If you have an NDIS plan and you want to work, there’s a support category specifically designed to help you get there — and a lot of participants don’t know it exists, or don’t know if they have it.
It’s called Finding and Keeping a Job, and it sits under the Capacity Building budget in your NDIS plan.
Here’s everything you need to know.
What is Finding and Keeping a Job?
Finding and Keeping a Job is an NDIS support category that funds supports to help you find, prepare for, and sustain employment. It’s separate from the support worker funding most people think of first when they hear “NDIS.”
The support category recognises that disability can create real barriers to employment — not just physical ones, but functional, psychological, confidence-related and practical barriers. Finding and Keeping a Job funding is designed to address all of them.
What can it fund?
Depending on your plan and your goals, Finding and Keeping a Job funding can cover things like vocational rehabilitation, employment readiness programs, support to identify your skills and work goals, assistance navigating the job market with a disability, coaching to manage your condition in the workplace, and help preparing for and sustaining employment once you’re in a role.
It doesn’t fund your wages, and it’s not the same as Disability Employment Services (DES), now known as Inclusive Employment Australia (IEA) — a government-funded program that’s separate from the NDIS entirely. We’ll cover the difference between DES and NDIS employment support in a separate post.
Who can access it?
Finding and Keeping a Job funding is available to NDIS participants who have employment as a goal in their plan and whose disability creates a barrier to achieving that goal without support.
It’s not automatically in every plan. If employment is important to you, you’ll need to raise it with your planner or LAC at your next plan review and have it included as a goal. From there, the funding can be allocated under Capacity Building.
If you’re not sure whether you have this funding, the best place to start is your plan document. Look under Capacity Building supports for a line item that references finding and keeping a job or employment. If you can’t find it or you’re unsure, your support coordinator can help — or you’re welcome to call us directly, and we’ll walk through it with you.
How much funding is typically allocated?
Funding amounts vary depending on your goals and your plan, but a typical allocation for an employment support program sits around $9,000–$10,000 per year. This is enough to cover a full 21-session program like our Work Ready Launch Pad, which is designed to fit within a standard annual plan budget.
What if my plan doesn’t include this funding?
If employment is a goal you want to work toward and your current plan doesn’t include Finding and Keeping a Job funding, you can request a plan review. Talk to your LAC or support coordinator about adding employment as a plan goal and requesting a Capacity Building budget to match.
It helps to come to that conversation with a clear goal statement — for example, “I want to find part-time work in a supported environment within the next 12 months” — and an idea of what kind of support you’re seeking. Your support coordinator or a registered vocational provider can help you prepare for this conversation.
How do you access a provider?
Once you have Finding and Keeping a Job funding in your plan, you can choose any registered NDIS provider who delivers employment supports under that category. You don’t need a referral from a GP or specialist — you can self-refer directly to a provider, or your support coordinator can refer you.
At Stable & Grounded, we deliver the Work Ready Launch Pad — a 21-session vocational program across eight stages, from functional and vocational profiling through to a clear employment pathway plan. It’s designed for NDIS participants who want a structured, supported path toward work, at a pace that suits them. If structure isn’t for you and it feels too much like we’re trying to fit you into a box, the program is completely tailored, there is still a process we follow before we make recommendations as an allied health professional, which needs to still include all of these steps, we’re just giving you the overview of what this process is to ensure it is still participant-led or ask us about customisations.
If you’d like to know whether the program is right for you, book a free intake call with our team. We’ll talk through your plan, your goals, and what the next step looks like — no pressure, no commitment required.
