Support at Home vs NDIS for the same worker: the six things that differ

The same support worker can do the same hour of work under NDIS and under Support at Home, and be governed by two different rulebooks while doing it. Six things differ, and four of them will change what you invoice. Who sets the price, what you can charge for on top, how many documents you send, how the budget is shaped, who has to be registered, and whether your prices are public.

This post is those six, side by side, with the source for each.

1. Who sets the price?

NDIS: the NDIA does, as a ceiling. The NDIS pricing schedule — which from 1 July 2026 replaced the Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document — sets a maximum price for each support item. The NDIA's guide to getting paid is plain that these are maximums for plan-managed and agency-managed participants, and that you can always agree less. A self-managed participant pays your invoice directly at whatever rate the two of you agreed in writing.

Support at Home: you do. There are no price caps. The Department's guidance is that you set your own prices and that a price must be reasonable, meaning based on what it costs you to deliver that service to that participant.

The shift is bigger than it sounds. Under NDIS the number is looked up. Under Support at Home the number is argued for, and the argument is a cost build-up.

2. What can you charge for on top?

NDIS: travel is a line you claim. Provider travel and non-labour costs have their own rules and their own item numbers.

Support at Home: nothing on top. You cannot charge a separate administration fee, you cannot charge a separate travel fee, and you cannot take either from the care management account. The Department lists labour, package management administration, travel, sub-contracting and a margin for the cost of capital as costs that belong inside the price you set.

This is the single most expensive habit to carry across. A worker who prices a Support at Home hour at their NDIS hourly rate and expects to add travel has just given the travel away.

3. How many documents do you send?

NDIS: one, and who receives it depends on the management type. A plan-managed participant's invoice goes to the plan manager. A self-managed participant receives it and pays you directly. An agency-managed participant generates no invoice at all — a registered provider submits a payment request through the portal. The detail is in self-managed, plan-managed or agency-managed.

Support at Home: two, every time there is a contribution. You claim the government subsidy from Services Australia after delivery, and you separately invoice the participant for their share. Neither covers the other, and the second is the one nothing chases you for. The mechanics are in Support at Home invoicing.

4. What shape is the budget?

NDIS: a plan budget across a plan period, by support category. Funding sits in categories and is drawn down over the life of the plan.

Support at Home: a quarterly envelope, by classification. A participant is assessed into one of eight classifications, each carrying a quarterly budget, with a tenth of it allocated to care management. Unspent money carries into the next quarter only up to a cap, and the rest returns to the Commonwealth — see unspent Support at Home funds.

	NDIS	Support at Home
Funding period	The plan period	The quarter
Structure	Support categories	Eight classifications
Unspent money	Stays in the plan	Carries once, capped; rest returned
Coordination funding	Support coordination, where funded	A tenth of every budget

The quarter is the part that changes behaviour. A plan budget forgives a quiet month; a quarterly envelope with a capped carryover does not.

5. Who has to be registered?

NDIS: it depends on the participant. An unregistered provider can work with self-managed and plan-managed participants. Agency-managed participants are closed to you, because only a registered provider can submit a payment request. That boundary is the subject of registered versus unregistered.

Support at Home: only a registered provider claims. A sole trader either registers with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, or works as an associated provider — delivering services on a registered provider's behalf and invoicing that provider, which does not require registration of your own.

The associated-provider path is how most sole traders start, and it changes your paperwork completely: you are invoicing a business, not claiming from Services Australia and not chasing a participant contribution.

6. Are your prices public?

NDIS: no. Your rates are between you, the participant and their plan manager.

Support at Home: yes. You must publish the price you most frequently charge for each service on My Aged Care and on your own website, and keep it current. A provider that has not reported prices transparently may be referred to the Commission.

For a sole trader this is a real piece of work, not a formality — it means having a settled price list before you take your first participant, and it means a price change is a publishing task as well as a billing one.

The six, in one table

	NDIS	Support at Home
Who sets the price	NDIA sets a maximum	You do, on your costs
Travel and admin	Claimable lines	Priced in, never separate
Documents per service	One (or a portal request)	Two — claim, then contribution invoice
Budget shape	Plan period, by category	Quarterly, by classification
Registration	Only for agency-managed	Required to claim; or be an associated provider
Prices published	No	Yes, on My Aged Care

What this means if you do both

Two rulebooks means two sets of habits, and the failures are mostly import errors — an NDIS habit carried into Support at Home work, or the reverse. The three that cost money: adding travel to a Support at Home invoice, pricing a Support at Home hour off an NDIS limit, and forgetting the participant's contribution invoice because NDIS only ever needed one document.

The service names differ too. NDIS supports carry item numbers from the pricing schedule; Support at Home services come from the Support at Home service list. Mapping one onto the other by eye is how a claim lands against the wrong thing.

HarvestFlow Care loads both catalogues at signup, so a service is chosen from the right list rather than typed, and each visit carries the item code its programme expects. Support at Home's quarterly envelope, contribution split and statements are on the Pro plan — what sits where is on the Support at Home page, and the prices are on Care pricing.

If Support at Home itself is new to you, start with the guide for sole traders.