Article
There are two kinds of NDIS transport funding
The first is a recurring transport allowance paid into your plan. It’s yours to spend on getting around: taxis, rideshare, fuel, public transport fares, or a contribution towards someone who drives you. It arrives periodically rather than as a lump sum.
The second is provider-delivered transport, where a support worker drives you as part of a supported activity. That comes out of your Core Supports budget and is charged as part of the shift rather than from your transport allowance.
Most people use both. Knowing which one is paying for a given trip is the difference between funding that lasts the plan and funding that doesn’t.
The three levels of transport funding
The recurring transport allowance is set at one of three levels, and which one you get depends on what you’re doing with your week rather than on your disability.
Level one is for participants who aren’t currently working, studying or attending a day program, but who need transport to get out and take part in the community.
Level two is for participants doing some work or study, generally on a part-time basis.
Level three is for participants working or studying more substantially, or actively looking for work, where transport is directly tied to earning or training.
The dollar amounts attached to each level are indexed and change, so it’s worth checking the current figures on ndis.gov.au rather than relying on a number someone quoted you a year ago.
The important thing is that the level is reviewable. If your circumstances change and you start a course or a job, that’s a reason to ask for the level to be looked at again.
What the transport allowance can pay for
Taxis and rideshare. Public transport fares. Fuel, if you have a vehicle. A contribution towards a family member or friend who drives you regularly. Community transport services.
What it doesn’t cover is the cost of a vehicle itself, vehicle modifications, or general household travel that isn’t related to your disability. Modifications are assessed separately as assistive technology under your Capital budget.
It also doesn’t cover transport your school, employer or the health system is responsible for providing.
The travel charge nobody explains
This is where participants get caught. When a support worker travels to reach you, or travels during a shift, that time is billable under the NDIS pricing arrangements. It comes out of your Core Supports, not your transport allowance.
For a participant in an outer suburb using a provider based across town, this can be a serious ongoing cost. Two hours of billed travel wrapped around a two hour shift means half your funding is going on the road.
The fix is simple and almost nobody does it: ask before you sign. Ask a prospective provider where the worker who would actually attend is based, and what travel would be charged for your specific address. A provider who won’t give you a straight answer to that is telling you something.
More on how we handle this →Why the funding runs out, and what to do about it
Transport funding is usually set on an estimate of a typical year. Then you have a year with more appointments than expected, or you start a course, or a health event adds a run of specialist visits, and by month eight it’s gone.
Unlike Core Supports, transport funding can’t simply be topped up from elsewhere in your plan. So the answer has to be planning rather than repair.
Work out roughly what your regular trips cost across a month and multiply it out. If the total doesn’t reach the end of the plan, you know in month two instead of month eight, and you have time to request a variation or restructure how trips happen.
Grouping trips is the other lever, and it’s underused. Two appointments in the same part of town on the same day cost a fraction of two separate journeys, and most clinics will move a booking if you ask early enough.
Transport funding is meant to build a life, not just attend appointments
There’s a pattern we see often. When every trip has to be arranged, negotiated and paid for, people quietly stop making the optional ones. The specialist appointments continue. The visit to a friend, the market on Saturday, the club that meets on a Wednesday, those go first.
A year later the person is attending everything they need to and nothing they want to, and nobody has noticed because the plan looks fully utilised.
If that sounds familiar, it’s worth raising. Community and social participation trips are a legitimate use of both transport funding and support hours, and they’re often the difference between a schedule and a life.
Social and community participation →