Core Supports in Victoria

What core supports actually covers

The day-to-day help: personal care, assistance around the house, getting out into the community, and transport. Core is the largest and most flexible part of most plans, and for most participants it is the support they notice week to week.

How it's funded

Core Supports is usually the most flexible budget in your plan. In most cases you can move funding between the core categories without asking the NDIA first. Not many participants are told this, and it is one of the more useful things to know.

What to know in Victoria

Victoria's support workforce sits mostly in Melbourne, but the regional centres are better served than in most states, with real provider choice in Geelong, Ballarat, Bendigo and the Latrobe Valley. Continuity of worker is the thing to pin down. Ask how many different people you are likely to see in a month, and what happens when your regular worker is away.

Choosing between providers

With core supports, reliability beats anything on a brochure. A provider who sends someone different every week, or cancels when a worker is sick, causes far more disruption than one charging a slightly higher rate with a stable roster.

Questions worth asking

• Do I get to choose my support worker, and can I change if it is not working?
• What happens when my regular worker is sick or on leave?
• How much notice do I give to cancel, and what do you charge if I am late?
• Do you charge for the worker's travel time, and how do you calculate it?
• Realistically, how many different workers will I see in a month?

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