The beauty of the NDIS is that it empowers the participants to take control of their lives by encouraging them to practice choice and control. When it comes to the management of the NDIS funds, the participants have the option to manage the plan by themselves which allows them flexibility and choice and control to choose what supports they want, who will be providing the supports and when will it be delivered. Below are some of the useful tips for self-managed participants.
Record Keeping
Once you choose to be self-managed, you will be audited by the NDIA to ensure that funds were used appropriately. Any invoices, receipts, pay slips and bank statements need to be kept for five years as evidence that you have responsibly self-managed your support budgets and payment requests.
· A participant should keep any records as proof of the services and supports delivered to him/her. Documents like invoices, service agreements, receipts, pay slips and these need to be kept for a period of 5 years.
· Records of payment should contain :the provider’s name ,ABN, date of the support, amount charged for rendering the support and a short description of the support
· The participant should be able to prove that the consumption of the NDIS funding is based on the premise of what is reasonable and necessary.
Record keeping is one of the most important responsibilities of being a self-managed participant, to avoid being overwhelmed with the record-keeping, we suggest making a separate email dedicated to service providers. This way, service providers can directly email the invoices and service providers to this account and no personal stuff from your personal email will be mixed. It will also be helpful if you make individual email folders for every service provider.
Budgeting and paying
We recommend using a Gmail account as it offers a lot of helpful features such as google sheets where a participant can input the spending and claims to each service provider. This way, it will be easier to provide the NDIA with details during an audit, it also helps you personally to track your expenses.
A clear record of spending and payments will be very helpful for the participant to track on-time payments and the running budget.
Set aside a 10% buffer on NDIS funds as emergency funds.
Banking
It is also best to open a separate bank account in order to separate your personal and NDIS transactions. Open a separate bank account that doesn’t charge fees.
When choosing a bank provider, make sure that: it is named under the participant, and that it has no charge fees
Support for self-managing
In the core funding, a participant can choose to pay for bookkeeper, accountant services, or purchase an app to assist in budgeting and management of the NDIS funds.
Making a payment request
A participant may simply log in to myplace portal and select the payment request option and key in the following details: date of the service rendered, payment amount, and support category. It is important to note two things when making a payment request, it should match the invoice or receipt from your provider or your support worker and it should also be charged according to its appropriate support type. Once all pertinent details are made and submitted via the portal, the reimbursement process will take 24-48hours in order for the amount to be credited into your account.
Do you have an NDIS plan and you do not want to tackle the nitty-gritty of managing your funds and dealing with your service providers? Choose to be Plan Managed with Yogi Care and allow us to help you with the management of your funds so that you can focus on yourself and your goals.
