NDIS Funding Categories Explained Simply: Core, Capacity & Capital (2026)
Last updated: September 2026 | By Mo & Kaay Vig | 6 min read
NDIS funding sorts into three main budgets — Core, Capacity Building and Capital — and every dollar in your plan belongs to one of them. Knowing which is which tells you what the money can actually buy, what can shift between categories, and what to ask for at your next plan meeting. If you’ve ever stared at a plan that says “Core Supports: $32,000” and wondered what that covers, this guide is for you.
We’re Empower and Shine, a registered NDIS provider in Cranbourne — we sit on the plan side with families every week, translating these categories into real supports (SIL homes, respite stays, community access). Here’s the plain-English version.
Key Takeaways
– Three main budgets: Core (everyday support, the most flexible) · Capacity Building (skills and independence) · Capital (equipment and housing). A fourth — Recurring — appears in PACE plans for regular transport or treatment costs.
– Core is the most flexible — within Core, you can generally move funding between the four Core categories. Moving between Core and Capacity Building is much more limited.
– Each budget pays for different things: Core funds support workers and daily assistance; Capacity funds skill-building; Capital funds wheelchairs, home modifications and SDA housing.
– Your plan names the budgets — checking which categories your funding sits in tells you what supports you can start using tomorrow (NDIS, Guide to NDIS support budgets, 2026).
What are the 3 types of NDIS funding budgets?
The NDIS sorts funding into three main support budgets (plus a fourth, Recurring, in the newer PACE plans):
- Core Supports — everyday assistance. The most flexible budget; funds support workers, daily living help, consumables and transport. If you receive SIL, respite or community access, it’s paid from Core.
- Capacity Building Supports — skills and independence. Funds therapy capacity, goal pursuit, training, employment pathways, and learning. If a support builds toward “you’ll need less help later,” it’s Capacity Building.
- Capital Supports — equipment and housing. Funds assistive technology (wheelchairs, communication devices), home modifications, and Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) for eligible participants.
- Recurring Supports (PACE plans) — regular, repeatable costs like transport or treatment that are paid automatically rather than claimed from a budget.
The distinction matters because each budget has its own rules on flexibility, its own categories within it, and its own logic for what gets funded.
What are NDIS Core supports? (and what they pay for)
Core Supports is the everyday budget — the one that funds the day-to-day assistance the person you support receives. Within Core, there are four NDIS support categories:
- Assistance with Daily Living — personal care, household tasks, medication support. This is where SIL funding sits: the 24/7 or drop-in support workers in our Cranbourne homes are paid from this category. (What is SIL?)
- Assistance with Social and Community Participation — support workers who help the person take part in community life. This funds community access: the one-to-one support for activities, classes, appointments, transport skills. (Community access explained)
- Consumables — everyday items: continence products, low-cost AT, nutrition supplements.
- Transport — funding for taxis, rideshare or accessible transport to activities and appointments.
Core is the most flexible budget: in most cases you can shift funding between these four categories to match what the person actually needs. That flexibility is why Core matters most for daily life.
What are Capacity Building supports?
Capacity Building funds what helps the person become more independent over time — the supports that build toward needing less help, not just receiving it. The categories include:
- Improved Daily Living — therapy (OT, speech, physio), assessment, skill-building programs
- Improved Relationships — behaviour support, social skills development
- Finding and Keeping a Job — employment pathways and workplace support
- Improved Health and Lifestyle — exercise, nutrition, health management
- Improved Learning — education support, course fees in some cases
- Improved Life Choices — plan management funding, decision-making skill-building
- Social and Community Participation (the Capacity Building version) — classes, coaching and training that build participation skills — distinct from Core’s community access support
Our guide to NDIS capacity building covers the skills side; the funding point here is that Capacity Building is goal-linked — the plan funds it because the participant’s goals say “build toward independence” in a specific area.
What are Capital supports?
Capital funds the one-off, big-ticket items:
- Assistive Technology — wheelchairs, hearing aids, communication devices, prosthetics. Split into low-cost (from Consumables), mid-cost and high-cost (assessed).
- Home Modifications — ramps, bathroom modifications, hoist installations.
- Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA) — purpose-built housing for participants with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SDA is a separate funding category within Capital with its own eligibility assessment. Our full guide: What is SDA housing?
Capital is the least flexible budget — you can’t move SDA funding to pay for a support worker. But it’s the budget that changes the physical world around the person.
How does NDIS funding work?
The NDIS funds supports that are reasonable and necessary — tied to the participant’s goals, age-appropriate, effective, and not better funded by another system (health, education, community services). At planning, the NDIA decides which budgets get how much, based on the person’s assessed needs and goals. The plan then states the budget amounts, and the participant (or their plan manager / the NDIA) uses them to pay providers.
Can I transfer funding between categories?
Within Core, yes — you can generally move money between the four Core categories (daily living ↔ community access ↔ consumables ↔ transport) without a plan review. Between Core and Capacity Building or Capital — no, those are separate budgets with separate rules. If the person’s needs have shifted significantly, a plan review (or a variation) is the way to reallocate.
How to check your own plan’s budgets
Log into the my NDIS portal (or ask your plan manager or my NDIS contact). The plan shows each budget — Core, Capacity Building, Capital — and the amount allocated. For each budget, you can drill into the categories within it. If a support you want isn’t in the right budget, that’s a conversation with your planner, not a dead end.
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the 3 types of NDIS funding budgets?
Core Supports (everyday assistance), Capacity Building Supports (skills and independence), and Capital Supports (equipment and housing). A fourth, Recurring Supports, appears in PACE plans for regular costs like transport.
What are NDIS funding categories?
The sub-groups within each budget: Core has 4 (daily living, community participation, consumables, transport), Capacity Building has 7–9 (improved daily living, relationships, employment and more), Capital has 3 (AT, home modifications, SDA).
What are NDIS core supports?
The everyday budget — funds support workers, personal care, household help, community access and transport. The most flexible budget; you can move money between Core categories.
What is core support used for?
Daily living (personal care, household tasks), community participation (support workers for activities and appointments), consumables (everyday items), and transport. If the person receives SIL, respite or community access, it’s Core-funded.
What is an NDIS support?
Any service, item or equipment funded by an NDIS plan that helps the participant pursue their goals — from a support worker’s hourly assistance to a wheelchair to a therapy session. Supports must be reasonable and necessary.
What is the core purpose of the NDIS?
To support people with disability to live ordinary, self-directed lives — with independence, participation, and genuine choice and control over their supports.
What are capacity building supports?
Funds that build skills and independence over time: therapy, training, employment pathways, improved decision-making. Goal-linked and separate from Core’s everyday support.
What are capital supports?
One-off, big-ticket items: assistive technology (wheelchairs, communication devices), home modifications, and SDA housing. The least flexible budget.
How does NDIS funding work?
The NDIA assesses needs and goals, allocates budgets (Core, Capacity, Capital) in the plan, and the participant uses them to pay providers for reasonable and necessary supports.
Can I transfer funding between categories?
Within Core, generally yes — between the four Core categories. Between Core and Capacity Building or Capital, no — a plan review is needed.
What is category 15 NDIS?
The NDIS support lists use numbered codes for every line item (e.g., “01_815” for community access). Category 15 specifically refers to a line item in the support list — check the current NDIS support lists for the most up-to-date numbering, as they’re updated periodically.
What are the 6 impairment categories in the NDIS Act?
The Act lists impairment categories used for access assessment: intellectual, cognitive, neurological, sensory, physical, and psychiatric. They relate to eligibility determination, not to how funding is sorted into budgets. For how eligibility itself is decided, see our plain-English NDIS eligibility guide.
What are the criteria for NDIS funding?
Supports must be reasonable and necessary: related to the participant’s disability, likely to be effective, not better funded by another system, and represent value for money. The participant’s goals anchor the decision.
The takeaway
Three budgets — Core for everyday, Capacity for building, Capital for equipment. Check your plan’s allocations, use Core’s flexibility for the daily things, and ask for what’s missing at review. If you’re mapping supports to budgets in Cranbourne or Melbourne’s south-east, talk to Mo or Kaay — that’s a conversation we have every week.
Map the budgets, use the flexibility
Sources: NDIS, Guide to NDIS support budgets and What are core supports (ndis.gov.au, retrieved 25 September 2026). Budget structure and category names per NDIS participant guidance. Impairment categories per the NDIS Act.
Empower and Shine provides Supported Independent Living (SIL), Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA), Respite/Short Term Accommodation, and Community Access services to NDIS participants with existing funding. We welcome self-managed, plan-managed, and NDIA-managed participants. NDIS Registration Number: 4050138437.