The question comes up regularly: “Can I use my NDIS plan to go on holiday?” The honest answer is more nuanced than a simple yes or no. The NDIS will fund certain costs that come with travel for participants who need disability support, but it won’t fund the holiday itself. Understanding which is which prevents a lot of confusion at the planning stage and at quarterly reviews.
This guide covers what the NDIS will and won’t pay for when a participant travels or takes time away, how to think about funding for support worker costs during a trip, and the common patterns that lead to funding being declined or repayment required.
The key principle: the NDIS funds disability supports, not the trip
This is the principle that explains every funding decision around holidays and travel: the NDIS pays for the disability-related support a participant needs, regardless of where the support happens. The NDIS does not pay for the costs that a person without disability would have if doing the same activity.
In practical terms:
- Your support worker’s wage during your trip: potentially funded (it’s a disability support)
- Your support worker’s flight ticket and accommodation: usually funded as part of the support
- Your own flight ticket: not funded (you would have this cost regardless)
- Your hotel room: not funded (same reason)
- Restaurant meals, theme park entries, tourist activities: not funded (general life costs)
- Specialised accessible accommodation: potentially funded as a Short-Term Accommodation (STA) support
The exception worth flagging: Short-Term Accommodation funding (often informally called “respite”) sometimes includes accommodation costs that look like holiday-style stays. This isn’t the NDIS funding your holiday; it’s funding short-term respite that happens to take place at a holiday-style location.
What the NDIS will fund around travel
Several specific categories of support travel with the participant.
Support worker wages while you travel
If you ordinarily have a support worker who assists with personal care, mobility, or daily activities, that same support can continue while you’re away. The NDIS funds the support worker’s hourly rate during the trip the same way it would at home.
The funding comes from your standard Daily Activities or Personal Care budget. There’s no separate “holiday support” funding category; it’s the same support, delivered in a different location.
Support worker travel costs
If the support worker needs to travel with you, their travel costs (flights, accommodation, meals while working) are usually funded as part of the support arrangement. The rate is at the NDIS price guide for travel-related support time.
This funding has documentation requirements. The Service Agreement with your provider needs to specify the travel scope, dates, and approximate cost. For interstate or international travel, your Plan Manager or Support Coordinator usually needs to confirm the budget can absorb the travel costs before committing.
Short-Term Accommodation (sometimes informally called respite holidays)
STA funding pays for short stays at accommodation specifically equipped for participants with disability. This includes purpose-built respite houses, accessible holiday cabins (some operators specifically cater to NDIS participants), and short-stay arrangements that include support workers and accessible features.
STA is not a holiday subsidy; it’s a respite funding category that sometimes happens to feel like a holiday because the location is pleasant. Funding is approved in the plan at specific allowances (e.g. 14 nights per year, 28 nights per year), and you book through registered STA providers.
See our NDIS Short-Term Accommodation Sydney page for how this works in practice for Sydney participants.
Travel and transport support hours
If your plan includes Travel & Transport funding, this can cover transport-related support during a trip: support worker time spent driving you to and from the airport, accompanying you on public transport, or assisting at travel hubs. The Travel & Transport budget category covers the support time, not the transport itself (no fuel, no ticket costs unless they’re specifically support-related transport like a wheelchair-accessible taxi).
Our NDIS Travel & Transport page covers this in more detail for Penrith and Western Sydney participants.
Specialised equipment hire for the trip
If you need specific disability equipment that doesn’t travel well (a specialised wheelchair, a hoist, a shower chair, etc.), the cost of hiring equivalent equipment at the destination can sometimes be funded as a disability support. Documentation showing the necessity and the cost is required.
What the NDIS won’t fund
The NDIA is clear about what falls outside support funding for trips. The list:
The participant’s own travel costs. Flights, train tickets, fuel for your own car, hotel rooms for you, restaurant meals. These are general living costs that everyone has when travelling, with or without disability.
Tourist activities and entertainment. Theme park tickets, museum entries, sightseeing tours, restaurant outings. The NDIS doesn’t fund these for anyone regardless of trip context.
Family or friend travel costs. If your family members or friends travel with you, the NDIS doesn’t fund their costs. Only support workers travelling in a paid support capacity are funded.
Insurance, visas, vaccinations. Travel insurance and visa fees are personal costs. Pre-travel vaccinations are typically covered by Medicare (not the NDIS) where applicable.
Holiday accommodation that isn’t disability-specific. A regular hotel room, Airbnb, or campsite stay is not funded even if you’re a participant on holiday. The exception is STA-approved accessible accommodation.
Overseas travel for the participant. NDIS funding generally cannot be used overseas. Some specific exceptions exist for short-term trips, but the default assumption is that overseas trips are not NDIS-funded.
“Add-on” support that exceeds your normal hours. Your travel support hours come from your existing plan budget. If you’d normally use 20 hours of support per week and travel doesn’t change that, fine. If you’d want 60 hours of support per week during a trip because you’re doing more activities, the NDIS won’t fund the extra 40 hours just because you’re on holiday.
How to plan a trip that uses your NDIS supports correctly
The participants who travel most successfully are the ones who plan the funding side ahead of time, not the ones who book first and try to make the funding fit afterward.
Step 1: confirm your support budget can absorb the trip
Look at your current month’s spending against your plan budget. If you typically use a steady amount per month and have not much spare capacity, a trip that increases support hours (or adds support worker travel costs) may push you over. Plan-managed participants have visibility through the Plan Manager’s dashboard; self-managed participants can check via the myplace portal.
Step 2: get a written quote from your support provider
Ask your provider for a written quote covering: the support worker’s hourly rate during the trip, the support worker’s travel costs (flights/accommodation/meals), and any specialised equipment hire if needed. The quote is the basis for the Service Agreement amendment and for plan budget tracking.
Step 3: amend your Service Agreement
Your existing Service Agreement with your provider needs to be amended to include the trip dates, the support scope during the trip, and the agreed costs. This is a routine amendment for established providers; the Plan Manager or self-management portal handles the documentation.
Step 4: book through registered providers for STA if applicable
If part of the trip is funded as Short-Term Accommodation, the accommodation needs to be booked through an NDIS-registered STA provider. You can’t book a regular hotel and claim it as STA after the fact.
Step 5: keep receipts during and after the trip
For audit purposes, keep receipts for all support-related costs (worker hours, worker travel, equipment hire). Self-managed participants need these for quarterly reporting; plan-managed participants pass them to their Plan Manager.
Common patterns that get funding declined or recovered
The NDIA’s most common reasons for declining or recovering holiday-related funding:
Charging the participant’s own travel costs as supports. This is the most common audit finding. A flight ticket booked in the participant’s name and claimed against the support budget will be flagged and recovered.
Booking accommodation outside the STA-registered network and claiming it as STA. A regular hotel booking can’t retrospectively become an STA claim. The accommodation must be booked through a registered STA provider from the start.
Paying family members for support during a trip without proper arrangement. Paying a family member who isn’t formally engaged as a support worker is generally not allowed. If a family member is going to provide paid support during a trip, the formal agreement needs to be in place beforehand.
Increasing support hours dramatically for the trip without justification. If your regular plan uses 20 hours/week and you suddenly claim 80 hours for the trip week, the NDIA will want documentation showing why the increase was disability-related.
Claiming overseas costs against the plan. Most overseas travel costs are not funded. Participants who fund overseas trips through their plan often have the funding recovered at the next plan review.
Frequently asked questions
Can I take my support worker on a holiday with me?
Yes, in the sense that your support worker can travel with you to continue providing support. The NDIS funds the support worker’s wage during the trip and usually their reasonable travel and accommodation costs. The support worker is travelling as a worker, not as a holiday companion, so their role and hours during the trip should reflect actual support delivery.
What’s the difference between respite and a holiday for NDIS purposes?
Respite (formally called Short-Term Accommodation) is a planned period of care delivered in an accommodation setting, designed to give either the participant a change of environment or the family carer a break. It’s funded through the STA category. A holiday is leisure travel chosen by the participant, which the NDIS doesn’t fund directly. The two can look similar in practice (both involve being away from home for a few days at a pleasant location), but the funding source and rules are different.
How much travel funding can I expect in a typical plan?
It varies significantly by participant. Travel & Transport funding is determined by the NDIA based on your demonstrated transport needs in your day-to-day life, not based on holiday plans. Most participants don’t have a separate “holiday travel” line item; the funding for travel-related supports during a trip comes from the existing support hour categories.
Can I save my support hours throughout the year to use them all on a holiday?
In principle yes; the NDIS doesn’t prescribe when within the plan year you use your funded hours. In practice, large unused balances earlier in the year and then big spikes during a holiday week can flag for review. The NDIA looks at sustained, plan-wide usage patterns rather than rigid weekly limits, but extreme variations attract attention.
What if I want to go on a holiday with other NDIS participants?
Group holidays with multiple participants are increasingly common, particularly through SIL houses or community programs. The support arrangement, funding, and cost-sharing need to be carefully documented because individual participants’ plan budgets fund their individual support, not shared group costs. STA-registered providers often offer group respite holidays specifically structured to work within NDIS funding.
Can NDIS funding cover an overseas holiday for a participant?
Generally no. Some exceptions exist for short overseas trips (typically under 6 weeks) where the participant is travelling for a specific NDIS-related purpose, but the default assumption is that overseas holidays are not NDIS-funded. The participant pays their own overseas travel costs; the participant’s NDIS-funded support worker would not typically accompany them overseas using NDIS funding.
What if my support worker doesn’t want to travel?
Support workers aren’t required to travel with participants if they don’t want to. The participant or Plan Manager can arrange for a different support worker to provide the travel period support, or for a registered travel companion service if available. Plan ahead, because finding alternative travel support at short notice can be difficult.
Planning a trip and want to talk it through?
If you’re planning a trip and unsure how the NDIS funding side works for your specific support arrangement, SADC’s Support Coordinators have planned trips with hundreds of Sydney participants across the years. We can walk through your current support budget, what’s likely to be funded, and what documentation you need to set up before booking.
For broader respite and short-term accommodation options, see our NDIS Respite Care Sydney page.
This article provides general information about NDIS holiday and travel funding. For your individual plan and circumstances, consult your NDIS Support Coordinator or the NDIA directly via ndis.gov.au.
Last reviewed: May 2026. Author: SADC Disability Services team. SADC is a registered NDIS provider operating across Greater Sydney from our Riverwood head office.