Improved daily living skills

What is Improved Daily Living Skills in the NDIS?

Improved Daily Living Skills is a capacity building support category in an NDIS plan that funds assessment, therapy and training to help a participant build the skills they need for everyday life. It is support category 15 and is often shown on plans and in the portal as "CB Daily Activity". It pays for things like occupational therapy, speech pathology, psychology, physiotherapy, therapy assistants and skills training, not for someone to do daily tasks for the participant.

The word that matters is improved. Core supports pay for help with daily life now; capacity building supports pay for building independence and skills so that a person needs less support, or different support, over time. Improved Daily Living Skills is the capacity building category most therapy supports are claimed from.

You'll hear the term from planners, support coordinators and plan managers, and it appears in the first two digits of support item numbers: items starting with 15_ belong to this category in the NDIS pricing schedule.

What Improved Daily Living Skills funding covers

The category groups supports that assess, teach or develop a participant's skills. The 2026–27 NDIS pricing schedule (pricing arrangements) lists support items in category 15 for:

• Allied health therapy: occupational therapists, speech pathologists, psychologists, physiotherapists, counsellors, social workers, dietitians, exercise physiologists, podiatrists, developmental educators, art and music therapists, orientation and mobility specialists, audiologists, orthoptists and rehabilitation counsellors.
• Therapy assistants, at two levels, delivering parts of a therapy program under a therapist's direction.
• Skill development and training, including public transport training.
• Training for carers and parents so they can support the participant's development.
• Assistance with decision making, daily planning and budgeting.
• Assistive technology mentoring, to learn to use equipment well.
• Community engagement assistance.
• Early childhood supports delivered by early childhood professionals for young children.

Most therapy items also have claim-type variants for short notice cancellations, non-face-to-face work, provider travel, NDIA-requested reports and telehealth. Look up the current items and price limits in the NDIS price guide; the NDIA's support catalogue is the official list.

How Improved Daily Living Skills funding works

In a current (old framework) plan, the planner allocates an amount to the category based on the participant's goals and the evidence of what therapy and training will help. Capacity building funding is generally tied to its category: unlike core funding, money in Improved Daily Living Skills is used for supports in that category rather than moved to other budgets. The NDIA's guide to using your funding explains how flexible and stated funding work in a plan.

Within the category the participant chooses providers and how to use the hours, as long as the supports relate to their goals and are reasonable and necessary. Because funding is released in funding periods (usually every three months for new and reassessed plans since 19 May 2025), a therapy block early in the plan can use up a period's funding faster than expected.

Using the funding well

1. Link every support to a goal. Therapy that clearly builds toward a goal in the plan is easier to justify at the next plan reassessment.
2. Agree a therapy plan and hours. A service agreement that sets the number of sessions, report-writing time and travel stops surprises.
3. Use therapy assistants where it fits. They can deliver practice between therapist sessions at a lower price limit.
4. Ask for outcomes. Progress reports showing what changed are evidence for the next plan.

Improved Daily Living Skills vs other categories

Some professions appear in more than one category. Dietitians and exercise physiologists, for example, have items in both Improved Daily Living Skills and Improved Health and Wellbeing. Which one is used depends on how the plan is funded and what the support is for, so check the plan before quoting.

What providers should know

Therapy and skills-training providers do most of their NDIS billing from this category, so small claiming errors add up. Before the first session:

• Confirm how the funding is managed. NDIA-managed funding can only be claimed by registered providers; plan-managed funding is invoiced to the plan manager; self-managed participants pay you and claim themselves.
• Use the right item and claim type. Direct therapy, telehealth, non-face-to-face time, provider travel, short notice cancellations and NDIA-requested reports each have their own claim type under the pricing arrangements. The travel calculator and cancellation calculator help apply those rules.
• Supervise therapy assistants. Therapy assistant items are for delivering a program a therapist has designed and oversees, not for unsupervised work.
• Write to the goal. Session notes and progress reports that reference the participant's goals make the support easier to justify and the next plan easier to build.

Recent changes and new framework plans

• Funding periods. Since 19 May 2025, new and reassessed plans usually release funding every three months.
• 2026–27 pricing schedule. New price limits apply from 24 September 2026, so therapy quotes and service agreements written before then may need updating.
• Daily activities budgets. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's reform timeline lists 1 October 2026 as the start of a progressive reset of capacity building daily activities budgets as plans are reassessed or renewed. Check the timeline and your plan for how this affects you.
• New framework plans. From April 2027 participants start moving to new framework plans, which don't use the 15 support categories as separate budgets. Department materials place therapy in the flexible budget, with behaviour supports and support coordination as stated supports (budget fact sheet).

Common mistakes

• Using it to pay for help rather than skill-building. If a worker does the task for the participant, it is usually a core support.
• Running out early. Intensive therapy blocks, reports and travel all draw on the same budget; track it with a budget tracker.
• Forgetting non-face-to-face time. Report writing and program preparation are claimable when agreed, and they use funding too.
• Quoting from the wrong category. A dietitian or exercise physiologist item from the wrong category can be rejected.
• No evidence of progress. Without reports, it is hard to show the next planner what the therapy achieved.