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NDIS budget categories explained

Core, Capacity Building, Capital and Recurring — and the flexibility rules · Last updated 2 August 2026

Your NDIS plan doesn't hold your funding as one big pool of money. It is organised into support budgets — up to four of them — and each budget has its own rules about what it can buy and how freely the money can move. Once you know the rules for each budget, the plan stops looking like a spreadsheet and starts making sense.

This guide explains the four budgets, what usually sits inside each one, and the flexibility rules — the part people most often get wrong. If you want a walkthrough of the whole plan document first, start with Understanding your NDIS plan.

Budgets, categories and support items

The money in a plan is organised in three layers.

At the top are the support budgets — up to four: Core, Capacity Building, Capital and Recurring. Most people don't have all four. A plan only includes the budgets you need.

Each budget is divided into support categories. Across the four budgets there are 21 categories in total on current plans — up from 15 in the older system, so older articles you find online may not match what your plan shows.

Under the categories sit hundreds of individual support items — the actual things funding can buy. Each item has a code and a price limit. If you self-manage your funding, you claim at the category level and don't need the item codes.

One more thing to look for: your plan labels every category as either flexible or stated. The exact wording is ‘This is a flexible support.’ or ‘This is a stated support’. Stated means the funding can only buy the NDIS supports described in the plan. You still choose the provider, and how much of that support you buy within the budget — but not what the money is for.

Core supports — the everyday budget

Core supports help with everyday tasks and getting involved in your community. Most plans show Core funding in three main flexible categories:

• Assistance with Daily Life — support workers who help with things like cleaning, yard maintenance, cooking and personal care.
• Consumables — everyday items you use up, like continence products, plus low-cost assistive technology (equipment that helps with daily tasks), such as a non-slip bathmat or small aids for dressing and eating.
• Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation — support workers who help you join group and social activities.

Core is the flexible budget. You can use your total Core amount across and within its categories in the way that suits you best — more help at home one month, more community support the next.

Two footnotes keep that promise honest. First, funding only pools across Core categories that are managed the same way — self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed. If parts of your Core are managed differently, they sit in separate pools. Second, a few Core categories on newer plans are stated, not flexible — Home and Living is one. So check the flexible-or-stated label under each category rather than assuming all Core money can mix.

And Core flexibility never reaches outside Core. Core money can't buy therapy, home modifications or anything else that belongs to another budget.

One quirk: transport. On older plans, transport is a Core category. On newer plans, regular transport money sits in the separate Recurring budget instead. Depending on when your plan was made, you may see either — the flexibility rules for the rest of Core work the same way. For everyday spending examples, see What can I spend Core supports on?

Capacity Building — the skills budget

Capacity Building supports build your skills and independence — therapy, support coordination, help finding work. On current plans the budget can hold funding in up to ten categories: Support Coordination and Psychosocial Recovery Coaches; Improved Living Arrangements; Increased Social and Community Participation; Finding and Keeping a Job; Relationships; Health and Wellbeing; Lifelong Learning; Choice and Control; Improved Daily Living Skills; and Behaviour Support. Older plans have nine, with some different names — Support Coordination, Improved Relationships, Improved Health and Wellbeing, Improved Learning, Improved Life Choices and Improved Daily Living — and no separate Behaviour Support category.

The rule here is different from Core: Capacity Building funding is stated at the category level. Money in one Capacity Building category cannot move to another. But within a single category, the funding appears as one total and is flexible. Therapy funding in Improved Daily Living Skills, for example, can go towards physiotherapy or occupational therapy — whichever suits you.

Some common supports and where they usually live:

• Funding for a plan manager (someone who pays your invoices for you) sits in Choice and Control (called Improved Life Choices on older plans). Plan management is not its own budget.
• Therapies like speech therapy and occupational therapy sit in Improved Daily Living Skills (called Improved Daily Living on older plans).
• Behaviour support has its own stated Behaviour Support category on current plans. On older plans it sits in Improved Relationships.
• Support coordination and Finding and Keeping a Job are usually time-limited supports.

Worth knowing: Improved Living Arrangements pays for help to find and keep a home — like a support worker helping with rental applications. It does not pay rent or a rental bond; those stay your own responsibility.

Capital — the big-purchase budget

Capital supports are for expensive, usually one-off purchases: high-cost assistive technology like a powered wheelchair, home modifications, vehicle modifications, and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA — housing designed for people with very high support needs). Most plans show Capital funding under Assistive Technology, and Home Modifications and SDA.

Capital is the most locked-down budget. The funding is stated and tied to the specific item described in your plan — in the NDIA's words, ‘You must buy the NDIS supports described against each support category’. Quotes, reports or assessments are often needed before the money is made available. Capital money for a wheelchair can't become a ramp, and Capital money can never top up Core or Capacity Building.

Newer plans also have a separate category for assistive technology maintenance, repairs and rental. It can cover minor repairs and maintenance up to $1,500, bigger repairs (a quote may be needed), rental, and equipment trials.

Recurring — regular transport money

The Recurring budget has one category: Recurring Transport, for people who can't travel or use public transport on their own. It can pay for taxis, rideshare and other private travel to work, study, day programs and community activities.

It works differently from the other budgets: the money is paid regularly — fortnightly — straight into your bank account, or claimed through the portal or app. There are three yearly levels (as at July 2026: $1,784 for community access, $2,676 for part-time work or study, and $3,456 for work or study of 15 hours or more a week — check current amounts at ndis.gov.au). These are amounts the NDIA may provide, not guarantees. If you're not eligible, your plan shows a zero amount against this category.

The flexibility ladder

If you remember one thing from this guide, make it this ladder:

• Core — flexible across its categories (when they're managed the same way).
• Capacity Building — locked to each category, flexible within it.
• Capital — locked to the exact item described in your plan.

And above all of it: money never moves between budgets. The NDIA's own wording is: ‘You can use your NDIS funding flexibly across support categories within the same support budget unless stated. You can't use it for other support budgets. You can't spend more than your total funding amount.’

If you claim from the wrong category by mistake, don't panic — the NDIA says that's okay. Call 1800 800 110 and they will help you fix it.

Older plan or newer plan? The names can differ

The NDIA has been moving plans onto its newer computer system (called PACE) since 2023. That's why guides written for the old system talk about three budgets and 15 categories, while current plans can have four budgets and 21 categories.

A few things sit in different places depending on your plan's age: transport moved from Core to the Recurring budget, behaviour support got its own stated category, and assistive technology repairs split out of Assistive Technology. The safest approach is simple: use the category names exactly as they appear in your own plan, and ask the NDIA if something doesn't match what you read online.

Two more things worth knowing

When the money arrives. Newer plans release funding in funding periods — usually every 3 months. Unspent money rolls over into the next period within the same plan, but it does not carry into your next plan. Money from a future period generally can't be brought forward, except in urgent circumstances.

What the money can buy. Since law changes in October 2024, NDIS funding can only buy things on the official list of ‘NDIS supports’. There is also a list of things NDIS funding can't buy, like day-to-day living costs. So for any ‘can I buy this?’ question, the answer is always: check the NDIS supports lists on ndis.gov.au and the wording in your plan — not just which budget has money left.