Individualised living options: explore an ILO arrangement that suits you

Our guide to Independent Living Options (ILO)

By Hireup · Originally published 29 June 2022

Deeper review: 6 October 2026. The deeper review adds article-specific decisions and audience guidance. Historical passages and their adjacent corrections remain preserved.

Describe a good day at home before choosing a model

Think about privacy, routines, visitors, location and who you want around you. Record what you want help with and what you want to do yourself. ILO funds an arrangement of supports; it does not pay your rent or ordinary household bills. Read the official guidance

Explore more than one possible arrangement before deciding. A host or housemate option needs to fit the person as well as the support hours. Ask how you can raise a concern privately and what happens if living together stops working.

Original article and dated context

Hireup wants to help you live a life that is good and meaningful to you, including living on your terms. Whether you’re just learning about ILO, need support in exploration and design, have had challenges with your submissions, or are at any stage in your ILO journey; a dedicated Hireup coordinator can help.

Independent Living Options (ILO) is a new NDIS-funded service that gives you the choice and control to live the way you want and in a living arrangement that suits your needs and preferences.

[Clickability update, September 2026: The current NDIA term is individualised living options. ILO is a support arrangement, not funding for the property or ordinary rent and bills. Read the current ILO overview.]

You can decide to share your home with friends or housemates, live with a host family, or live on your own with the support you need.

Hireup has put together this helpful guide to help people understand more about ILO:

Who is ILO for?

ILO may be suitable for you if:

You’re 18 or over.
You need support at home for at least 6 hours each day, but usually for less than 24 hours per day.
You're ready to explore your home and living needs, and are ready to look into potential options. That means you’re ready to have a goal in your current NDIS plan that is relevant to housing and independent living.
You’re willing to invest time and effort towards creating your future home.
Your family or friends might be part of your ILO supports.

If you’re 17 or over, and your goal is to move out of home, the NDIS may provide supports in your plan to explore an ILO. In addition, If you’re 17 or over and already living in an ILO arrangement, the NDIS can consider continuing supports for the ILO in your plan, as long as these supports meet the NDIS’s reasonable and necessary criteria.

Your ILO could include support like:

Helping you make decisions on where you want to live and what supports you need.
Personal care, including help to shop, cook or pay bills.
Help to set up and manage your own home.
Help to build your independence.
Building and maintaining connection with others.
Help with making day to day decisions.
Support to manage your emotions or behaviour.
Unpaid volunteers, neighbours or carers who help you on a regular basis.
People who you call to help you when you need it (on-call).
Training for the people who support you.

An ILO may not be suitable for you, if you:

Are under 18 (except for the circumstances listed above).
Need fewer than 6 hours of help at home each day.
Need 24-hour rostered support from one or more support workers.
Need registered nursing care as part of your daily supports.

In addition, an ILO doesn’t cover support like:

Supported Independent Living.
Specialist Disability Accommodation.
Home modifications.
Rent or mortgage repayments.
Everyday costs like food, electricity and internet bills.
Intensive supports (1:1 rostered support) as the only support.
Support outside your home, for example to go to work, study or community activities.
Funding to develop a behaviour support plan.
Support that does not meet the NDIS’s reasonable and necessary criteria.

Even if you aren’t eligible for ILO, you can still access other independent living supports such as:

Supported independent living.
Specialist disability accommodation.
Short-term and medium-term accommodation.
Home modifications.
Personal care support.
Residential care for young people.

How does ILO funding work?

To access ILO funding, you need a goal in your NDIS plan about exploring home and independent living options. You also need to complete a Home and Living Supports Request Form, which tells the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) that you require home and living supports which cannot be met through mainstream, community, informal or other supports. Importantly, any ILO funding you request must meet the NDIS’s reasonable and necessary criteria.

ILO funding is allocated on the basis of your individual circumstances and the NDIS’s reasonable and necessary criteria. ILO funding is broken down into 2 stages:

Stage 1: Exploration and Design
Stage 2: ILO Supports

Stage 1: Exploration and Design

According to the latest NDIS price guide and our own experience, Stage 1: Exploration and Design is priced at $100.14 per hour from your core funding. It is a stated support item and is often agency-managed. For remote areas, the hourly price limit for Exploration and Design is $140.19, and $150.21 for very remote areas.

[Clickability update, September 2026: These rates and the funding-level tables below are historical. Confirm current pricing and the supports included in your own plan before budgeting or signing. Current NDIA guidance explains the two stages.]

In Stage 1: Exploration and Design, the NDIA uses your ILO Home and Living Supports Request Form to allocate appropriate funding for your ILO supports. The ILO Home and Living Supports Request Form tells the NDIA that you need home and living supports, which cannot be met through mainstream, community or other informal supports.

There are three levels of ILO funding that you can access:

Level 1: $3000

Level 2: $5000

Level 3: $10,000

For more information on these funding levels, view the full Stage 1 ILO funding table .

In Stage One of ILO, the NDIA decides what necessary and reasonable supports they can provide to you, by considering the following questions:

1. Is the support related to your disability?

Do you need support to live independently because of your disability?
Do you need to explore and design an ILO because of your disability?

2. Does the support help you pursue your goals? Including

Are there disability specific barriers that prevent you from pursuing your home and living goals?
How will the support address your disability support needs?
How will Exploration and Design help you meet a specific goal in your NDIS plan?

3. Is the support likely to be effective and beneficial for you?

Will this support successfully help you explore and design your ILO?
Will this support benefit you?

4. Is the support legal and safe?

Is the support likely to cause risk or harm to you or others?
Does your Home and Living Supports Request form indicate it is safe for you to take the next step in the ILO process?

5. Is the support value for money?

Is the cost of Exploration and Design support reasonable for your situation?
What’s the cost of your Exploration and Design supports, and how will these benefit you over time?
Are your Exploration and Design supports value for money, compared to other supports that would achieve the same outcome?

6. Is the support something informal, mainstream or community support might be expected to provide?

Can family and friends assist you with the design of your ILO?
If you’re under 18, can family or a guardian assist you to find a suitable living option?

7. Is the support more appropriately funded or provided by someone else?

Can the Exploration and Design support be funded through another system besides the NDIS?
Do you need supports that are provided by state and territory services for children (under 18), such as out of home care accommodation?

Stage 2: ILO Supports

In Stage 2: ILO Supports,the NDIA looks at your ILO Service Proposal to determine what reasonable and necessary supports they can fund. They allocate it through a support category called ‘'Individual Living Options’'. Funding for Stage 2 is also broken down into three levels:

Level 1: $105,000
Level 2: $150,000
Level 3: $230,000

For more information on these funding levels, view the full Stage 2 ILO funding table.

Your Stage 2 ILO funding is a package of primary and supplementary home and living supports that can be used flexibly with formal and informal supports. It can be managed by your family or a provider. The package includes resources for monitoring and redesign as things change - for example, a housemate might decide to leave, or you might need to find a new house to lease.

If you’re ready to start your ILO journey, or want to explore other independent living options, contact the Hireup team.

Design the arrangement before committing to a move

Be specific about the help you can sustain

Write down what you are willing and able to do, how often and what happens when you are unavailable. “Family will help” is not a reliable backup plan if it has never been discussed. Keep the participant’s preferred level of family involvement separate from assumptions made by a provider.

Consider practical costs outside the support package, including rent, utilities and food. Ask about tenancy and payment arrangements before agreeing to a move. Where finances are complex, obtain independent advice rather than treating a support proposal as a tenancy or tax explanation.

Keep a record of the informal help each person has actually agreed to provide, including times they cannot be available.

Make the monitoring and exit arrangements usable

Identify the primary support, supplementary help and who checks that the arrangement is working. Set a way to report concerns that does not require the participant to complain only to the person they live with. Agree when the design will be reviewed and how urgent changes are handled.

Keep exploration, the submitted proposal and approval of ongoing supports distinct. An old funding level in this article is not a quote or automatic entitlement. Explain what work is included in your fee and what would require a new agreement if circumstances change.

Questions readers ask

Does ILO funding pay for a house or rent?

No. ILO funds a support arrangement, not the property, rent, mortgage or ordinary living costs. Official guidance

Are the dollar levels in the original article current entitlements?

No. They are historical figures in the guest article. Confirm the current arrangements and your individual approved funding. Official guidance

Does funding for ILO exploration guarantee the ongoing arrangement will be approved?

No. Exploration and design are separate from approval and implementation of the ongoing support proposal. Official guidance

Find a provider to discuss your home-support needs

Tell Clickability what kind of support you are looking for at home. Explore provider profiles and ask directly about relevant home-and-living experience.

Find an NDIS provider for home support · Browse the provider directory