NDIS Community Participation: A Complete Guide

What Is NDIS Community Participation?

NDIS community participation is funded support that helps people with disability take part in social, recreational, cultural, and civic activities outside the home. It funds the support you need to be there and participate, not the activities themselves. Support worker time, transport, and in some situations entry fees are claimable. Activity fees, gym memberships, course registration, and meal costs are not.

Inclusion is the purpose. Disability creates barriers to ordinary community life, and removing those barriers through funded support produces better outcomes in health, wellbeing, and relationships. Community participation funding acknowledges that isolation is a harm, and supporting people to be part of their communities is not optional.

Two Budget Categories, One Outcome

NDIS community participation sits across two separate budget categories. Understanding which one applies to your situation matters, because they work very differently and are funded from different parts of your plan.

Core Supports: Category 4

Core Supports, Category 4, is formally called Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation. It pays for a support worker to accompany you to activities right now. This is the ongoing, direct support funding. You use it to attend your social group, get to your sporting club, join a community event, or go to the movies.

Core Supports funding is flexible within the Core budget. If your plan has funding across multiple Core sub-categories, you can generally shift spending between them as needed. This means community participation Core funding can complement your Assistance with Daily Life funding where activities overlap.

Capacity Building: Category 9

Capacity Building, Category 9, is called Increased Social and Community Participation. It funds structured, time-limited programs designed to build your skills and independence over time. The goal is that after completing the program you can participate more independently.

Examples include learning to use public transport independently, completing a social skills program, or attending a structured program with a capacity-building outcome. Capacity Building community participation funding is not for indefinite ongoing support. It has a defined skill-building endpoint, which is why the funding is time-limited and goal-focused.

Both can be in the same NDIS plan where both types of support are needed. A participant might use Core for weekly activities and Capacity Building to work toward travelling there independently.

NDIS Community Participation Rates in 2025-26

The NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26 (PAPL v1.1, effective 24 November 2025) sets the maximum rates for community participation. All rates increased by 3.95% from 1 July 2025, reflecting SCHADS Award wage increases.

Individual Support Rates

For individual community participation, the primary line item is 04_104_0125_6_1 (Assistance with Social and Community Participation, Standard). The 2025-26 rates listed below.

• Weekday daytime: $70.23 per hour
• Weekday evening: $77.38 per hour
• Saturday: $98.32 per hour
• Sunday and public holidays: $127.43 per hour

For participants who need a higher level of support due to complex needs, the high intensity rate applies:

• Weekday daytime (high intensity): $77.73 per hour
• Saturday (high intensity): $108.82 per hour

Group Activity Rates

Group activities significantly reduce the per-participant cost. Pricing divides the hourly table rate by the number of people in the group. Each participant’s plan is billed separately for the full duration.

A 1:2 ratio (one worker, two participants) brings the weekday per-person rate to approximately $39.87 per hour. With 1:3, the per-person rate drops to approximately $28.79 per hour. Larger groups reduce it further. Group activities are the most cost-effective option and provide built-in social connection.

Group and Centre Based Activities are registered under Group 0136. Where a group session runs in a centre, providers may also claim centre capital costs in addition to the per-participant rate.

Activity-Based Transport

Transport to and from activities is claimable separately using line item 04_590_0125_6_1 (Activity Based Transport) at $1.00 per kilometre. This is in addition to the worker’s hourly rate and covers vehicle running costs. Providers can also claim for provider travel time at 50% of the standard hourly rate when travelling to reach participants.

Can the Support Worker’s Ticket Be Claimed?

Yes, and this is one of the most consistently missed facts in community participation guides. If a support worker must purchase a ticket to accompany you, that cost is a necessary cost of delivering your support. It can be claimed from your community participation budget. This applies to movies, concerts, sporting events, festivals, and similar ticketed activities. You fund your own ticket; the NDIS funds your support worker’s.

What Activities Does NDIS Community Participation Fund?

The range of activities is broad, spanning everything from weekly routines to one-off events. Funded support covers the worker’s time and transport. Your support worker’s time and transport to help you participate is fundable wherever your disability creates a genuine barrier to participation.

Social and Recreational

• Sporting clubs, swimming, gym and fitness classes
• Arts, craft, and creative workshops
• Music groups, dance, and performance
• Social clubs, meetups, and peer support groups
• Movies, concerts, theatre, and live events
• Community events, festivals, and markets
• Day trips and supported overnight camps

Community and Civic

• Volunteering with community organisations
• Religious and cultural community events
• Library visits and community education programs
• Citizenship and civic participation activities

Skill-Building (Capacity Building)

• Public transport training and travel independence programs
• Social skills and confidence programs
• Cooking, literacy, and digital literacy classes
• Mentoring and peer support establishment
• Volunteer placement establishment and support
• Holiday camps and outdoor programs with skill-building components

What Is Not Funded

Activity fees, venue entry, gym memberships, course registration fees, meal costs, accommodation, and transport for holidays are not funded. These are general living costs that anyone in the community pays regardless of disability. The NDIS draws a clear line between the cost of support and the cost of the activity.

Online activities are only funded where the participant’s disability creates a specific barrier requiring support, such as communication or technology assistance. General social media use and online entertainment are not funded.

Programs of Support: A Feature Most Guides Miss

Programs of Support (POS) are a specific funding arrangement under community participation that few guides explain. A Program of Support is an agreement between a participant and provider for up to six months aimed at a specific outcome.

Under a POS, providers can claim for participants who agreed to attend but did not, provided the provider had capacity to deliver. This is different from the standard short-notice cancellation rule. For regular group programs, POS arrangements reduce administrative friction and make more group programs viable.

POS arrangements apply across Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation, Supported Independent Living, and some Capacity Building categories. They are particularly useful for regular group activities such as weekly social programs, day programs, and exercise groups.

The 1 October 2026 Budget Changes: What Participants Need to Know

On 1 October 2026 the NDIA announced that some NDIS support budgets will change over the coming 12 months. The change reduces participant budgets for two support categories: Social, Economic and Community Participation, and Improved Daily Living Skills.

It is applied as plans are created or reassessed from 1 October 2026, or renewed from 1 February 2027, rather than all at once. The NDIA says the impact will be different for each participant, so the best guide to your own situation is your new plan when it arrives.

What Is Not Affected

Within these two categories, some supports aren't affected: employment supports, disability-related health supports, high intensity supports, intensive and complex behaviour supports, customised and wearable technology, and hearing services.

Other parts of your plan aren't affected either, including help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry and cleaning, nurse care and medication, home and vehicle modifications, personal mobility equipment, and specialist disability accommodation. The NDIA has published a list of unaffected supports and Easy Read guides.

Reassessments and Plan Variations

The NDIA says this change isn't a reviewable decision. You can still ask for a plan reassessment or plan variation if there has been a significant and ongoing change to your ability to complete daily activities, your living arrangements, your education or employment circumstances, or the informal supports available to you. There is also a new plan variation pathway for participants who receive 24-hour funded NDIS supports, with a budget threshold.

For the full official details, see the NDIA's Changes to support budgets from 1 October page. Our guide to NDIS community participation funding changes also covers what this means in practice.

How to Get Community Participation Into Your NDIS Plan

1. Set clear, specific goals. Vague goals produce weak funding. “I want to build social connections by attending a weekly community group” is stronger than “I want to socialise more.” Connect every goal to your disability-related barrier and the outcome you are working toward.
2. Choose Core or Capacity Building deliberately. If you want ongoing support for regular activities, you need Core funding. If you want to build independence toward a specific outcome, you need Capacity Building. Both can sit in the same plan and serve different purposes.
3. Name your activities and frequency. The more specific you are at your planning meeting, the more accurately your funding reflects your actual needs. List the activities, the support frequency, and why you cannot do them independently due to your disability.
4. Bring allied health evidence where you can. A report from an OT, psychologist, or physiotherapist documenting how your disability limits participation strengthens your case for funding. Clear evidence helps your plan reflect your actual needs.
5. Think about group vs individual. Planning a mix of individual and group activities from the outset can help your funding go further. Group rates at a 1:3 ratio cost approximately 40% of the individual rate.
6. Consider a Programs of Support agreement. For regular activities, a POS arrangement gives both you and your provider more certainty about the schedule and the funding, and makes regular group programs more viable.

Why Choose Tenax Supports for Community Participation

Community participation is not a one-off activity; it is a sustained commitment to being part of the world. We support people to build that presence over time. This includes those for whom participation is complicated by trauma, disability, and housing instability.

Tenax Supports is a Victoria-based registered NDIS provider. We work with participants of all ages and disability types to build meaningful community participation, whether that means social connection, confidence, or simply getting out into the community more often.

Our Community Access service supports NDIS participants to identify meaningful activities in the community and ensure the right funding is in place to pursue them. This includes building practical skills such as using public transport, navigating community services, managing money, and building social relationships.

Our Support Coordination service helps participants find community participation providers and manage Core and Capacity Building budgets. This function becomes more critical as budgets tighten and reduced allocations require careful planning.

For related reading, see our guides to the NDIS in Australia and NDIS early intervention for children.

For current information on Tenax Supports’ NDIS registration, search the NDIS Commission Provider Register at ndiscommission.gov.au.

Contact Tenax Supports at tenaxsupports.com.au/contact or call 03 7018 8666. You can also reach the NDIS on 1800 800 110. Referrals can be submitted at tenaxsupports.com.au/referrals.

Frequently Asked Questions About NDIS Community Participation