Add or update funding for assistive technology (AT) maintenance, repairs, rentals and trials in a plan approval case
This article provides guidance for a planner delegate to:
- understand types of AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
- add funding for repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
- update funding for repairs, maintenance, rental and trials.
Recent updates
October 2023 Current guidance
Before you start
You have:
- read and understood Our Guideline – Reasonable and necessary supports (external)
- read and understood Our Guideline – Assistive Technology (external)
- referred to the Fact Sheet - Assistive Technology - Guide for funding of annual repairs and maintenance funding (external)
- referred to the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (external)
- read and understood article Understand the product catalogue
- read and understood article Support Categories
- received Technical Advisory Branch (TAB) advice using a PACE internal referral, if needed
- considered rental and trial of AT for participants with a diagnosis of a degenerative condition such as Motor Neuron Disease (MND), Multiple Sclerosis or Huntington’s disease
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- checked the request for AT does not relate to a participant requested reassessment (s48 request), a review of a reviewable decision (s100 request) or a complaint about AT supports.
Note: If the request relates to one of the above, you will need to make sure the right business area actions the request. Talk with your team leader if you need further advice.
Types of repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
Minor repair and maintenance (up to $1500.00)
You should check the participant’s record for information about minor repairs and maintenance they may need for their AT equipment. You can use their past experience as a guide for the amount of funding they may need. If you are unsure, you can discuss with your team leader.
Identify all the participant’s AT supports.
Calculate the annual cost of any minor repairs and maintenance for all their AT supports. Make sure you consider the support the participant needs if they have more than one AT support.
When adding funding for minor repairs and maintenance up to $1500.00, use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- Funding of $xx is for repairs and maintenance of
. An assessment and quote are not required for this support.
Major repairs – quote required
Requests for major repairs require a quote. Review the quote for the cost of the major repairs. If there is no quote, you can do either of the following:
- Wait for the quote before you add the funding; or
- Approve the plan without the quote-required support.
When you get the quote, create a plan change case and complete the plan change request. Refer to article Create a plan change request.
When adding funding for major repairs, use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- $xx funding for repairs to your
.
Short term rental
Requests for short-term rental may come from the participant or from evidence provided by their assistive technology advisor or assessor.
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Use the evidence they provide to decide the amount of funding needed. If you do not have evidence you should discuss with your team leader.
You need to include funding for short term rental for all participants with AT with a value of more than $1,500. This is so they can access temporary rental if their AT is not available because of repair, or to rent AT on a holiday. There is no quote required.
When adding funding for short term rental use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- Funding of $xx is for short term rental of assistive technology equipment.
Major rental
For all major rentals, you need evidence from an assistive technology advisor or assessor. AT rental costing over $15,000 needs a quote. Add funding for the reasonable and necessary amount.
When adding funding for major rental use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- Funding of $xx is for rental of
.
Minor trials
You may receive requests for minor trials of equipment from participants to help them and their assistive technology advisors or assessors prepare evidence to request mid and high-cost AT supports. Use the evidence they provide to decide the amount of funding they need for the trial. If you do not receive this information refer to Fact Sheet - Assistive Technology - Guide for minor trial and rental funding (external).
When adding funding for minor trials use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- Funding of $xx is for minor trial of
.
Longer trials
For all trials, other than short term trials, you need evidence from assistive technology advisors or assessors. For AT items costing more than $15,000 refer to the quote to add funding for the reasonable and necessary amount.
When adding funding for longer trials use the following template in the Additional Description section:
- Funding of $xx is for trial of
as recommended by an assistive technology <advisor/assessor> to determine suitability.
Add funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
Add funding for repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
To add funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials to a draft budget, complete the following PACE steps:
- In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
- Select New Support Category.
- Enter Assistive Technology Maintenance, Repair and Rental into the Support Category field. Note: The support budget will be locked to Capital.
- The Budget Type for this support will default to Stated.
- Select the Instalment Type. Note: The Frequency and Plan Duration fields will be locked. To change the plan duration, refer to article Change plan duration.
- Enter the Amount of this support. Note: For instalment type ‘regular’ this amount is the monthly amount. PACE will calculate the frequency amount and the total plan amount.
- Record the TSP Variance Reason from the drop-down list.
- Record Additional Description about why this support is needed. Use relevant template for type of repair, maintenance, rental and trial. Note: These comments will not display on a participants plan. Use these comments to discuss funded supports as part of a plan implementation meeting.
- If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.
- Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. For more information about recording justifications, refer to article Add budget justifications. Note: This field has a character limit of 3000. Certain special characters in this field may cause an error, this is generally caused when copying justifications from SAP CRM into PACE. If you see the characters |%, you will need to remove these before you can select save.
- If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
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Update funding for repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
Update funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials
To update funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials in a draft budget, complete the following PACE steps:
- In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
- Select Assistive Technology Maintenance, Repair and Rental from the Stated Budget items.
- Select the Instalment Type. Note: The Frequency and Plan Duration fields will be locked. To change the plan duration, refer to article Change plan duration.
- Enter the Amount of this support. Note: For instalment type ‘regular’ this amount is the monthly amount. PACE will calculate the frequency amount and the total plan amount.
- If the change to the amount is outside the threshold for the support category, PACE will display the TSP Variance Reason. Select the relevant TSP Variance Reason from drop-down list.
- Record Additional Description about why this support is needed. Use relevant template for type of repair, maintenance, rental and trial. Note: These comments will not display on a participants plan. Use these comments to discuss funded supports as part of a plan implementation meeting.
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- If the support meets all of the NDIS funding criteria under the Justifications heading, select the checkbox.
- Record Justification in the free text field. For some supports, this might automatically populate. For more information about recording justifications, refer to article Add budget justifications. Note: This field has a character limit of 3000. Certain special characters in this field may cause an error, this is generally caused when copying justifications from SAP CRM into PACE. If you see the characters |%, you will need to remove these before you can select save.
- If you’re using evidence to support your justification, select the Evidence Used checkbox.
- Select the Evidence Type from the drop-down list.
- if the Evidence Type is Document, go to step 11
- if the Evidence Type is Other, go to step 12.
- Enter the Evidence Link name. You can view linked evidence on the Evidence tab of the Plan Approval case. To learn more about linking evidence, refer to article Add and link evidence to a case.
- Enter the Evidence Explanation into the free text field.
- If you need to add more evidence to support your justification, select the checkbox Add further evidence links and repeat step 10 and 11.
- Select Save.
Remove funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials To remove funding for AT repairs, maintenance, rental and trials in a draft budget, complete the following PACE steps:
- In the Plan Approval case, select the Draft Budget tab.
- Select Assistive Technology Maintenance, Repair and Rental from the Stated Budget items.
- If removing the support item, scroll to bottom and select Remove Support from Budget.
- Select Yes to Are you sure you want to remove?.
- Select Save.
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- If you have added or updated funding for AT maintenance, repairs, rentals and trials, you will need to make a fund management decision. Refer to article Make fund management decision.
- If you need to add further supports, refer to article Change the draft budget.
- If you are ready for the plan meeting, refer to article Prepare for the plan meeting.
Article topics and case names – internal use only
Topics
This article relates to the following topics:
- Add: t_assistivetechnology
- Add: t_createaplan
- Add: t_planchanges
- Add: t_reasonableandnecessary
Case names
You can use this guidance for the:
- Add: case_planapproval
- Add: case_planchange
- Add: case_technicaladvice.
Version control
| Version | Amended by | Brief Description of Change | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.0 | CSN0074 | Class 1 approval | APPROVED | 2022-11-02 |
| 1.1 | JJP788 | Add reference to MND article: Guide — MND. | ||
| Removed need to look up major rental | ||||
| items using Support Catalogue. Use | ||||
| evidence/quote. | DRAFT | 2022-11-10 |
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| Version | Amended by | Brief Description of Change | Status | Date |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1.2 | MSM312 | Article aligned to SOP Create or update a knowledge article during CI KA title updated Next steps section included Included system steps for update and remove support. Restructured KA to streamline process for users. |
DRAFT | 2023-08-08 |
| 1.3 | THG520 | Peer Review | DRAFT | 2023-08-22 |
| 1.4 | BTM847 | Action peer review Sent for VT review VT results: Long sentences 5.85% Passive voice 3.19% Readability 57/100 Grade level 7.3 |
DRAFT | 2023-08-22 |
| 1.5 | EJW711 | EL1 review | DRAFT | 2023-08-22 |
| 1.6 | MJB576 | Action EL1 feedback Sent for EL2 review |
DRAFT | 2023-08-29 |
| 1.7 | JS0082 | EL1 review to progress to BiL endorsement | DRAFT | 2023-09-14 |
| 1.8 | BTM847 | Transferred BIL feedback Action BIL feedback BIL endorsement received Sent for EL2 approval. |
DRAFT | 2023-09-22 |
| 2.0 | JS0082 | Class 1 Approval | APPROVED | 2023-09-25 |
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