Supported independent living (SIL) is a type of disability funding in Australia that pays for the hands-on help a person needs to live in their own home. It covers assistance with daily tasks like cooking, personal care, cleaning, and managing health, with the goal of building skills so the person can do more over time with less support. SIL is funded through the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and is specifically designed for people with higher support needs who require some level of help at home around the clock, seven days a week, including overnight.
What SIL Actually Covers
SIL funding pays for person-to-person support. That means it covers the cost of support workers who help with or supervise daily living tasks: getting dressed, preparing meals, managing medications, household chores, getting out into the community, and building the practical skills needed to live more independently. The focus is always on helping the individual do as much as they can themselves, rather than doing everything for them.
What SIL does not cover is equally important to understand. It does not pay for rent, groceries, electricity, gas, water, or internet. Those everyday living costs come out of your own income, such as the Disability Support Pension. SIL also doesn’t pay for the house itself. If someone needs a specially designed or accessible home, that falls under a separate category called Specialist Disability Accommodation.
How SIL Differs From Specialist Disability Accommodation
This is one of the most common points of confusion. SIL and SDA are two separate things that sometimes overlap but serve completely different purposes.
SIL is the support staff. It funds the people who come to your home (or are on-site) to help you with daily life. You are responsible for your own housing and tenancy. You might live in a private rental, social housing, or a home you own. SDA, on the other hand, is the building. It funds purpose-built or specially modified housing for people with severe functional impairments. These homes typically include features like wheelchair access, hoists, sensory rooms, and assistive technology. SDA receives its own separate NDIS payment that covers the cost of the housing itself.
Some people receive both SIL and SDA funding. Others receive SIL only and arrange their own housing. The two are assessed and funded independently.
Shared Homes vs. Living Alone
SIL can look quite different depending on whether you live with other NDIS participants or on your own. In a shared SIL home, two to four people live together in a house or unit, with support workers rostered across all residents. The typical staffing ratio in a shared home is 1:2 or 1:3, meaning one worker supports two or three people at the same time. This is more cost-effective, but it means there will be times, particularly during mornings, mealtimes, or outings, when you may need to wait your turn for help.
In an individual SIL arrangement, you live alone and receive 1:1 support tailored entirely to you. This offers the highest level of individual attention and is often essential for people with complex or high-intensity needs where safety is a concern. The trade-off is that individual SIL costs significantly more, so the NDIS will generally fund it only when a shared arrangement wouldn’t meet someone’s needs.
Who Is Eligible
SIL is not available to every NDIS participant. It is designed for people who need a significant amount of help throughout the day, every day, including overnight support. The NDIS assesses whether SIL is the right fit by looking at several factors: whether the supports will help the person pursue their goals, whether they’ll improve or maintain the person’s ability to do things independently, whether they’ll reduce the need for hands-on help over time, and whether they’ll strengthen connections to family, community, health services, education, and employment.
In practice, SIL tends to be funded for people whose support needs are too high to be met by a few hours of in-home care per week but who don’t require full-time clinical or hospital-level care. The decision process is designed to find the right long-term option, not just what works right now.
How the Application Process Works
Getting SIL funding involves more than just requesting it in your NDIS plan. A key part of the process is something called a Roster of Care submission. This is a detailed document, prepared by a service provider in consultation with the participant (or their nominee), that outlines exactly what support the person needs and when. It includes information about daily routines, the level of help required for each task, and any high-intensity needs.
If the person requires high-intensity supports, the provider must include clinical evidence in the submission, such as occupational therapy assessments or medical and allied health reports. These reports need to be less than two years old and should come from an independent provider rather than the same organization delivering the SIL support.
Once the Roster of Care is completed, it can be submitted through the participant’s support coordinator as part of a home and living request, or the provider can send an enquiry through the NDIS contact page. The Roster of Care is only one piece of information the NDIS uses to decide how much funding is reasonable and necessary. The agency will also consider the participant’s goals, current plan, and any other relevant assessments.
What SIL Funding Pays For in Practice
The NDIS sets price limits, which are the maximum hourly rates that registered providers can charge for SIL supports. These rates are updated regularly and vary depending on the time of day (weekday, weekend, overnight, public holiday) and the complexity of the support being delivered. The actual dollar amount in someone’s plan depends entirely on their assessed needs: how many hours of support they require, at what ratio, and whether any of those hours involve high-intensity or specialized care.
Because SIL funding can represent a large portion of an NDIS plan, the agency scrutinizes these requests carefully. Having a well-documented Roster of Care with current clinical evidence, where needed, makes a significant difference in whether the request is approved and funded at the right level.
Daily Life in a SIL Arrangement
For the person receiving support, day-to-day life in a SIL arrangement is designed to feel like living at home, not like being in a facility. You have your own tenancy rights. You make choices about meals, routines, social activities, and how your home is run. Support workers are there to help you do things, not to take over.
The skill-building component is central. If you currently need help cooking dinner, the goal might be for your support worker to gradually step back as you learn to prepare simple meals on your own. If managing money is a challenge, the support might include working through budgeting together. The NDIS frames this as helping participants “do more things with less support” over time, though the pace and extent of that progress varies widely depending on the person’s disability and circumstances.
Support workers in SIL homes typically follow a roster that covers morning routines, daytime activities, evening help, and overnight support. In shared homes, this roster is built around the combined needs of all residents, which is why compatibility between housemates matters. Many providers involve participants in the matching process before anyone moves in together.