Reasonable and Necessary
NDIS funding criteria
Navigating the guidelines of 'reasonable and necessary' can be a minefield. What you deem is reasonable as an individual or parent, may not be in the eyes of NDIS.
If Self-funding, the level of accountability and responsibility can be overwhelming and stressful. There is a large level of discretion and interpretation that can be used for each support.
If plan managed, there can often be conflict around the interpretation that is deemed reasonable, leading to perceptions of fund gatekeeping and sense of hopelessness if being requested to provide letters and reports where NDIS states 'We won’t need an expert report for every support, as we can often rely on other information or evidence'.
we have created a free pdf download that you can use the text function to write over to help you relate the support back to your goals. Then easy peasy, save it yourself to keep as a record, or send to your plan manager for reimbursement consideration. Find the download below.
NDIS reasonable and necessary is summarised as:
- The support will assist in pursuit of goals in the plan.
- The support will assist in activities that build independence/social/economic participation.
- The support represents value for money.
- The support will, or is likely to be, effective and beneficial aligned with current good practice.
- The funding of the support takes account of what it is reasonable to expect families, carers, informal networks and the community to provide (i.e. parental responsibility).
- The support is most appropriately funded or provided through the NDIS and is not more appropriately funded or provided by other provisions (i.e., health, schooling, State Gov, employer).
Note: At the time of publishing the summarised guidelines are as above, however as life is constantly changing, for accurate, accountable and full guidelines that are up to date please refer to NDIS Reasonable and Necessary Supports