Managing your NDIS funds: Combination managed

Key points

• Combination managed means that you can control some of the funding while the NDIA, or a plan manager, looks after the rest

• You’ll need to tell the NDIA which services you’d like them to manage

• Combination managed allows you to use some of the funding you control to see unregistered providers

What is combination managed?

You may choose to combine different plan management options if you want the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) or a plan manager to manage some parts of your budget while you stay in control of others.

For example, perhaps you don’t want to deal with all the financial or administrative tasks that come with managing your child’s plan yourself and you have chosen mostly registered providers, so you are happy for the NDIA to manage most of your child’s funds. 

However, the speech therapist your child has been seeing for four years isn’t a registered NDIS provider and you would like to keep seeing them. You can choose to self-manage that component of your child’s plan.

How does it work?

You meet with the NDIA and tell them which services you’d like them to manage.

Then you arrange services, organise invoices and keep appropriate records for the support(s) you’ve chosen to manage and report to the NDIA on the amount spent on the self-managed supports.

Meanwhile, the NDIA manages the budgets you’ve allocated to them.

Is it for me?

Benefits of combination managed NDIS plans

• Flexibility

• More choice and control

• Freedom to choose any provider

• Less administrative work than completely self-managing a plan

Cons of combination managed NDIS plans

• Can be time consuming for the funding which you do manage yourself

• You might need to pay costs upfront and wait for reimbursement

• You might need to refine your budgeting, organisational or administrative skills

Do you use a combination of plan management options? Share your experiences in the comments below!

Related content

• Managing your NDIS funds: Plan managed

• Managing your NDIS funds: Agency managed

• Managing your NDIS funds: Self-managed

• Understanding NDIS pricing