Last checked: 11 July 2026. This is general information about current NDIS Core Supports, not personal funding advice or a promise that a support will be funded.
For many participants and families, understanding how NDIS funding works can feel like learning a new language. There are categories, budget rules and flexibility conditions. Core Supports help participants with everyday activities and community involvement. Getting familiar with how they work is one practical way to use a plan more confidently.
What Are Core Supports?
The current NDIS Core Supports guidance describes up to three categories: Assistance with Daily Life, Consumables, and Assistance with Social and Community Participation. What appears in an individual plan depends on the participant's needs.
Core funding can be used across and within Core categories when the plan marks the funding as flexible. Stated funding stays within its stated purpose, and funding cannot be moved from one support budget to another. Check the current plan before moving funding between categories.
Assistance with Daily Life
This category can cover support with personal care tasks such as showering, dressing and grooming, as well as household tasks and meal preparation, when they are disability-related and included in the participant's plan.
Support workers funded under this category work alongside participants to manage daily routines with dignity and choice. Support may build independence where that is the participant's goal, and it may also provide ongoing assistance when enduring support needs are included in the plan.
Community Participation Supports
Funding under the social and community participation sub-category supports attendance at social events, recreational activities, community programs, and group activities. This is a key funding stream for participants working on social skill development, community inclusion, and building connections outside the home.
It can fund a support worker to accompany a participant to a community event, facilitate attendance at a group program, or support participation in sports, arts, volunteering, or other activities aligned with the participant's goals.
Consumables and Recurring Transport
Consumables funding covers everyday items related to a participant's disability needs, including continence aids, wound care products, and low-cost assistive technology items that do not require an assessment. These are often items that need regular replacement and can add up significantly over time.
Recurring transport is the only category in the Recurring support budget. For eligible participants, it can fund taxis, rideshare services or other private travel to work, study, community activities, day programs and other activities. Ask your NDIS contact about eligibility and how it appears in the plan.
Working with a Support Coordinator
A Support Coordinator can help you understand and use your plan and connect with providers. If your current plan includes Support Coordination, that funded professional can help you implement supports. A plan manager has a different role: helping with funding, budgets, invoices and payments.
If you think Support Coordination would be helpful, ask your NDIA planner whether funding for it can be included in your plan. You do not need to wait for your next scheduled review to start that conversation.
For a broader explanation of flexible, stated and purpose-specific funding, read our plain-English guide to making the most of an NDIS budget.
Ready to get started?
Horizons Support Network does not provide Support Coordination, plan management or Supported Independent Living (SIL), and we do not support NDIA-managed participants. We provide Daily Personal Activities, Independent Living Skills, Social and Community Participation, and separate, planned Short Term Respite for self-managed and plan-managed participants when the support fits the plan and service agreement.
Contact Horizons Support Network for a friendly chat about whether our practical support-worker services may be a suitable fit.
