Who Pays for What in SIL? Rent, Board and Your NDIS Plan

The short answer

Supported Independent Living funding pays for the people, not the place. Your NDIS plan covers the support workers rostered through your home; the rent, food, power and internet come out of your own pocket, usually from the Disability Support Pension plus Commonwealth Rent Assistance.

That single line answers most of the confusion, but the detail matters, because the detail is where families get caught out at signing time. This article walks through each cost in a SIL home and names who pays it.

What your NDIS plan covers in a SIL home

SIL is a Core support. It funds the workers who help you with the things you have agreed you need help with at home: personal care, cooking, cleaning alongside you, medication prompts, getting ready in the morning, and overnight support where the evidence backs it. The hours are set out in a roster of care that your provider proposes and the NDIA approves.

The scheme is deliberately strict about the boundary. It funds supports, and it treats housing itself as an everyday cost, the same as it is for anyone who does not have a disability. So the SIL payment goes to the provider for staffing the home. Not one dollar of it is rent.

What you pay yourself: rent, board and daily living

Living in a SIL home comes with the same everyday costs as living anywhere. Rent secures your room and your right to live in the home. Board, where a home uses that model, bundles some combination of meals, electricity, gas and internet into one regular amount. Groceries, phone plans, clothes, streaming and outings stay personal costs, and in a shared home the household bills are typically split between housemates.

Ask any provider to put the split in writing before you sign. A good service agreement shows the support side (funded by the plan) and the personal side (rent, board, dailies) on separate lines, so nobody discovers a cost six weeks after moving in. It is one of the first things we suggest families check on a first home visit, right alongside meeting the people you would live with.

Where the money usually comes from

Most SIL residents pay their housing costs from the Disability Support Pension, and most renters also qualify for Commonwealth Rent Assistance through Centrelink, which exists precisely to help with rent. Rent assistance attaches to the rent component, not to board, which is one practical reason the rent and board split should be written down clearly.

One rule has no exceptions: NDIS funding cannot top up your rent. If the numbers in a proposed home do not work against your income, the answer is a different home or a different arrangement, never a quiet arrangement against the plan.

If the home is SDA, there is one more payment, and it is not yours to make

Some homes are also Specialist Disability Accommodation: dwellings built or modified for very high support needs. For those, the NDIA pays an SDA amount straight to the housing provider for the building itself. You never handle that money.

What you pay in an SDA home is a set contribution. As at August 2026, under the NDIA's SDA pricing arrangements, that is generally a quarter of the basic Disability Support Pension rate plus any rent assistance you receive. If you are still untangling the two payment types, our plain-English comparison of SIL versus SDA covers it properly.

A worked example, in plain words

Say your daughter is 27 and moving into a shared SIL home with two housemates. Her NDIS plan pays the provider for the roster of care across the household: the morning staff, the evening staff, the overnight support. From her pension she pays her rent, and rent assistance lands with her pension payment to help cover it. The three housemates split the electricity and internet. She buys her own groceries, though the house often cooks together because it is cheaper and better company.

Nothing in that picture is hidden, and that is the test. If you cannot draw this picture for a home you are considering, keep asking until you can.

What to check before you sign

Ask for the roster of care and the housing costs on paper, in the same meeting. Check whether the home charges rent, board or both, and exactly what board includes. Confirm how household bills are split, what happens to costs when a housemate moves out, and how much notice applies on each side. Then take it home and read it slowly; any provider who rushes that step is telling you something.

If you are comparing homes now, our accommodation page explains how our own homes handle the split, and you can see photos, locations and current openings for every home on Find a Home.

Frequently asked questions

Does SIL funding pay for rent?

No. SIL funding covers the rostered support workers in the home. Rent comes from your own income, usually the Disability Support Pension, and most renters also receive Commonwealth Rent Assistance from Centrelink to help with it.

What is the difference between rent and board in a SIL home?

Rent pays for your room and your right to live in the home. Board bundles living costs such as meals, electricity or internet into one regular payment. Homes use different models, so ask for the split in writing, especially because rent assistance applies to rent rather than board.

Can NDIS funding be used for groceries or household bills?

No. Groceries, power, internet and similar everyday costs are personal expenses in a SIL home, just as they are for anyone else. The NDIS funds your supports; your pension and other income cover daily living, and housemates usually split the shared bills.

Who pays when a support worker joins an outing?

Your own tickets, meals and activities are yours to pay. How a worker's entry fees or travel are handled varies between providers and supports, so ask for it to be spelled out in the service agreement before the first outing rather than at the till.