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Supported Independent Living Assessment
A supported independent living assessment is an Occupational Therapist’s assessment of how much support a person needs to live in their own home, across personal care, household tasks, medication, safety and getting out into the community. It also works out whether that support is best delivered as Supported Independent Living (SIL), another support model, or a different housing option.
The result is a written report, titled Housing Needs Assessment: Supported Independent Living, which sets out the recommended support hours and staff ratios and compares them with the alternatives. The NDIS reads it when it decides whether to fund SIL, so it’s written in the terms the NDIS uses to make that decision. We aim to have it to you within 10 business days of the final stakeholder contact, whether it’s a first funding assessment or a reassessment because needs have changed.
Participants, families and carers
For Support Coordinators, plan managers and SIL providers
Our Occupational Therapists run supported independent living assessments across New South Wales and Tasmania, in the home the person lives in now or the one they’re hoping to move to. Before the visit, your Occupational Therapist reviews the current schedule of supports or roster of care and contacts the referrer, so the assessment starts from what’s already in place.
How do I fund a supported independent living assessment?
Funding for a supported independent living assessment usually comes from the NDIS.
NDIS: participants usually draw on the Capacity Building part of a plan for it, and our intake team confirms which category applies. It can run alongside a functional capacity assessment.
Self-managed, plan-managed or NDIA-managed: we work with all three.
Privately funded: you’ll get a clear picture of the costs before you book.
If you are not sure which funding applies to you, call us on 1800 678 647 or email hello@opt.net.au. We will sort it out before your first appointment.
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What a supported independent living assessment involves
01
What is a supported independent living assessment?
It’s a functional capacity assessment written for a housing decision.
Where a general functional capacity assessment describes what a person can do across daily life, a SIL assessment goes further.
It works out how many hours of paid support they need at home, at what staff ratio, and whether SIL is the right way to deliver it.
Your Occupational Therapist will spend two to three hours with the person face to face. They look at personal care, household tasks, medication, safety and community access, and talk with the people who already support them.
The report sets out the person’s functional status and support needs, and compares SIL with other support and housing options.
It also considers how their disability may progress, so the recommended supports stay suitable over time, and records the risks if SIL is not provided.
02
How do you qualify for supported independent living?
The NDIS describes SIL as funding for a support worker to help or supervise you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
It says SIL may be suitable if you need a support worker to stay with you 24 hours a day, including overnight.
Within that, you’d need help with daily activities for at least 8 of those hours, and some level of help or supervision for the other hours.
To be eligible for SIL funding a person needs 8 or more support hours a day, and that count sits outside any day program or community access funding. The assessment documents where the hours go and what the person can do for themselves, so the NDIS can see the participants need.
03
What is the difference between SIL and SDA?
SIL is the support, SDA is the building.
In the NDIS’s words, Specialist Disability Accommodation is the housing itself: homes built for people with very high support needs. It doesn’t cover the supports from support workers within the home.
SIL is funding for support workers to help you. A person can have SIL in an ordinary rented house, or have SDA with a different support model, or have both.
The two are assessed against different questions, so the report has to answer the right one.
At Optimum both applications run off the same Home and Living version of the functional capacity assessment.
Neither SIL nor SDA covers rent or day-to-day expenses such as groceries.
04
Who can complete an independent living skills assessment?
An Occupational Therapist. Assessing how a person manages the tasks of daily life in their own environment is the core of the profession.
A SIL assessment is that work pointed at one decision: how much paid support this person needs at home.
At Optimum the assessment is led by an Occupational Therapist from start to finish. Before the visit they review the current schedule of supports or roster of care and contact the referrer.
During the two to three hour visit they observe, ask, and score. Afterwards they contact the other people involved, such as the current SIL provider, the Support Coordinator and family. The report has to account for the support that already exists and the support that is missing.
Where a section needs another discipline, for example communication or behaviour support, that practitioner contributes and is named in the report.
05
How much of the cost does NDIS cover for SIL?
The NDIS decides that, and it decides it from the evidence in front of it.
The amount depends on how many support hours a person needs, at what times of day and night, and at what staff ratio.
That’s why the assessment report is built around exactly those things. A 25 to 30 page report from Optimum sets out the recommended staff ratios and support hours.
It compares them with the other support and housing options and describes the risks of not providing SIL.
It’s usually read alongside a roster of care from the SIL provider. Because the NDIS funds SIL for the support worker time and won’t fund rent or groceries from it, the report keeps to support needs and leaves living costs out.
No report can promise an outcome, what it can do is outline the supports needed in the terms the NDIS uses.
06
What changes will the NDIS have in 2026?
On 19 August 2026 Parliament passed the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026.
From August 2026 only you, your nominee or your child’s representative can ask for an early plan reassessment because of a significant and ongoing change in your support needs or living arrangements. The NDIA then has 90 days to decide.
From February 2027 plan renewals replace plan continuations.
From April 2027 a new way of planning begins, with support needs assessed by accredited assessors using a tool called I-CAN, starting with participants aged 16 and over.
If you’ve been asked for a SIL assessment now, the current process still applies.
How our Occupational Therapists run the SIL assessment
Before anyone visits, your Occupational Therapist will read what already exists: the current schedule of supports or roster of care, any earlier reports, and the referral itself. They will contact the referrer to confirm what the report is for, whether it’s a first funding assessment or a reassessment because needs have changed, and who will read it.
The visit runs two to three hours, in the home the person lives in now or the one they’re planning to move to. Your Occupational Therapist will watch how the person gets through personal care, meals, medication and the rest of the day. They’ll ask what happens overnight, and talk with the support workers and family who are there. After the visit they contact the other people involved, such as the SIL provider and the Support Coordinator. That final stakeholder contact is what starts the clock on the report.
From there we aim to have the Housing Needs Assessment: Supported Independent Living report finished within 10 business days. It goes to the person and to whoever asked for it, and where a Support Coordinator is submitting the housing application, they use it alongside the provider’s roster of care.
SIL assessments and the NDIS
The assessment is usually funded from the participant’s Capacity Building budget, and our intake team confirms the category in the plan. The SIL funding it supports is a separate decision the NDIS makes on the evidence. The NDIS describes SIL as funding for a support worker to help or supervise you 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. It can’t be used for rent or day-to-day expenses like groceries. An earlier functional capacity assessment older than 12 months needs redoing in full, or six months if another provider wrote it. Support Coordinators and plan managers can refer directly through our Referrers Hub, and we’ll confirm the funding line before the first appointment.
NDIS
Referrals
14 clinics across NSW & Tasmania
Email us
hello@opt.net.au
Speak to us
1800 678 647
Get in Touch.
Where to access a supported independent living assessment
Common questions about supported independent living assessments
What is an independent living assessment?
How do you qualify for supported independent living?
Who qualifies for supported independent living?
Who can complete an independent living skills assessment?
What is the difference between SIL and SDA?
How much is supported independent living?
How much does NDIS pay for SIL?
What changes will the NDIS have in 2026?
Reviewed by Sarah-Louise higgins
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