There are two ways to receive funded support in New Zealand. In the first, a NASC allocates hours, sends your details to a contracted provider, and the provider sends whoever is on the roster. In the second, the NASC allocates the same support and hands you the money to arrange it yourself.
The second is Individualised Funding, and Disability Support Services describes it as
a type of person-directed funding from Disability Support Services which gives disabled people and their family/whānau more choice in how they are supported to live their lives.
The distinction matters more with Parkinson’s than with a stable condition, because the useful thing is rarely more hours. It is the right hours, with the right person, at the times the medication makes difficult. Checked in August 2026.
You can pay family
This is the part people do not believe until they read it. IF is used to engage support workers, and DSS says those “can include family members, contracted people or organisations.”
What IF is meant to cover is the support you were already allocated:
Get help with household management and the personal care of the disabled person by engaging a support worker.
Take a break through engaging a support worker or other suitable alternatives.
Being an employer is the trade-off, and it is a real one — agreements, timesheets, tax, cover when someone is sick. That is what hosts exist for.
Hosts and the four tiers
A host is an organisation that holds the funding administratively and helps you manage it — DSS says hosts help people “manage their funding confidently and responsibly, and in line with their funding plan.”
Since 2026 the amount of hand-holding is formalised into four tiers. DSS: “There are four tiers which describe how often a host will check in and how much guidance a disabled person will receive.”
| Tier | Level of support | What the host does |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Very low | “Checks in at least annually” |
| 2 | Low | “Checks in at least every 6 months” |
| 3 | Medium | “Checks in at least every 3 months, and provides guidance and coaching” |
| 4 | High | “Checks in at least monthly and provides active coaching” |
Placement is not a judgement about you personally. It “is based on their total flexible funding, their experience and confidence managing funding responsibilities, and how they engage with their host.”
Your tier has one concrete consequence. Prior approval is needed for one-off purchases over $1,500 in tiers 1 to 3, and over $500 in tier 4.
The pre-approval list catches people out
Regardless of tier, DSS requires prior approval for:
What the money can be spent on after 1 April 2026
From 1 April 2026, Individualised Funding, Enhanced Individualised Funding, Carer Support and hosted Enabling Good Lives personal budgets all follow the same purchasing rules. Allocations made before that date did not change; the rules about spending them did.
Spending has to satisfy three tests. It must:
- “match the purposes in your funding plan”
- “relate to your disability and the support you need”
- “help you (or your carers) manage the impact of your disability”
And it cannot go on “drugs, alcohol, tobacco, gambling or illegal activities”, nor on residential care — with respite care as the exception.
Notice that the first test points at a document. Since the February–March 2026 changes, the assessment produces a My DSS Funding Plan describing your needs “and the purpose of their funding”. If a purpose is not written in the plan, spending against it is hard to defend later. So the argument about what your funding is for happens at the assessment, not at the checkout.
The examples are broader than people expect
DSS publishes worked examples, and they are worth reading before you decide something is not allowed. Among them, flexible funding has been used to:
- “purchase accessible kitchen equipment and utensils that are easier for him to grip and use safely”
- pay for a “gym membership and an online yoga subscription to maintain her strength and flexibility”, with occasional “sports massage”
- “attend a community line dancing group, where movements can be adapted to suit her abilities”
- “cover the cost of her parents traveling to Auckland to provide respite”
- “help cover the cost of admission for his support person”, and elsewhere “cover the cost of her support person’s flights, accommodation, and support hours”
- “purchase noise cancelling headphones which will more effectively help him control the noise”
Read that list again with Parkinson’s in mind. Weighted cutlery and easy-grip utensils. A class where “movements can be adapted”. Keeping strength and flexibility. Paying the cost of the person who has to come with you so that going somewhere is possible at all.
Getting it
Is it worth the paperwork?
Honestly, not always. IF suits a household that wants control and can carry some administration. It suits people whose support needs are unusual in shape rather than in size — help at 6:30am and again at 9pm rather than a tidy two-hour block, or a worker who has to understand what an off period looks like before they can be useful.
It suits less well a household that is already overloaded, unless the host is doing a lot of the lifting. Ask two or three hosts what they actually do at your tier before deciding — that answer varies far more than the rules do.
| You want | Consider |
|---|---|
| A provider to organise everything | Stay with contracted home and community support |
| To pick your own workers and set your own times | Individualised Funding |
| To pay a family member for support they are already giving | Individualised Funding, with the host’s guidance on employment obligations |
| A break, arranged your own way | Carer Support and respite, now under the same purchasing rules |
| Equipment such as a wheelchair or shower stool | Not IF — this goes through an EMS assessor. See equipment and home modifications |
If this applies to you
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| A rostered stranger arrives at the wrong hour each morning | Ask the NASC whether your allocation can be managed with Individualised Funding |
| A family member already does the support unpaid | Ask about IF. Support workers “can include family members” |
| You want more hours | IF will not give you more. Ask for a reassessment instead |
| You are unsure which tier you are in | Ask your host. It sets your pre-approval threshold — $1,500 or $500 |
| You are about to buy something that helps | If it is equipment, a complementary therapy, overseas travel or an early replacement, get approval first regardless of price |
| Your funding plan says only “personal care” | Raise the wider purposes at your next assessment. Spending has to match the purposes written in the plan |
| Your host is slow to answer | Hosts can be changed. Ask the NASC what the process is |
| You were allocated funding before 1 April 2026 | Your allocation did not change, but the purchasing rules did. Check anything routine you have been buying |
This page is not legal or financial advice and does not decide your allocation. Purchasing rules took effect on 1 April 2026 and were checked in August 2026. Confirm what applies to you with your NASC and your host.