Whether you’ve been with the NDIS for a while or are just getting started, you’ve probably come across the term ‘reasonable and necessary’. It’s the criteria the NDIS uses to decide which supports and service will be funded in your NDIS Plan.
The reasonable and necessary definition changed in late 2024 when new laws were introduced about what can and can’t be funded under the NDIS. Understanding how these apply helps you use your funds in a way that meets the NDIS rules.
Two types of supports in an NDIS Plan.
An NDIS plan can include two types of supports:
General supports such as the supports from an early childhood coordinator or local area coordinator (LAC): Services the NDIS provides or arranges for you to help you connect with mainstream, community or informal supports. The NDIS pays for these directly so you don’t have to pay for them with your plan.
Reasonable and necessary supports: Supports funded in your plan to meet your disability related needs. The law outlines what can and can’t be funded.
What are reasonable and necessary supports?
Reasonable and necessary supports are the services and items the NDIS will fund in your plan.
The NDIS may fund a range of supports across areas like:
- Education
- Employment
- Social participation
- Independence
- Living arrangements
- Health and wellbeing.
To be considered reasonable and necessary, they must be clearly linked to your disability and help you:
- Work towards your goals
- Increase your independence
- Take part in work, study or social activities.
Leap in! plan manager Amy explains: “Before deciding what supports the NDIS will fund for you, the planner will look at your personal situation including what you can do yourself and the informal supports around you, like family, friends and community services. NDIS supports are there to complement – not replace – these other supports.”
What are the 7 NDIS reasonable and necessary criteria?
All supports paid for with NDIS funds must meet all the reasonable and necessary criteria:
- Be related to your disability
- Help you pursue the goals in your plan
- Support your social and economic participation
- Be value for money
- Be likely to be effective and beneficial
- Complement informal and mainstream supports
- Be an NDIS support for you.
“Checking off these criteria before using your NDIS funds is a great way to make sure a support is eligible,” says Amy. “Every person’s needs are different, so it’s important to be prepared to explain why a support is reasonable and necessary for you.”
Let’s take a look at how each one works.
How does the NDIS apply the reasonable and necessary criteria?
Let’s go through each of these criteria and take a look at what the NDIS considers when deciding if a support is reasonable and necessary for you. Remember, all of the following must apply.
1. Is the support related to your disability?
- There must be a clear link between the support and your disability
- The NDIS won’t fund everyday living costs or things that everyone needs
2. Does it help you pursue your goals?
- The NDIS considers how your disability might be a barrier to achieving your goals
- Not every support needs to link to a specific goal but it should help with your overall progress
- Including a goal in your plan doesn’t guarantee funding
3. Will it support your social and economic participation?
- The NDIS will consider if the support will help you do activities that will make it easier to take part socially and economically
- Social participation includes doing things you enjoy or need to do like going out, going to school spending time with others
- Economic participation means working, studying or volunteering
- The NDIS may also fund supports that help reduce barriers for you to do these activities
4. Is it value for money?
- The cost is considered reasonable compared with other alternative supports
- Could funding the support now reduce future costs?
- Are there more cost-effective alternatives such as renting instead of buying assistive technology?
- The NDIS looks at pricing guidelines against quotes for higher-cost supports
5. Is it effective and beneficial?
- Effective means the support will do what you need it to do to maintain functioning at your current level
- Beneficial means it will meet your support needs and help you do things you otherwise can’t do
- It should align with good practice and evidence of success for people with similar needs
6. Does it complement (not replace) other informal supports?
- The NDIS takes into account what is reasonable to expect families, carers and the community to provide
- It may include supports to help family or friends continue in their roles
- For children, parents are expected to help with things like transport or after-school activities
7. Is it an NDIS support for you?
- NDIS supports are the services, items and equipment that can be funded under the NDIS
- The rules must state that it’s an NDIS support for everyone, or only a support for a specific group of people and you are part of that group
- There are two lists:
- Supports that are NDIS supports (things the NDIS may fund)
- Supports that are not NDIS supports (things the NDIS won’t fund)
- The exception is replacement supports – read more about replacement supports.
“The reasonable and necessary criteria are there to make sure your NDIS Plan is fair, focused and supports what matters most to you,” says Amy. “When you understand how it works, you’re in a stronger position to use your funding confidently and get the supports that will help you live the life you want.”
Why doesn’t the NDIS always fund what health professionals recommend?
In the past, a letter of recommendation or support from an allied health professional may have been enough to claim the cost of an item from your NDIS Plan. However, this is no longer the case.
The NDIS confirms that while a health professional may recommend certain supports, the NDIS won’t always fund all of them.
“This does not mean that it isn’t a support which may help a person; it means that it isn’t a support which is reasonable and necessary, against the criteria in the Act, for that individual,” the NDIS website says.
For example, there may be a more cost effective alternative that could achieve the same outcome.
See the NDIS operational guideline for reasonable and necessary supports for more details.
Need help?
If you have any questions or would like to talk to one of our Crew about the unique benefits of Leap in! plan management please call us on 1300 05 78 78, email [email protected] or chat with us online.
Originally published 14 November 2018, updated 10 October 2022 and 7 November 2025.
