, and work the same or better than the supports it replaces.
Participants can apply for a replacement support by completing the application form, calling the NDIS, emailing with evidence, sending a letter with evidence, or visiting an NDIS office.
The NDIA will contact the participant before making a decision about the replacement support request, and the participant will receive a decision letter. If approved, the letter will explain how to claim for the replacement support.
Organisation of Funding
New and reassessed plans approved from 3 October 2024 include a total funding amount, funding component amounts, and funding periods.
The total funding amount is the full amount of funding for all reasonable and necessary supports in the plan. The NDIA may call this the “total budget amount” in your plan.
A funding component amount is the total amount of funding for a specific support, or a group of reasonable and necessary supports, over the full length of the plan. The NDIA uses support categories to describe the supports included in each funding component amount.
A funding period is the time when part of the funding becomes available and how long that funding needs to last. Funding periods can apply to the total funding amount or to an individual funding component amounts.
Participants need to buy NDIS supports in line with funding component amounts and funding periods. Funding from one component amount can’t be used for supported included in another component amount or for supports that aren’t included in the plan and aren’t NDIS supports.
NDIS Supports
How are supports described in your plan?
The NDIA describes NDIS supports in your plan using support categories. Each support category includes a definition of the types of supports that funding can be used for. Current plans may show supports grouped under four support budgets: Core supports, Capacity Building supports, Capital supports, and Recurring supports.
Core supports help with everyday activities, such as support to take part in community activities. Capacity Building supports help build skills and may increase independence or reduce the need for the same level of support in the future. Capital supports include higher-cost supports such as assistive technology, equipment, vehicle modification, home modifications, and SDA. Recurring supports are paid by the NDIA on a regular basis, such as some self-managed transport funding.
The NDIA is moving to a new way of showing budgets in plans. Future plans may show NDIS supports as individual funding components instead of grouping them under support budgets such as Capacity Building or Capital, but plans will still show whether supports are flexible or stated.
A funding component amount may include more than one Core support category. For example, transport, consumables, assistance with daily life, and assistance with social, economic and community participation may be included together, giving you more choice about how to use Core supports funding.
Flexible vs Stated Supports
The NDIA can describe NDIS supports as either flexible or stated.
Flexible supports are describe more generally, giving participants more choice about which NDIS supports they buy within the description of the relevant support category. For example, flexible funding under “assistance with daily life” may allow you to use funding for support workers to help with daily life activities, such as household cleaning or meal preparation, provided the supports are NDIS supports for you and are in line with your plan.
Stated supports are described specifically, which means you must buy supports in the way the plan describes. Stated supports may require a particular type of support, a particular provider, a particular qualified person, or a particular delivery method. Examples of stated supports may include funding that must be used for physiotherapy or funding that limits meal preparation to a specific monthly amount.
If you are unsure whether a support is flexible or stated, you can ask your my NDIS contact, support coordinator, or recovery coach.
What Happens During Your Plan?
Your NDIS plan continues until it’s replaced by another plan of you leave the NDIS. If your plan has more than one funding period, you will get access to new funding amounts across the length of your plan.
You can ask your my NDIS contact, support coordinator, recovery coach, or the NDIA questions about your plan at any time.
The NDIA recommends monitoring funding through the my NDIS portal and app. This can help participants check whether the right amount of funding is being used and whether providers are claiming correctly for agreed supports.
The NDIA also monitors plans to check whether there are any issues. If something doesn’t seem right, the NDIA may contact you to see if help is needed.
If you have a support coordinator or recovery coach, that provider will usually need to send reports during the course of the plan. These reports help the NDIA understand whether the plan is working and whether changes are needed.
If Your Situation Changes
You must tell the NDIA if something happens or your situation changes and it might affect your plan or whether you’re still eligible for the NDIS. You must also tell the NDIA if such a change is likely to happen in the future.
Relevant changes may include significant changes in informal supports, a condition improving or worsening, starting a new job, going overseas for a long period of time, moving overseas, moving out of aged care or other residential accommodation, or receiving/claiming compensation related to disability.
These changes don’t always mean you will need a plan change, but you still need to tell the NDIA as soon as reasonably possible. You should also update contact details such as:
Phone number
Email address
Home address
Postal address
If your new situation means the plan no longer meets your needs, you can ask the NDIA to change the plan. This may be relevant is assistive technology breaks down, usual informal carers can no longer provide support, or disability support needs change
Get the Support You Need with Purple Leopard Plan Management
At Purple Leopard, we’re here to help participants to navigate the complexities of the NDIS. Contact us today to learn how we can support you in getting the most out of your NDIS plan!
For more information on your NDIS Access Request visit: ndis.gov.au
Or Call the NDIS
For Participants: 1800 800 110
For Providers: 1300 311 675