What are reasonable and necessary supports?

What does reasonable and necessary mean?

The NDIS defines reasonable and necessary supports with the following criteria:

• Work towards your goals, objectives and aspirations
• Be more independent
• Increase your participation in social activities and work
• Be more active in the community

Reasonable and necessary supports are related to your disability, and are supports that effectively work for you such as personal care, physiotherapy and getting to and from work. They don't include daily living costs that don't relate to your disability support needs or supports already funded by other areas of government.

Reasonable and necessary supports also take into consideration informal support you might have in place that is provided to you  given to you (or paid for) by your close network e.g. your family and the community.

A checklist for reasonable and neccesary supports

Here are some questions to ask yourself when deciding if a certain support is reasonable and necessary: 

• Does this support assist you to achieve your NDIS goals?
• Does this support assist you to be more engaged with your friends, family, community and workplace?
• Will this support increase your independence? 
• Is it value for money? Is this support reasonable in price or is there an alternative support that costs less but will have the same result?
• Will this support be beneficial? 
• Could this support be provided by another funding body (e.g. Medicare)?