Can you use funding from your next funding period?
The NDIS has finally recognised that your support needs may change and won’t always line up perfectly with your funding periods. This was updated on 3rd September in their latest Operational guideliens – Your Plan
If you need more supports than expected in one funding period, you can now have the support and use funding from your next funding period to pay the claim once that funding becomes available.
This gives you more flexibility if you run out of funding in one period but still have funding available later in the same plan.
How much funding can you use at once?
You can only access the amount available in your current funding period.
Most plans have more than one funding period, so you won’t have access to all of your plan funding at once.
Your plan will show:
- when each funding period starts and ends
- how much funding is available in each period
- whether different parts of your plan have different funding periods.
If you don’t use all of your funding in one period, the unused amount rolls over into your next funding period within the same plan.
You don’t lose it.
Just remember: Your funds will NOT roll over to a NEW plan
Can you use your next funding period if you need more support NOW?
Yes.
If you use all of the funding available in your current funding period but still need support, you can have the support provided and wait until your next funding period opens to pay the claim.
For example:
Your current funding period has $5,000 available.
You use the full $5,000, but you need another $500 of support before the funding period ends.
Your provider agrees to provide the support and wait for payment.
When your next funding period opens, the $500 claim can be paid from the funding available in that period.
Claiming from the next funding period is allowed if:
- you and your provider agree that the claim will be paid from your next funding period
- your provider agrees to wait for payment
- you have enough funding available when your next funding period opens
- the claim stays within the total funding available in your plan
- the claim stays within the relevant funding component
- you have enough funding left for the supports you need for the rest of your plan.
It is also a good idea to check your service agreement with your provider so everyone understands when payment will be made.
What happens to funding you don’t spend?
If you have funding left at the end of a funding period, it rolls over into your next funding period.
For example, if you have $1,000 left and your next funding period releases another $5,000, you will have $6,000 available.
This rollover only happens within the same NDIS plan.
Unused funding from an old plan does not roll over into a new plan after a plan reassessment.
What if you spend all your funding before the end of the funding period?
If you spend all of the funding available in your current period, you can still receive the support you need and pay the claim from your next funding period, as long as the conditions above are met.
But remember, this is not extra funding.
If $500 from your next funding period is used to pay for support you received earlier, you will have $500 less available for the rest of that funding period.
What changes from 1 December 2026?
From 1 December 2026, claims for supports from a previous funding period must be submitted within 90 days of the support being provided.
An exception applies if exceptional circumstances stopped the claim from being submitted within that time.
What if you keep spending more than your funding period amount?
If you keep spending more than your funding period amount, you will be using your plan funding faster than intended.
This means you could run out of funding before the end of your plan.
If your support needs have changed and your current funding is no longer enough, speak with your NDIS contact, Support Coordinator or Recovery Coach as soon as possible.
Our Plan Hero team are saying ‘Woo Hoo!’ as this has been so hard in the past, telling providers and participants that we can’t pay anymore because the current funding period has been used.
This change gives participants more flexibility when real life doesn’t fit neatly into a funding period.
