What Happens When Your NDIS Plan Ends? Continuation, Variation and Reassessment
Your NDIS funding does not stop when your plan reaches its end date. Here is what continuation, variation and reassessment mean, and what happens to unspent funding.
Link Support Services
8/3/20261 min read
Your NDIS funding does not stop when your plan reaches its end date. In most cases the plan simply continues for another 12 months with the same Core and Capacity Building funding, indexed for price changes, and any unspent NDIS funding carries over. You do not need to do anything for this to happen.
That is the short answer. Here is what it means in practice, and when you should ask for something different instead.
What plan continuation actually means
When your plan reaches its end date and no reassessment has been scheduled, the NDIA continues it. Your funding stays in place for a further 12 months, your Core and Capacity Building amounts stay the same, and those amounts are indexed to reflect current pricing. Unspent funding for NDIS supports carries over into the continued plan.
Continuation happens without you applying for it. It exists so that nobody loses support while waiting for a planning conversation.
Continuation, variation and reassessment: what is the difference?
These three words get used interchangeably and they mean quite different things.
Continuation is your plan rolling over for another 12 months with the same funding, indexed. Nothing about your situation has changed enough to need a new plan.
A variation is a change to part of your existing plan. It is used when something specific needs adjusting but the plan as a whole still works, and it is generally faster than a full reassessment.
A reassessment is a new planning conversation that produces a new plan. It is used when your situation, goals or support needs have changed significantly.If your circumstances are stable, continuation is usually the best outcome. If they are not, asking for a variation or reassessment early is better than waiting for your end date to arrive.
What happens to unspent funding?
Unspent funding for NDIS supports carries over when a plan continues. This matters, because a lot of participants rush to spend funding before an end date on the assumption that it disappears. In a continuation, it does not.
That said, funding is meant to be used for supports you actually need. Spending it simply to avoid losing it is not a good reason to buy something, and unusual spending patterns can be queried.
Link Support Services
Linking Care, Community, and Possibility
Contact Us
0433 266 438
© 2026. All rights reserved.
Email:
Phone:
