FOI 25/26-3720 DOCUMENT 1

Understand the draft budget

      SGP KP Publishing

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SGP KP Publishing – Understand the draft budget

1 Recent updates …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 4

2 Before you start …………………………………………………………………………………………………….. 5

3 Review the draft budget ……………………………………………………………………………………. 6

4 Understand how support categories have been added to the draft budget ……… 7 4.1 Typical Support Package (TSP or PBM in PACE) …………………………………………. 7 4.1.1 High confidence TSP message ……………………………………………………………………….. 8 4.1.2 Range TSP Message ……………………………………………………………………………………… 8 4.1.3 $0 TSP Message…………………………………………………………………………………………….. 9 4.2 Reassessments and SAP CRM plan transitions ………………………………………………………. 9 4.3 Manual ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 10

5 Understand flexible and stated support categories ………………………………………………. 11 5.1 Flexible support categories………………………………………………………………………………….. 11 5.2 Stated support categories……………………………………………………………………………………. 11 5.2.1 Core ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 5.2.2 Capital …………………………………………………………………………………………………………. 12 5.2.3 Capacity building …………………………………………………………………………………………… 12

6 Next steps …………………………………………………………………………………………………………… 13

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This article provides guidance for a planner delegate, planner (non-partnered area) and review officer to:

review the draft budget
understand how support categories have been added to the draft budget

understand flexible and stated support categories.

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1 Recent updates

1 December 2025 Guidance updated to advise that if funding in a support category is reduced to $0, users need to make sure the supports and the comments are removed from the plan.

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2 Before you start

You have read and understood:

Our Guideline - Creating your plan (external)
Our Guideline - Reasonable and necessary supports (external)
Our Guideline - Supports you can access (external).

You have also:

reviewed the participant’s information and understood their disability related support needs and related evidence. Go to article Review participant information for a plan approval case
reviewed any request for information. Go to article Action a request for information (RFI) task in a plan approval case

reviewed any technical advice in the Technical Advice case, if required.

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3 Review the draft budget

Review the budget to understand the plan duration, the support categories and overall budget amounts.

1.  In the Person Account, select the My Budget tab.

2.  Under Budget Overview, review the:

     o  Plan dates – the start and end date of the plan.

     o  Plan duration – the total period of the plan shown in months.

     o   Total funding amount – the total amount funded for the plan duration.

     o   Total released – the amount of funding released to date.

     o   Total spent – the amount of funding used to date.

     o   Total available to spend – the amount of released funding remaining.

3.  Under Funding Components, review the supports and fund management types
    included in the plan. For each funding component, review the:

     o  Support Category – the type of support.

     o  Funded amount – the total amount of funding available for the support.

     o  Released – the amount of funding released to date.

     o  Spent – the amount of funding used to date.

     o  Available to spend – the amount of funding remaining for the funding period.

     o  Next release – the start date of the next funding period.

          Note: If the plan has funding periods applied, PACE will show a message
          under Budget Overview that reads This plan has funding periods applied at
          funding component level. For more information about funding periods, go to
               article Understand funding periods.

4.    If a support category has funding periods applied, you'll be able to select More to view:

     o  Funding periods – the dates and duration of each funding period shown in
          months.

     o  Released – if the funding amount has been released.

     o  Allocated – the amount of funding allocated to each funding period.

5.  Select X or Dismiss to close the pop-up window.

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4 Understand how support categories have been

added to the draft budget

In every plan approval case, a draft budget will be generated. Refer to the headings below for each support category source. This is where each support category in the budget has been generated from. This will help you decide whether you’ll need to make changes to the support category.

Regardless of how the draft budget has been created, you’ll need to use the Plan Conversation Support Tool (PCST) to help decide the funded amount for each support category. You must use the PCST for all new plans and plan reassessments and attach it to the participant record. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.

4.1 Typical Support Package (TSP or PBM in PACE)

PBM stands for Personalised Budget Model. This will appear as the support category source for TSP generated supports.

TSPs are for participants first plans only. A TSP budget is created based on several factors including:

Demographics – age, gender, location.
Disability – primary disability, such as results from PEDI-CAT and WHODAS, functional assessment scores.
Risk – disability stability, compensation, choice and control, streaming type.
Gathered information – informal supports, community and mainstream supports, employment, education, consumables, coordination of supports, assistive technology, home modifications, social and community, continence.
Supports provided to other participants – using reasonable and necessary approved budgets of participants with similar circumstances and disability needs from historical plans.

The TSP overall status will indicate whether any TSP support categories have been generated in the draft budget. A TSP will always add all Core support categories to the draft budget to allow flexibility of Core support category funding.

The TSP overall status may be:

No TSPs were able to be generated.
Some TSPs were able to be generated.
All TSPs were able to be generated.

All TSP generated supports will have a confidence level assigned to them. These levels are Low, Medium and High.

High confidence level – not likely to change the amount for this support.
Medium confidence level – may change depending on the support needs of the participant and any evidence provided. You’ll need to review and determine whether the amount is correct.
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Low confidence level – likely to be removed or changed based on the support needs of the participant and any evidence provided.

Regardless of the confidence level, you’ll need to use the PCST to help decide the funded amount for each support category. You must use the PCST for all new plans and plan reassessments and attach it to the participant record. Go to article Understand and update the plan conversation support tool.

The TSP Message on a support category will help you determine any changes to that support.

To view the TSP message:

1.  In a Plan Approval case, select the Funded Supports tab.

2.  In the tables for Flexible or Stated supports, select Edit to view details about a support
    category.

3.  The TSP Message will appear below the Support Category name.

4.1.1 High confidence TSP message

PACE will recommend that high confidence TSP support categories are unlikely to change. You’ll still need to determine the funded amount for the support category using the PCST. You must use the PCST for all new plans and plan reassessments.

1.  Review the TSP Message detail to understand the main information considered for this
    support.

  > TSP Message example: The TSP and supporting evidence for [Support Category]
   have been provided. The TSP is based on the participant’s disability and personal and
   environmental circumstances and is deemed reasonable and necessary. You’re likely to
   be able to rely on this estimate.

2.  Review the evidence to make sure it's consistent with the budget.

3.  Consider evidence that is inconsistent with the budget, such as:

     o  an assessment that recommends a specific support

     o   additional information that wasn't considered for the budget.

4.1.2 Range TSP Message

This budget range is consistent with information gathered from the participant and reasonable and necessary approved budgets for similar participants. PACE will show the middle of the range as the budget.

1.  Review the TSP Message to understand the budget range.

  > TSP Message example: Range: $50 - $100. Review the support category budget and
    supporting evidence for [Support Category] to decide the level of funding that meets
  NDIS funding criteria and is based on relevant Our Guidelines, internal guidance and
     specialist advice.

2.  Review the evidence to decide if it's consistent with the middle of the range.

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3.  Consider evidence that is inconsistent with the middle of the range estimate, such as:

     o  an assessment that recommends a specific support

     o   additional information that wasn't considered for the budget.

4.1.3 $0 TSP Message

1.  Review the TSP Message to understand the reason for the $0 budget. It will be $0 for
   one of the following reasons:

     o   This support is not likely to be needed. The TSP for this support category is $0
         based on the participant's disability and personal and environmental
           circumstances.

     o  TSP not available for this support category.

           This support is [likely/not likely] to be needed. Follow the support category
          guidance for [Support Category] to decide the funding that meets the NDIS
           funding criteria.

     o  The TSP was not generated due to missing information.

     o  To give claiming flexibility across the 4 flexible Core support categories.

2.  Review any evidence to make sure that it's consistent with a $0 budget. Any evidence
     that recommends the specific support will need to be considered in the draft budget and
   whether it meets the NDIS funding criteria.

Go to article Action a plan approval case when access is granted without pre-access information gathering if a $0 TSP has been generated.

4.2 Reassessments and SAP CRM plan transitions

Support categories can be generated from reassessments and SAP CRM plan transitions.

For unscheduled reassessments of a SAP CRM plan, supports in the participant’s first PACE plan are likely to change. The changes will be based on the participant’s change of situation and disability support needs.

For s48 plan reassessments, you’ll need to review the supports to make sure they’re meeting the needs of the participant. All supports from the participant’s current plan will be included in the draft budget.

You’ll also need to consider making changes based on any change to the participant’s situation. You’ll need to:

review supporting information in the Plan Change case about the change in situation
review existing evidence to make sure it’s still consistent with the draft budget

consider any new evidence and how that impacts existing supports or new supports that may need to be added.

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Note: if you reduce funding in a support category to $0, the previous plan comments stay in the plan. You need to remove the support category to make sure previous plan comments don’t print on the participant’s plan.

Note: for plan reassessments, you should review any Capital supports in the budget and determine whether they’re needed in the participant’s new plan. You may have to remove these from the budget.

When completing a scheduled or unscheduled plan reassessment, you may need to apply funding periods to the plan. The actions you’ll take to apply or adjust funding periods depend on the date the plan was approved.

For more information, go to article Understand funding periods.

4.3 Manual

These supports are added manually to the draft budget by a delegate. They shouldn’t need changing as you’ll have made a reasonable and necessary decision and used evidence to include these supports in the draft budget.

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5 Understand flexible and stated support categories

Support categories in the participant’s plan can be flexible or stated.

From May 2025, all new plans and reassessments will use a plan approval case which has funding components and funding periods. A funding component can consist of one support or a group of supports. A funding component amount is the total amount of funding given for a specific support, or group of supports in a plan. Each funding component has set funding periods. Funding periods allow the distribution of funds within a plan to be adjusted to suit a participant’s needs. For more information, go to article Understand funding periods.

For plans approved before 9 October 2024, funding periods do not apply.

5.1 Flexible support categories

Some Core supports can be grouped into one funding component. When grouped, the funding becomes flexible and can be used for any support category within the same funding component.

These Core support categories can be grouped in a funding component:

assistance with daily life
assistance with social, economic and community participation
consumables
transport (not recurring transport).

PACE defaults these support categories to flexible, but you can change them to stated based on the participant’s situation. For example, if you’ve specified consumable supports in the participant’s plan, this means they must buy this type of support.

PACE will automatically group Core support categories into one funding component. This happens when the support categories:

are flexible, and
have the same plan management type.

Core support categories with different fund management types can’t be grouped into the same funding component. For example, the participant is self-managing their consumables category, but their assistance with daily life category is being managed using a registered plan manager. These support categories will not be grouped into one funding component.

5.2 Stated support categories

Stated supports categories can’t be grouped into one funding component. In plans with funding periods, each stated support is a single funding component.

Stated support categories aren’t flexible. This means participants can only buy supports from the stated support category. For example, the participant can’t use the assistive technology support category to pay for repairs.

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Instead, they must use the funding in the assistive technology – maintenance, repair and rental category to pay for these.

In Core, the home and living category is stated but the supports can be flexible with other home and living supports. To learn more about the home and living support category, go to article Support Categories.

These support categories default to stated and must be stated in the participant’s plan:

5.2.1 Core

home and living – Supported Independent Living (SIL), Independent Living Options (ILO), Medium Term Accommodation (MTA)
YPIRAC – cross billing.

5.2.2 Capital

assistive technology
assistive technology – maintenance, repair and rental
home modifications
specialist disability accommodation (SDA).

5.2.3 Capacity building

behaviour support
choice and control
finding and keeping a job
health and wellbeing
improved daily living skills
improved living arrangements
increased social and community participation
lifelong learning
recurring transport
relationships

support coordination and psychosocial recovery coaches.

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6 Next steps

1.  To understand the support categories that have been generated in the draft budget, go
     to article [Support Categories](/library/documents/09235da91698-25-26-0529-disclosure-log-documents/document-002__support-categories/).

2.  Once you understand the supports in the draft budget, you'll need to use the PCST to
   decide the funded amount for each support category. Go to article Understand and
   update the plan conversation support tool.

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