NDIS Guides

NDIS Life Skills: How the NDIS Helps You Build Everyday Independence

Name: 1 Care Connect
Address: Rosehill, NSW, 2142, AU
Telephone: 1300 264 942

October 30, 2026

NDIS life skills supports help you learn to do everyday things yourself, such as shopping, cooking, managing money, looking after your personal care and using public transport. They are different from supports where someone does a task with you or for you. This guide explains what the NDIS includes, where it sits in your plan, and how to set it up, using only what the NDIS publishes.

Quick summary

Development of daily care and life skills is one of the 37 categories of NDIS supports.
It covers training and development for participants or carers, so you can live as independently as possible.
Examples include shopping, meal preparation, managing finances, personal care, travel and social skills.
In a plan, improved daily living is a capacity building support category.
Capacity building funding is a stated support, so you cannot move it between categories.
The NDIS says you can receive these services in groups or individually.

What are NDIS life skills supports?

The NDIS publishes a list of the supports it can fund. It has 37 categories, and one of them is development of daily care and life skills. The NDIS describes it as supports that provide training and development activities for participants or carers, to increase their ability to live as independently as possible. This includes psychosocial recovery supports.

The list then names the activities. It includes increasing your ability to do these things independently:

shopping
meal preparation
managing finances
managing your own personal care
travel and using public transport
engaging in social activities
improving relationship and social skills.

Notice that the list names carers too. In other words, training can be for the people who support you, not only for you. At 1 Care Connect, our group programmes in Western Sydney include life skills, practised together in a supportive group setting.

Doing it for you versus teaching you to do it

The NDIS list separates help with a task from learning the task. Daily personal activities, for example, cover supervision or assistance with eating, dressing, showering and moving. Our guide to NDIS daily personal activities explains that category. Household tasks, similarly, cover jobs such as cleaning and meal preparation that you cannot do yourself because of your disability.

Life skills support has a different goal. The NDIS says support workers can help build your skills and independence to do things for yourself, like preparing and cooking meals, cleaning the house or running errands, depending on your goals. So the same task, such as cooking, can appear as help with the task or as training to learn it.

The everyday help side has its own funding category in your plan. Our guide to NDIS assistance with daily life explains how that category works.

Where NDIS life skills sit in your plan

Currently, plans group funding into support budgets. Capacity building supports are one of the four, and the NDIS says they build your skills to do things for yourself and work towards your goals. The NDIS page on what capacity building supports are lists the categories inside that budget.

One category names living skills directly: improved daily living. The NDIS describes it as NDIS supports that help build your living skills and increase your independence and involvement in your community, such as assessments, training or therapies. It can include therapy, such as speech therapy to help with communication or occupational therapy to build functional skills.

Other capacity building categories also cover skills:

Increased social and community participation can help you do training to build your social skills, make new friends and increase your independence.
Improved relationships can include social skills development.
Improved life choices helps you develop the financial and organisational skills to self-manage your NDIS plan.

However, there is one important rule. Capacity building funding is a stated support, so you cannot move it between these support categories. So if your plan includes skill building funding, you must buy the supports it describes against each category.

The NDIS says it is moving to a new way of showing your budget, so your next plan may not group capacity building supports in the same way. Your plan will still show whether supports are flexible or stated.

Group or one to one?

You do not have to learn alone. For example, the NDIS fact sheet on support categories says providers can deliver improved daily living services in groups or individually.

Groups also change the cost. Under the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, the amount a provider may claim from each person in a group is the maximum amount divided by the number of people in the group. Separately, the NDIS list has a category called group and centre based activities, for community, social, cultural and recreational activities in a group. Our guide to NDIS social and community participation explains that side.

The support items on your invoices

The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 took effect on 24 September 2026. It sets maximum amounts for four types of disability support workers, from Level 1 to Level 4, because providers employ workers with different skill levels and experience. Several skill building items appear in it:

Skill Development And Training including Public Transport Training
Skills Development And Training
Individual Social Skills Development
Training For Carers/Parents
Capacity Building and Training in Self-Management and Plan Management.

The maximum prices apply when your funding is Agency-managed or plan managed. This guide does not list prices, because they can change. You can read the current schedule on the NDIS pricing arrangements page.

What NDIS life skills funding does not cover

However, some learning sits with other systems. The list of supports that are not NDIS supports includes education and tuition fees, such as fees for school, vocational education and training, and higher education. It also includes business development costs and business skills development costs.

Likewise, the NDIS can fund training to help you shop or cook, but groceries are not NDIS supports. As with every support, you can only use your funding for items that are NDIS supports, related to your disability and in line with your plan.

Setting up life skills support that works

The NDIS says capacity building supports may increase your independence and reduce the need for the same level of support in the future. It also says your progress and outcomes from these supports are shared at each plan reassessment. So it helps to be clear from the start:

Choose the skills that matter most to you, such as cooking a meal or catching the bus.
Describe what you can do now and what you would like to do on your own.
Decide whether you would rather learn in a group, one to one, or both.
Agree with your provider how you will track progress before each plan reassessment.
If anything is unclear, talk to your my NDIS contact. The NDIS says you can talk to them at any time if you need some extra help with your plan.

Frequently asked questions

What are life skills in the NDIS?

They are supports that provide training and development so you can live as independently as possible. The NDIS lists shopping, meal preparation, managing finances, managing your own personal care, travel and public transport, social activities, and relationship and social skills.

Which budget pays for life skills?

In your plan, the support category that names living skills is improved daily living, part of capacity building supports. It covers assessments, training or therapies that help build your living skills and increase your independence. Some social skills training sits in other capacity building categories.

Can life skills support help carers?

Yes. The NDIS describes development of daily care and life skills as training and development activities for participants or carers. The pricing schedule also lists an item called Training For Carers/Parents.

Does the NDIS fund travel training?

It can. Travel and using public transport are on the list for life skills. In addition, the NDIS category for assistance with travel or transport arrangements includes travel training to build your confidence and skills to use public transport safely and independently. Our NDIS transport page explains our transport service.

Can I move life skills funding into core supports?

No. Because capacity building funding is a stated support, you cannot move it between support categories. You must buy the supports described against each category in your plan. Check your plan, which will show whether each support is flexible or stated.

Will the NDIS pay for a TAFE or university course?

No. Education and tuition fees, including fees for vocational education and training and higher education, are on the list of supports that are not NDIS supports.

How 1 Care Connect can help

At 1 Care Connect, our group programmes include life skills: practical skills for everyday independence, practised together in a supportive group setting, with a nurse-led team behind every programme. At home, our in home care includes cooking skills development and practice, budgeting, routines and life skills coaching, and travel training. Development-Life Skills is one of our approved NDIS registration groups.

To talk about building everyday skills, call 1300 264 942, email contact@1careconnect.com.au or send us an enquiry.