16, Jan, 2025

Core – Meal Preparation and Delivery

The NDIA may fund the cost of a support worker to help you shop for your food, prepare your meals, and to clean up afterwards.

Your disability might mean you can’t shop, cook, or clean up after preparing your meal. The NDIA may fund the cost of a support worker to help you shop for your food, prepare your meals, and to clean up afterwards.

Your disability might mean you have trouble planning your meals or following multi-step instructions. If you can re-heat your meals, the NDIA may fund a support worker to help you shop for food and pre-prepare some meals for the week.

The NDIA may also pay for delivery of pre-prepared meals. The NDIA review the information provided at your NDIS planning meeting to work out what types of support you need and whether the cost of paying for assistance with meal preparation is reasonable and necessary.

If the NDIA believes that you are eligible to be funded for meal preparation and delivery, they will specify this in the Core support category of your NDIS Plan.

Your Core supports are flexible, and you may decide to use that funding to pay for the preparation and delivery of pre-prepared meals. It is up to you to manage your funding to cover your expenses for the length of your plan.

Item Number Item Name and Notes Unit National Remote Very Remote
01_023_01201_1 Assistance with the cost of the preparation and delivery of meals Each $1.00 $1.00 $1.00

The above support item is used to claim for the preparation and delivery of meals for participants who are unable to do this for themselves and are not in receipt of other supports that would meet the same need (e.g., a support worker to assist them in preparing their own meals).

This support item does not require a quote, is not a stated support, and can be used where meal preparation has been specified in a participant’s plans with Core funding available.

The NDIS will not cover the cost of food or ingredients, these are day-to-day living costs. The food portion of the total cost should be paid separately using your personal funds. Providers may ask you to pay for this portion of the support upfront.

If you choose an unregistered provider, you can claim:

  • 100% of the invoice, if food costs have been removed from the total cost.
  • 70% of the invoice if food costs have not been removed from the total cost.

PLEASE NOTE: You are only able to use your Core support funding flexibly for meal preparation if this was specified in your plan.

Participants who have funding for support workers to provide support with shopping and meal preparation may use this funding to claim meal preparation and delivery as an alternative for short periods in response to short-term disruptions (e.g., if the participant is required to isolate — refer to the Nutrition Supports including Meal Preparation Guideline for more information).

The NDIA will not fund supports that aren’t directly related to your disability.

For example, The NDIA will not fund meal preparation and delivery if you only need these supports because of health issues such as:

  • weight loss
  • food allergies
  • diabetes
  • cardiovascular (heart) disease
  • kidney disease
  • polycystic ovary syndrome
  • irritable bowel syndrome.

 

These conditions are not usually related to your disability and are better funded through the health system or through mainstream supports. You should discuss this with your doctor.

Don’t have meal preparation and delivery specified in your plan but believe you might be eligible?

Learn more about how to make changes to your NDIS Plan.