How to Get ILO Funding in Your NDIS Plan
To get ILO funding, have a home and living goal in your plan, talk to your my NDIS contact about exploring an individualised living option, and send recent evidence from a treating health professional about your daily support and housing needs. If the NDIA agrees ILO meets the funding criteria, it adds exploration and design funding first, with an estimate of the stage 2 amount.
What Are the Steps?
The NDIA's process for any home and living support has three steps.
- Think about what you need. List your disability-related support needs, your goals, and the informal and community support you already have. Include goals about where and who you'd like to live with.
- Talk to your my NDIS contact. They explain the home and living options, from state and community services and the private market to NDIS supports, and talk about your current and future needs.
- Provide evidence. Recent reports from treating health professionals that show what support you need at home.
Say that you want to explore an individualised living option. The ILO guideline says that if your home and living goal includes exploring ILO, the NDIA will use what you give it to consider whether ILO is right for you.
What Evidence Helps?
Recent reports from a relevant treating health professional, such as an occupational therapist.
- Your daily support and housing needs, including how often and when you need support each day
- What you can and can't do because of your disability, and how that affects daily life and housing
- What other home and living options you've explored, and why they don't meet your needs
Because ILO is aimed at people who need at least 6 hours of support at home a day, formal or informal, it helps if the evidence makes the amount and timing of support clear. If you already have home and living supports and want a change, the evidence needs to be dated after your last plan was approved and explain what has changed.
Show how family and friends fit in
ILO is designed to complement unpaid support, not replace it. Describing who already helps, and what they can and can't keep doing, helps the NDIA see how an ILO would work for you.
Looking for an ILO Provider?
We'll connect you with a registered ILO provider who may be able to help.
How Do You Send It?
Whichever way suits you. Tell the NDIA it's for a home and living request.
| How | Details |
|---|---|
| Online | The NDIS service hub |
| NDIA, GPO Box 700, Canberra ACT 2601 | |
| In person | To your my NDIS contact or a local NDIA office |
What Happens After You Ask?
The NDIA reviews the evidence, asks for more if it needs it, and lets you know its decision.
If home and living supports are included, you're invited to a plan meeting with an NDIA planner. For ILO that usually means stage 1, exploration and design, with an estimate of stage 2 funding. You then work with a provider to design the ILO and complete the service proposal, which the NDIA uses to decide on stage 2.
What If the Answer Is No?
You get written reasons, and you can ask for an internal review within 3 months of getting your plan.
You can contact the NDIA for more detail on the reasons. If ILO isn't right for you now, the NDIA says other home and living supports might suit, and you can explore ILO later when you feel ready.
Questions People Ask
Who can help me ask for ILO?
Your my NDIS contact, a support coordinator if you have one, the health professional writing your reports, and family and friends. An ILO provider can explain how ILO works, but the NDIA decides.
Is there an ILO application form?
The NDIA's current process is to talk to your my NDIS contact and send evidence through the service hub, by mail or in person, saying it's about home and living supports. The ILO service proposal form comes later, at the end of exploration and design.
How long does an ILO decision take?
The NDIA says it will let you know when it has made a decision. We don't quote timeframes we can't verify.
Can a 17 year old ask for ILO?
Yes, if they're planning to move out after they turn 18. The NDIA may include supports to explore an ILO in their plan.
Keep Reading
- ILO eligibilityWho individualised living options suit, according to the NDIA's ILO guideline: age, 6 hours of daily support, readiness, and when ILO is unlikely to be funded.
- Exploration and designILO stage 1, exploration and design: what it's for, how the NDIA decides on 30, 50 or 100 hours, what a provider does in that time, and how it ends.
- How ILO funding worksHow ILO funding works in an NDIS plan: the two stages, the three stage 2 support levels up to $230,000 a year, what's excluded, and how the funding is managed.
- The ILO service proposalWhat goes in the NDIA's ILO service proposal form: who fills in each part, primary and supplementary supports, weekly hours and costs, exclusions and consent.
- ILO vs SILILO vs SIL in the NDIS: who each one suits, how much support each gives, who you live with, how they're funded, and how to tell which might fit you better.
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