Operational Bulletin: Invoicing for Supports

Member Operational Bulletin – Invoicing for Supports: DIA is issuing this Member Operational Bulletin to address issues around invoicing standards for NDIS Participants that have their NDIS funds Plan-Managed.

Over the past 6 months DIA has seen an unreasonable rise in Registered Plan Management Providers being pursued as a debtor for services and supports being delivered by service providers to NDIS Participants. Some direct service providers, administrators, liquidators and debt recovery agencies are incorrectly assigning debts or recoverable amounts to Registered Plan Management Providers for charges, fees or costs that have arisen between a service provider and an NDIS Participant. To support the sector DIA has today released this Member Operational Bulletin – Invoicing for Supports.

Registered Plan Management Providers are not substitute decision makers or case managers on behalf of the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) or NDIS Participants. Registered Plan Management Providers are also not responsible for the establishment of supports and services. These are undertaken by other roles within the NDIS as a part of a Participants NDIS plan implementation. The role of Registered Plan Management Providers is clearly articulated by the NDIA here.

Where funded in a Participants NDIS Plan a Registered Plan Management Provider can support NDIS Participants to:

• Lodge compliant claims for NDIS funds that are inline with their NDIS plan;
• Distribute claimed NDIS funds to the providers that have delivered supports and services;
• Increase their plan financial oversight and budget management;
• Increase their choice of providers;
• Answer questions about how their funds can be spent;
• Keep required records to support NDIA payment assurance audits;
• Have greater visibility of their NDIS plan spend through budget reports and greater budget oversight.

Providers delivering supports and services to NDIS Participants should address all invoices to the person or entity that has agreed for the services to be provided, i.e. the party that has executed the service agreement. This could be the NDIS Participant, NDIS Participant’s Nominee / Guardian, or in some cases it might be an entity such as a Public Guardian or Trustee that has the legal authority to enter into a commercial agreements and establish supports on behalf of the NDIS Participant. This is to ensure there is no confusion over who the ‘customer / client’ is. In almost all circumstances the Registered Plan Management Provider is not the customer or client of a NDIS Participants service provider.

The NDIA has published the requirements of what should be included on an invoice for it to meet NDIS requirements statting that invoices should contain:

• Provider’s NDIS business name
• Provider’s ABN
• Participant’s name and NDIS number
• Participant’s address (including postcode) if it is for specialist disability accommodation
• Support item number as listed in the NDIS Support Catalogue
• Amount and quantity claimed for each unit of the support provided for example, $51.09 each x 2 units
• Claim type for example, non face-to-face support, provider travel, short notice cancellation or NDIS Requested Report
• Date/s the support was delivered
• Total invoice amount
• GST component if applicable (noting most services to NDIS Participants are GST free).
• Services delivered for only one participant, but can include multiple supports

With the express and prior permission of an NDIS Participant, invoices may be sent/forward to a Registered Plan Management Provider directly however the invoice should still be addressed to the person or entity that has agreed for the services being delivered, i.e. the NDIS Participant, NDIS Participants Nominee / Guardian or entity such as a Public Guardian / Trustee that has legal authority enter into commercial agreements and establish supports on behalf of a NDIS Participant.

The above guidance is inline with the ATO Goods and Services Tax Ruling (GSTR 2013/1).

If you have any questions about this Operational Bulletin please contact info@intermediaries.org.au.