Amendments to Section 33 of the NDIS Act introduced a new structure to NDIS plans called “funding periods”. Funding periods mean that a NDIS plan will be divided into portions of the total plan funding amount.
For most “funding components”, the new term for support budgets, funding will be released quarterly (every three months), resulting in four funding periods over a 12-month plan. Some supports, such as Home & Living, may have monthly funding periods, while others like capital supports may be funded as a whole item but still need to be used within a defined funding period.
learn more: Summary of the legislation changes
Funding periods commence from the plan's start date, not the beginning of a calendar month. For example, if a plan starts on 15 June and has quarterly funding periods, the first quarterly funding period runs from 15 June to 14 September.
Any unspent funds within a funding period will roll over to the next period within the same plan. However, unspent funds at the end of the entire plan do not carry over into a new plan.
Participants can view their funding periods in the NDIS portal. Plan Managers and Support Coordinators can also access this information if they are listed in the participant's plan. Other providers will not have visibility into funding period breakdowns and will need to request this information.
Claims must align with the correct funding period. If a service spans two funding periods, it may require separate claims for each period. Over-claiming beyond the available budget in the current funding period, including any rolled-over funds, will likely result in claim rejection.
Funds cannot be shifted between periods. To change the length of funding periods, a plan variation can be requested. However, to increase the actual funding amount, a plan reassessment is necessary.
Core supports remain flexible, depending on how they're managed. Capacity Building supports are generally flexible unless specified otherwise in the plan.
The new funding period structure applies to all new plans, including Early Childhood.
How splose's cases feature supports the new NDIS funding periods
splose's cases feature is well-equipped to manage the new NDIS funding period structure. Here's how:
Create a case for the first funding period: Initiate a case for the first funding period, including only the funding allocated for that funding period. Set a 1 or 2 week expiry date case alert reminder and a suitable utilisation case alert reminder to relevant team members or shared inboxes.
Extend and update cases: At the end of each funding period, extend the expiry date of the existing case and add the increase the funding amount.This approach ensures that each case accurately reflects the current funding period's budget and any rollover.
Monitor utilisation: Utilise splose's case report to monitor utilisation across all NDIS participant funding periods in your organisation within each funding period, helping to proactively prevent under or over utilisation.
If you have not used the cases feature before in splose, start by checking out the help articles here: How To Set Up Cases in splose
splose will continue to watch this space and make improvements to the cases feature as necessary to reduce the additional burden these changes are having on therapists and admin team members.
