A Simple Guide to NDIS Transport and Travel
June 26th, 2023 
Claiming transport and travel costs under the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) can be complex.
The NDIS guidelines aren’t always clear, so it’s necessary to apply common sense within the spirit of the Scheme, with an emphasis on participant choice, control and value for money.
There are three distinct types of transport funding that may be covered in a Plan: ‘Participant Transport’, ‘Provider Transport’ and ‘Activity-Based Transport’ as detailed below.
Participant Transport – The Cost of Getting Around
Participant transport refers to the transport costs incurred by someone with an NDIS Plan.
The NDIA will fund participants who face substantial difficulty in using public transport due to their disability. It’s not intended to cover transport assistance for informal carers or parents helping participants with their everyday commitments.
The Three Levels of Participant Transport Funding
Labelled as ‘Transport’ under the participant’s Plan’s Core Supports budget, it’s funded by the NDIA Planner at three levels as detailed below.
Level 1: For participants who don’t work, study, or attend day programs
If participants want to increase their community access, the NDIS may provide up to $1,606 a year for transport.
Level 2: For Participants who work or study up to 15 hours a week, or attend day programs
For Level 2 transport funding, the NDIS provides up to $2,472 each year.
Level 3: For Participants who work or study for 15 hours a week or more, or are actively looking for work
At this level, the NDIS may offer up to $3,456 a year for transport.
As each individual’s Plan is tailored to their needs according to their set goals, the specific Participant Transport funding will also be unique, as per the below example.
Participant Transport Funding Example
Terri doesn’t work or study and lives near to the city, but due to her limited mobility, her NDIS Plan includes funding that allows her to access a regular taxi service. She needs this service to transport her to and from a monthly chess club meeting. This is an important element of her Plan due to her goals relate to social and community participation.
Given it’s a relatively short trip, her Participant Transport funding, as allocated in her Plan, is $1500 for the year.
How Participants Receive their Transport Funding
Participants then have a choice to receive their Transport funding directly into their bank account fortnightly as ‘periodic payments’.
Periodic payments have significant administrative advantages, such as not requiring receipts – plus, the participant gets paid the full amount whether they travel or not.
The one downside is that if 100% is a periodic payment, participants can’t use transport funding flexibly within their Core Supports budget. The only way around this is to ensure their NDIS Planner makes a portion of the transport value NDIA-managed, plan-managed, or self-managed.
In NDIA-managed and plan-managed cases, it’s challenging to find support providers that will create separate invoices for transport.
Tip: When flexibility with Core funding is preferred (in order to access more transport), leave a portion (say, 20%) self-managed, not NDIA or Plan-managed.
Find out more about participant travel in our FAQs.
Provider Travel – The Cost of Supports Travelling to Participants
Provider travel is where a service provider can claim for the time they or their workers spend travelling to deliver supports to participants.
It’s classified into two types: ‘labour costs’ and ‘non-labour costs’.
Labour Costs
Provider travel time can be claimed for specific types of support, including personal care, community access, therapeutic supports, support coordination, and early childhood early intervention supports.
The eligibility for claiming worker travel time depends on the location of the appointment, and the start and end points of the worker’s journey as set out by the NDIA:
- For major cities, inner and outer regional areas (classified MMM 1-3 in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements guide), a maximum of 30 minutes between appointments is allowed. 92% of Australians live in these areas
- For remote areas (classified MMM 4 or 5), a maximum of 60 minutes between appointments is allowed
Non-Labour Costs
When using their own vehicle for transportation, providers can include additional ‘non-labour’ costs such as fuel, maintenance, and depreciation.
The reimbursement rate is a maximum of $1 per kilometre as of June 2023.
Providers are also able to claim other transport-associated costs like tolls, parking and public transport fares.
Provider Travel Funding Example
Another key element of Terri’s Plan is to help her maintain and, ideally, improve her mobility. This requires her to have a physical therapist with specialised skills visit her in her home for an hourly session twice a week.
As the therapist she uses lives an hour away from her home across town, they are able to invoice for the hourly session and the two hours of travel time as labour costs. The therapist is then able to claim the non-labour costs of their travel.
Terri lives near the coast, and so a travel cap of 30 minutes applies to providers charging their travel time.
Here’s the breakdown of the therapist’s invoice per session, which Terri then approves to be funded by her Plan:
- Therapy session (1 hour @ $99 an hour) = $99
- Travel time (2 hours, capped to 1-hour return @ $99 an hour) = $99
- Non-labour costs (fuel, maintenance and depreciation, 80km @ $1) = $80
- Non-labour costs (2 toll trips @ $0.55 per trip) = $1.10
This means the weekly cost of Terri’s two physical therapy sessions costs $360.20 in provider travel alone, which works out to $18,730.40 over the course of a full year.
Participants who wish to maximise the value they receive from their Plan can do the following:
- Source local supports
- Travel to support providers where possible
- Negotiate a set rate with support providers when setting up a new service agreement before engaging them
- Encourage service providers to share their travel costs between other participants
Find out more about provider travel in our FAQs.
Activity-Based Transport – Providers Travelling with Participants
Support providers that offer assistance with social, economic, and community participation services can, upon a participant’s request, transport them to or from these activities. In this case, only the non-labor costs mentioned above are covered, as the provider’s hourly time is already accounted for while engaging with the participant.
Activity-Based Transport Example
Terri’s community-based chess club also has a monthly competition, which is hosted and run by a specialist support provider. To enable participants with Terri’s needs to attend, the provider runs a shuttle bus service to collect the relevant team members from home, take them to the event and take them all home afterwards.
The support provider is able to invoice against their time for the activity as a social, economic and community participation service, but they’re also able to split the non-labour costs of the activity-based transport among the participants.
The 50-kilometre round trip means the provider charges $50 in non-labour costs, which works out to $10 per participant, per month. That ends up being $120 per year to come out of Terri’s Plan.
Find out more about activity-based transport in our FAQs.
Getting NDIS Funded Transport and Travel Right
Understanding the different types of transport funding and their associated rules is essential for participants, providers and carers alike.
By navigating these guidelines and considering the options available, individuals can make informed decisions about their transportation needs within the framework of the NDIS, ensuring choice, control and value for money.
If a participant has any specific concerns or questions regarding how their transport and travel needs are funded by their Plan, we recommend they get in touch with their NDIS Planner. In some cases, if their Plan is found not to suit their needs, a Plan Reassessment may be called for.
