NDIS Home & Living Assessments
Where someone lives, who they live with and how much support they need there are three different questions, and the NDIS funds them through five different supports. Most stalled home and living requests asked the wrong one. This is the map, and the evidence for whichever road is yours.
One goal, five supports, and why the difference decides everything
“I want to live more independently” is one sentence. Underneath it, the NDIS runs five distinct support types, each funding a different thing, each with its own evidence question.
The most consequential confusion in this whole area is between the two biggest supports: SDA funds the building. SIL funds the people in it. They are two separate decisions, made on two separate evidence sets, and a person can qualify for either without the other. Requests that blur them, one report trying to argue both, are the single most common reason a home and living application stalls.
Around those two sit three more: ILO, which builds a support package around who the person lives with; MTA, which bridges the gap while a long-term arrangement is found; and STA, which funds short stays and respite. Each has its own logic, and the evidence that wins one can be exactly wrong for another.
The five home and living supports, in one place
The five support types and what each covers are defined by the NDIA and can change over time. Funding in any individual plan is an NDIA decision under its reasonable and necessary criteria; check the current position with your planner or support coordinator before relying on it.
Which assessment does your situation actually need?
Read the left column, follow the right. If the real answer is “more than one”, the order still matters, and we will tell you which comes first.
Why home and living requests stall
Support coordinators bring us stalled requests every week. The patterns repeat.
- The wrong support was requestedA SIL request when the actual problem is the dwelling, an SDA request when the actual need is support hours. The evidence then answers a question nobody asked, and the request circles.
- One report tries to argue two decisionsSDA and SIL are separate decisions on separate evidence. A single blended document usually under-evidences both, and the stronger claim gets dragged down by the weaker one.
- The alternatives are missing from the fileSDA evidence that never addresses modification. SIL evidence that never addresses equipment or ILO. Silence on alternatives is read as “not considered”, and the question comes back months later.
- The informal support is invisibleWhat family currently absorbs is nowhere in the evidence, so the assessed need looks smaller than reality, and the funded arrangement is built on an unpaid arrangement that was already failing.
- The evidence describes diagnosis, not functionHome and living decisions turn on what a person can and cannot do in a day, evidenced from observation. Clinical letters alone, however strong, describe a different thing.
Where OT evidence fits in a home and living request
Home and living requests are generally assembled by a support coordinator around a home and living goal in the person’s plan, with a supporting evidence document that draws together the clinical and functional picture. Our role is the functional half: the occupational therapy assessment that shows what the person can do, what they cannot, what support that genuinely requires, and which of the five roads the evidence actually points down.
We write our reports so a support coordinator can lift what they need directly: the functional findings, the support pattern, the alternatives considered and the consequence of no support, each stated plainly and each traceable to its evidence. We cover the document itself on our home and living supporting evidence page.
One more thing worth knowing: the NDIS legislation changed in 2024 and planning arrangements are being progressively reworked, with consultation continuing through 2026. Details of how planning will run are proposed and subject to final rules, so we deliberately build evidence around what does not change: a clear, honest, well-evidenced picture of function and support need serves a participant under any process.
Source for the reform status: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing material on new framework planning, checked August 2026. Process details change; confirm the current position with the NDIA, your planner or your support coordinator.
How we assess, whichever road it is
Home and living: your questions
What does “home and living” actually cover in the NDIS?
Can someone have SIL without SDA, or SDA without SIL?
Where do we start if nothing has been requested yet?
Do you help decide which support to request?
How is all this changing under the NDIS reforms?
Do we need to be plan-managed or self-managed to work with you?
What do the assessments cost, and how long do they take?
Talk through a home and living referral
Send a referral or an enquiry below, or call 1300 316 664. If you are not sure which of the five supports fits, that is a normal starting point, and exactly the conversation to have before anything is booked.
Five roads, one map, evidence for whichever is yours
Talk to our mobile OT team about SIL, SDA, ILO, MTA or STA evidence anywhere in Greater Sydney.
Make a referral or call 1300 316 664