SIL and SDA funding: what supported accommodation costs

SIL and SDA are funded from your NDIS plan, not paid by you. Supported independent living (SIL) funding pays for support workers who help you live as independently as possible at home, and specialist disability accommodation (SDA) funding pays for the home itself if you’re eligible. You still pay your own rent or board, food and bills. There’s no set price for SIL: the NDIA builds each person’s SIL budget from their support hours and how many housemates share support, priced at the maximum rates in the NDIS Pricing Schedule.

This is general information, not legal, medical or financial advice, and it doesn’t consider your situation. Perth Disability Connect is an independent directory, not an NDIS provider. NDIS rules and price limits change, so check the linked source before you rely on them. Rules and figures are current as at 27 September 2026.

You may have seen SIL costs quoted anywhere from $80,000 to over $400,000 a year. This guide sets out what the NDIA publishes, what you’ll pay yourself, and what to get in writing before you sign.

Who pays for what in supported accommodation

Cost	Who pays	Who receives it
Support workers for personal care and daily living (SIL)	Your NDIS plan	Your SIL provider
The home, if it’s SDA	Your NDIS plan (SDA funding)	The SDA provider
Rent in an SDA home	You (a reasonable rent contribution)	The SDA provider
Rent or board in a home that isn’t SDA	You	Your landlord or housing provider
Food, electricity, gas, water, phone, internet	You	The supplier, or shared in the house

Sources: NDIA, SDA; NDIA, Guide to your home and living options.

SIL funding and SDA funding pay for different things. The NDIA puts it in one line: “SDA funding pays the SDA provider, SIL funding pays for your carers and you pay the rent and bills.” Our glossary explains what supported independent living covers in more detail.

How much does SIL cost?

There’s no single SIL price, because the NDIA sets each person’s SIL budget from their own support needs. The only official averages are in the NDIA’s quarterly report. For participants who have SIL, as at 30 June 2026 (NDIA quarterly report, appendices):

Measure (people with SIL)	WA	National
Participants with SIL	3,547	36,874
Average annualised committed supports in current plans	$486,500	$488,200
Average payments in the 12 months to 30 June 2026	$439,900	$451,800

Read these carefully. The report calls them the average for participants in SIL, but it doesn’t say whether the figure covers only the SIL part of the plan or the whole plan. So treat them as the average total plan for someone who has SIL, not the price of SIL.

What about the annual ranges you see online, such as “$80,000 to over $400,000”? When we checked what Google shows for “how much does SIL cost” in Perth on 27 September 2026, 6 sources, including Google’s own AI answer, gave at least 5 different annual ranges. None linked its range to an NDIA source. Some also describe part-time SIL of 15 to 25 hours a week. The NDIA’s own definition doesn’t fit that: SIL is for people who need some support at all times, and “a few hours of support each day or week” isn’t SIL (NDIS Commission).

SIL price limits for 2026-27

SIL funding pays providers no more than these maximum hourly amounts, including GST. The limits apply to NDIA-managed and plan-managed funding. National rates apply except in areas classed as remote (MM 6) or very remote (MM 7), which have higher limits (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27).

SIL support (item 0138)	Standard	High intensity
Weekday daytime (per hour)	$73.58	$79.60
Weekday evening (per hour)	$81.07	$87.70
Weekday night (per hour)	$82.57	$89.32
Saturday (per hour)	$103.54	$112.01
Sunday (per hour)	$133.50	$144.42
Public holiday (per hour)	$163.46	$176.84
Night-time sleepover (each)	$311.79	no separate item

If you’ve seen a 1 July date for these prices, that’s also right. The NDIA published its 2026-27 recommended SIL prices to apply from 1 July 2026. The Minister then set the same amounts as legal maximums in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 24 September 2026. We compared all 13 SIL items in the 2 documents and every price matches (NDIA, Pricing updates). For comparison, the 2025-26 standard weekday daytime limit was $70.23.

There’s no published weekly SIL price. Providers can claim weekly, but the weekly amount is your own SIL budget divided by the number of weeks in your plan (NDIA, How to claim SIL).

How sharing changes the price

Most SIL funding pays for shared support, and the price limit is shared too. The Pricing Schedule says that when support goes to a group, the most a provider can claim from each participant is the maximum price divided by the number of people in the group. Each person is claimed for the full time, at that lower limit.

As our own calculation from the schedule: 1 worker supporting 2 residents on a weekday daytime can claim at most $36.79 an hour from each person ($73.58 divided by 2). With 3 residents it’s about $24.53 each. The NDIA doesn’t publish a worked example, so check how your provider splits shared hours before you sign.

How the NDIA works out your SIL budget

The NDIA sets your SIL funding, not the provider. The NDIA’s SIL guideline says it looks at (NDIA, Our Guideline: Supported independent living):

1. the hours of support you need in an ordinary week
2. the ratio of support: how many workers support you and how many people you share with
3. whether you need standard or high intensity support (most people need standard)
4. the type of overnight support: a sleepover if you need up to 2 hours of awake support, active overnight if you need more
5. irregular support, generally up to 10 days a year for standard needs or 15 for high intensity.

Funding also includes an average of 12 public holidays a year. The NDIA uses all the information it has, including assessments, reports and any roster of care. A roster of care, which shows who supports you and when, isn’t a requirement, and providers don’t need to submit it (NDIA provider guide to SIL). A provider’s quote doesn’t set your budget.

If you have SIL funding in your NDIS plan, you may also have funding for a support coordinator, who can help you find SIL providers (NDIA, What is SIL).

What SDA funding pays and how it’s priced

SDA funding goes to the SDA provider for the home itself. The price is an annual amount per resident, worked out as a base amount for the type of home multiplied by a location factor (NDIS Pricing Schedule for SDA 2026-27). The base amount depends on things like whether it’s a new build, the building type, the number of residents and the design category.

Perth has 5 SDA pricing regions: Inner, North East, North West, South East and South West. Each has its own location factors. Here’s our own calculation from the schedule. A 4-bedroom group home for 4 residents built after 2023, in the Improved Liveability category, without sprinklers or an overnight room, has a base of $39,310. In Perth North East (factor 0.93), that becomes about $36,558 a year per resident in SDA funding.

The design categories are Basic, Improved Liveability, Fully Accessible, Robust and High Physical Support. Basic only applies to existing or older homes, and if you’re new to SDA the NDIA can fund 4 categories (NDIA, Our Guideline: SDA). Our glossary covers what specialist disability accommodation is. If you have SDA funding, the NDIA’s SDA Finder lets you search vacancies by location, building type and maximum price per year, though not every vacancy is listed.

What you pay yourself: rent, board and bills

SIL funding never pays rent, board, food or bills. You pay rent, groceries, utilities, phone and internet yourself.

In an SDA home, your rent is a reasonable rent contribution paid to the SDA provider, and it can’t be more than the maximum. The maximum is 25% of the Disability Support Pension, 25% of the Pension Supplement, plus any Commonwealth Rent Assistance you get (NDIA, Our Guideline: SDA). As our own calculation from the single rates in place from 20 September 2026 ($1,135.40 basic rate and $88.20 Pension Supplement a fortnight), that’s $305.90 a fortnight before any Rent Assistance (Services Australia). The NDIA’s own published figures run to 19 September 2026, and its update for the new rates wasn’t online when we checked.

In a SIL home that isn’t SDA, the reasonable rent contribution doesn’t apply. We couldn’t find a legal cap on rent or board for these homes in NDIA, NDIS Commission or WA government guidance. In Western Australia, whether you’re a tenant or a boarder matters. WA Consumer Protection says the Residential Tenancies Act doesn’t apply to boarders and lodgers, who rely on their agreement, common law and the Australian Consumer Law (WA Consumer Protection). Ask for the rent or board, what it includes and how shared bills are split, in writing, before you move in.

The NDIS Code of Conduct also says providers can’t charge NDIS participants higher prices without a reasonable justification (NDIS Commission, Fair pricing).

When a housemate moves out

SIL funding doesn’t cover vacancies. The NDIA funds SIL on your support needs, not on your housemates’ arrangements, and a registered SIL provider shouldn’t increase your costs or claim extra from your plan to cover an empty room. Your service agreement and tenancy agreement should say how vacancies are managed (NDIA guideline).

SDA is different. In some situations the NDIA can pay the SDA provider for a vacant room for up to 60 days in homes for 2 to 3 residents, or 90 days for 4 to 5 residents (NDIA, SDA vacancies). That payment comes from the NDIA, not from the remaining residents.

If your funding doesn’t match your needs

If your SIL funding no longer fits and your needs have changed a little, you can ask the NDIA for a plan variation, which changes part of your plan. The NDIA says it will decide within 21 days once it has the information (NDIA, Plan variation). If your situation has changed significantly, ask for a plan reassessment, with recent evidence of the change (NDIA, Plan reassessment).

From 1 October 2026, some budgets in new and reassessed plans will be reduced: social, economic and community participation, and improved daily living skills. The NDIA says the reductions don’t apply to other support categories. The NDIA defines high support needs as a combined daily life, home and living and community participation budget of $215,030 or more, plus 24-hour NDIS supports. If that’s you, you can ask for a high support needs variation within 90 days of a plan approved with reductions (NDIA, What is an NDIS plan).

Questions to ask before you sign

• How many people share support in this house, and how are shared hours split between us?
• Which price limits do you charge, and will you show me how my SIL funding is claimed?
• Is this home SDA? If not, what rent or board do I pay, and what does it include?
• How are shared bills like electricity and internet split?
• What happens to my costs if a housemate moves out?
• Is my housing agreement a tenancy agreement or a board or lodging agreement?

When you visit, our guide to SIL for a young adult covers what to check beyond the money. You can also compare supported accommodation providers in Perth on what their reviewers say.

Complaints about charges

If a charge against your SIL or SDA funding looks wrong, raise it with the provider first. If that doesn’t fix it, contact the NDIS Commission on 1800 035 544 (NDIS Commission). Questions about your plan or how much funding you have go to the NDIA on 1800 800 110. For a board or lodging dispute in WA, WA Consumer Protection takes calls on 1300 30 40 54.

The money in supported accommodation splits into 2 parts: support your plan pays for, and a home you pay rent or board for. Get both in writing, check the support side against the price limits, and don’t rely on anyone’s annual SIL figure without knowing where it came from.

FAQ

Q: Do I pay for SIL out of my own pocket? A: No. SIL is funded from your NDIS plan. You pay your own rent or board, food and bills, which SIL doesn’t cover.

Q: How much does the NDIS pay for SIL? A: There’s no set amount. The NDIA works out each person’s SIL budget from their support hours, the ratio of support, intensity and overnight needs, priced at the NDIS Pricing Schedule maximums. For standard weekday daytime support the maximum is $73.58 an hour, shared between the people receiving the support.

Q: Does SDA pay my rent? A: No. SDA funding pays the SDA provider for the home. You pay a reasonable rent contribution, capped at 25% of the Disability Support Pension, 25% of the Pension Supplement, plus any Commonwealth Rent Assistance you get.

Q: Can a SIL provider charge me more when a housemate leaves? A: A registered SIL provider shouldn’t increase your costs or claim extra from your plan to cover a vacancy. The NDIA doesn’t fund SIL vacancies.

Q: Why do SIL cost figures online vary so much? A: Most annual figures online are providers’ own estimates. The NDIA’s quarterly report is the only official source we found. Its averages are for people who have SIL, and they may cover the whole plan rather than SIL alone.

Q: Is Perth Disability Connect a SIL provider? A: No. We’re an independent directory. We don’t provide supports and we’re not part of the NDIS, the NDIA or the NDIS Commission.