The Apoio Pulse – Issue Ten

No funding left to pay your invoice?

Let’s talk today about what happens when a participant’s NDIS plan runs out of money and there are unpaid invoices. You know that moment you bang your head against the wall going WHY?? WHY?? WHY?? Well, sometimes even with careful budgeting and planning, the funding is used up much quicker than the NDIS expected.

When this does happen, where does this leave you? You have given support and are now being told that you will have to wait for payment….. We get it, it is annoying. Probably the most annoying part is the uncertainty of if the payment will be received. One phrase we carefully use is ‘As soon as we can, we will submit the payment request (invoice) to the NDIS for consideration’. ‘Consideration’ being the key word you need to understand. The reason why we use that word…. Well quite simply, the NDIS can turn around and say no they won’t pay over and above the exhausted funds!

For transparency, here's the process we take when the funding runs out:

• We wait out the time for the current NDIS plan to end (can take weeks or months).
• Invoice is submitted manually to the NDIS.
• NDIS considers the claim (note this can take them 3-6 months to do).
• NDIS advises the outcome.

There is no way around it! It’s a simple but a time-consuming process that we all have to work within.

So, here’s a few tips to help avoid the situation:

1. Make sure you invoice promptly and regularly. This helps you get prompt payments but also allows us to assist the participants with better budgeting.
2. Have an up-to-date Service Agreement. It’s best practice to have a service agreement with the person you are supporting, at the very least it should set out a schedule of supports and costs and sent through to us.
3. Ask the participant ‘do you have the funding available to cover a support’. By law a participant does not have to disclose how much funding they have, so don’t bother asking that, but a simple query could save a lot of angst down the track.
4. Reach out to the Plan Manager or Support Coordinator and ask the same question, again we will not share how much funding is available, but we can offer guidance.

Preparing you and your business for these situations is important. Do you have business practices in place to aid you and give everyone a better understanding of how you would respond in situations like these? We hope sharing this information has sparked some thinking. Remember, we are here to support the whole community, reach out to us if you have a question or need more information.