Key Points

  • NDIS cleaning and gardening are funded under Core Supports, specifically the Assistance with Daily Life category, using your Core budget
  • The 2025-26 hourly rate for house cleaning is $58.03/hr (line item 01_020_0120_1_1) and for gardening is $56.98/hr (line item 01_019_0120_1_1), following the 3.2% price increase from July 2025
  • Support must be directly related to your disability; the NDIS will not fund tasks you could reasonably do yourself or that are unrelated to your disability impact
  • Plan-managed and self-managed participants can use non-registered providers such as local cleaners and gardeners with a valid ABN
  • NDIS-funded home maintenance covers minor repairs and safety-related tasks, but does not cover major renovations, cosmetic improvements, or pool maintenance
  • Getting these supports written clearly into your plan, with specific goals, is the most effective way to ensure your funding is approved and sufficient

What Does the NDIS Cover?

The NDIS funds cleaning, gardening and home maintenance when your disability prevents you from doing these tasks yourself. The key phrase is “reasonable and necessary.” A planner or Local Area Coordinator (LAC) will consider whether:

  • Your disability directly limits your ability to perform the task
  • The task is essential to your health, safety or daily functioning
  • There is no other more appropriate or cost-effective way to meet the need
  • The support represents value for money

If you have a physical disability that prevents bending or lifting, cleaning supports are a straightforward fit. If you experience a psychosocial disability that makes it difficult to maintain a consistent daily routine, cleaning and home maintenance can still be funded, provided you can demonstrate the functional impact.

These supports fall under Support Category 1: Assistance with Daily Life, which is part of your Core Supports budget. Core budgets are flexible, meaning you can generally shift funds between Core subcategories without needing a formal plan amendment. This gives you meaningful control over how you use your budget across personal care, household tasks and community access.

For a full overview of what Core Supports include, see our NDIS Core Supports guide and our detailed Assistance with Daily Life complete guide.

Cleaning: Line Items and Rates

The specific line item for house cleaning under the 2025-26 NDIS Price Guide is:

Line Item CodeSupport NameWeekday RateSaturdaySundayPublic Holiday
01_020_0120_1_1House Cleaning and Household Activities$58.03/hr$80.74/hr$103.45/hr$126.16/hr

Rates effective 1 July 2025. Remote area loadings apply: MMM 5 is 40% above base rate; MMM 6 is 50% above base rate.

The cleaning line item covers a wide range of domestic tasks. Providers bill by the hour at or below the NDIS price limit, and services must be agreed upon in your service agreement before they begin. Weekend and public holiday rates are significantly higher, so scheduling cleaning during weekday hours will stretch your budget further.

What Cleaning Tasks Are Included?

Under this line item, your provider can assist with:

  • Vacuuming carpets, rugs and hard floors
  • Mopping and sweeping floors
  • Cleaning bathrooms, toilets and showers
  • Wiping down kitchen surfaces, stovetop and splashbacks
  • Cleaning inside the oven and microwave (with prior agreement)
  • Laundry, including washing, drying and folding
  • Ironing and putting away clothes
  • Changing and washing bed linen
  • Cleaning windows (internal, at ground level)
  • Removing rubbish and recycling
  • Organising cupboards and pantry
  • Cleaning inside the refrigerator
  • General tidying of living spaces

Deep cleaning services, end-of-tenancy cleaning and specialised services such as hoarding cleanup or post-flood remediation may require additional justification in your plan, but can be funded where the need is directly connected to your disability.

Gardening: Line Items and Rates

The line item for gardening and yard maintenance is:

Line Item CodeSupport NameStandard RateRemote (MMM 5)Very Remote (MMM 6)
01_019_0120_1_1House or Yard Maintenance$56.98/hr$79.77/hr$85.47/hr

Rates effective 1 July 2025 under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26.

You can verify these rates and look up additional support codes using our NDIS Price Guide tool.

What Gardening Tasks Are Included?

Gardening support under the NDIS covers routine yard maintenance tasks that your disability prevents you from doing safely or independently:

  • Lawn mowing and edging
  • Pruning shrubs and hedges
  • Weeding garden beds
  • Raking leaves and clearing debris
  • Watering established plants and gardens
  • Disposing of green waste
  • Clearing pathways and driveways of vegetation overgrowth
  • Maintaining access paths for mobility aids or wheelchair use
  • Gutter cleaning (where it is a routine maintenance task linked to your disability)

What gardening does NOT include: The NDIS will not fund the cost of soil, fertiliser, plants, seeds or gardening tools. These are items any homeowner would need to purchase regardless of disability, and they do not meet the reasonable and necessary test. Similarly, large-scale landscaping, installing new garden beds or retaining walls are not covered.

Home Maintenance Tasks

The 01_019_0120_1_1 line item also covers minor home maintenance tasks. These are small repairs and upkeep activities that your disability makes it unsafe or impossible for you to do yourself:

Included minor maintenance tasks:

  • Replacing light globes
  • Fixing leaking taps (minor plumbing work)
  • Replacing or repairing door handles and hinges
  • Patching small holes in walls
  • Repairing or replacing window screens
  • Tightening loose fixtures
  • Checking and replacing smoke alarm batteries
  • Repairing minor fence damage
  • Adjusting door frames or locks for accessibility
  • Installing grab rails or minor accessibility fittings (where not funded through another NDIS category such as Home Modifications)

These tasks must be minor in nature. The NDIS distinguishes between maintenance (keeping something in working order) and modification or renovation (changing or upgrading it). Maintenance is covered; renovation is not.

What Is NOT Covered

Understanding the exclusions is just as important as knowing what is funded. The NDIS will not fund the following under household task supports:

Not covered by NDIS household task funding:

  • Major structural repairs or renovations
  • Pool or spa maintenance and cleaning
  • Cosmetic improvements (painting feature walls, new tiling, new cabinetry)
  • Pest control (general household pest prevention)
  • Landscaping and new garden design
  • Tree removal or large tree work
  • Asbestos removal or major hazardous material remediation
  • Installing new appliances or furniture
  • Deep cleans as a result of general neglect unrelated to disability
  • Cleaning services for other household members’ areas in a share house
  • Purchasing consumables such as cleaning products, plants or tools

There is an important distinction for people living in shared accommodation. If you live in a share house, the NDIS will only fund cleaning for your private bedroom and bathroom, not common areas that other residents are responsible for.

For larger modifications to your home, such as installing a ramp, widening doorways or fitting a ceiling hoist, these are funded under the separate Home Modifications support category and generally require an occupational therapist assessment.

How Funding Works

Plan-Managed Participants

If your plan is managed by a plan manager, you have the most flexibility. You can use any provider, whether they are NDIS-registered or not, as long as they have a valid Australian Business Number (ABN) and can issue a compliant invoice. Your plan manager handles the claims process on your behalf, paying providers directly from your plan funds and sending you monthly statements.

This means you can hire your local cleaner or gardener, provided they are willing to invoice at or below the NDIS price limit and can supply a valid ABN.

Self-Managed Participants

Self-managed participants pay providers directly and then claim reimbursement through the myplace participant portal. You have the widest choice of providers and the most administrative responsibility. You must keep all invoices and receipts, and ensure each service aligns with your plan goals.

Self-management suits participants who are confident managing finances and want maximum control over their supports.

Agency-Managed (NDIA-Managed) Participants

If the NDIA manages your plan, you must use NDIS-registered providers. The provider claims directly from your plan through the NDIS portal, and you do not need to handle invoices yourself. This is the most straightforward arrangement but offers the fewest provider choices.

For guidance on the differences between these management types, see the NDIS website’s managing your plan page.

How to Choose a Provider

Choosing the right cleaning, gardening or home maintenance provider makes a meaningful difference to your day-to-day life. Here are practical factors to consider:

Reliability and consistency. The best household support providers assign you the same worker each visit. Consistency matters, particularly if you have sensory sensitivities, complex communication needs or prefer familiar routines.

Experience with disability. A provider who understands disability-related needs will approach your home differently. They will be aware of accessibility requirements, work around mobility aids, and understand that a participant recovering from surgery may need more careful handling of their space.

Clear service agreements. Before any work begins, your provider should give you a written service agreement that outlines what tasks will be performed, how long each visit runs, the rate charged, and cancellation policies. This protects both parties and ensures there are no billing surprises.

Flexibility. Life changes. A good provider can adjust the frequency and scope of services as your needs evolve, without requiring you to restart from scratch.

ABN and invoicing. Confirm your provider has a valid ABN and can produce invoices that include the NDIS line item code, date of service, number of hours, hourly rate and total amount charged.

Communication. Providers should respond to your queries promptly and proactively flag if something changes, such as a worker being unavailable for a scheduled visit.

Getting Supports in Your Plan

If cleaning, gardening or home maintenance is not currently in your plan, or if your existing funding is insufficient, you can work to have it added or increased. Here is how to approach this effectively.

Before Your Planning Meeting

Document your functional impact. Write down or have your support worker document how your disability affects your ability to clean, maintain your yard or carry out minor repairs. Specifics matter: “I cannot vacuum because bending forward causes severe lower back spasms” is far more useful than “I struggle with housework.”

Get supporting evidence. Reports from your GP, occupational therapist, physiotherapist or specialist can be powerful. An OT functional assessment is particularly valuable as it directly links your disability to your daily living limitations.

Estimate your hours. Work out realistically how many hours of cleaning and gardening you need per week or fortnight. A standard clean of a two-bedroom home typically takes 2 to 3 hours. A lawn mow and edge may take 1 to 1.5 hours. Multiply by your frequency and the relevant hourly rate to estimate annual funding required.

Connect supports to goals. The NDIS funds supports that help you achieve your goals. Frame your request in goal language. For example: “My goal is to live independently in my own home. I need cleaning support to maintain a safe and hygienic environment because my disability prevents me from completing these tasks.” See our NDIS goals guide for help writing effective goals.

At Your Planning Meeting

  • Bring written evidence and be specific about tasks, frequency and hours
  • Mention any incidents where the lack of support caused a safety risk (for example, a fall caused by being unable to clear a clutter hazard)
  • Ask for the support to be included as a stated or flexible Core support, depending on your broader funding needs
  • If you have a Support Coordinator, involve them in preparing for the meeting

If You Are Requesting a Plan Review

If you already have a plan but household task funding is inadequate, you can request a plan review. Document the gap between what is funded and what you need, and provide evidence of changed circumstances or unmet needs. Our guide on requesting NDIS plan reviews has step-by-step detail.

Frequently Asked Questions

Do I have to use a registered NDIS provider for cleaning and gardening?

Only if your plan is agency-managed. If you are plan-managed or self-managed, you can use any provider with a valid ABN. They do not need to be registered with the NDIS. This opens up a much wider pool of local cleaners and gardeners.

Can the NDIS fund a regular cleaner, or is it only for occasional help?

The NDIS can fund regular, recurring cleaning services. Most participants with this support receive a weekly or fortnightly clean. The frequency must reflect your actual need and the justification in your plan.

What if I live in an apartment with a balcony or shared courtyard?

Gardening support for apartment dwellers typically covers balcony maintenance and any private outdoor space you are responsible for. Shared common areas managed by a body corporate are generally not covered.

Can my cleaner also do grocery shopping or meal prep?

Not under the household tasks line item specifically, but meal preparation and grocery shopping may be funded under a separate Assistance with Daily Life line item depending on your plan. It is worth clarifying with your plan manager or LAC which tasks fall under which line item.

My disability is a mental health condition. Can I still get cleaning support?

Yes. Psychosocial disability is a recognised basis for NDIS household task funding. If your mental health condition affects your motivation, energy levels or capacity to maintain a clean and safe home, this is a fundable support. Evidence from your psychiatrist or psychologist strengthens your case significantly.

Can the NDIS pay for carpet cleaning or deep cleans?

Carpet cleaning can be funded where there is a disability-related reason, such as a continence issue or severe allergies. Deep cleans may be funded in circumstances such as relapse following a mental health episode. Standard annual deep cleans without a specific disability-related rationale are harder to justify.

How do I find a provider who accepts NDIS funding?

You can search registered providers on the official NDIS provider finder. For plan-managed and self-managed participants, local community groups, word of mouth and disability-specific directories are also useful. MD Home Care provides household task services across Australia and can discuss your specific needs.

What happens to unused cleaning funds at the end of my plan?

Unused Core Support funds do not roll over into your next plan period. This is a strong reason to use your funding consistently throughout the plan year rather than saving it up.

Can I use my household task funding to pay a family member to clean my home?

In limited circumstances, yes. The NDIS has specific rules about paying family members, particularly informal carers. If a family member provides support that would otherwise need to be purchased from a provider, and it is included in your plan, it can sometimes be funded. This requires explicit approval in your plan and is subject to the NDIS Pricing Arrangements rules. Speak to your plan manager or LAC for guidance specific to your situation.

Key Resources

The following resources will help you understand your entitlements and manage your household task supports effectively:

Work with MD Home Care

MD Home Care connects NDIS participants with qualified providers for cleaning, gardening and home maintenance services across Australia. The providers on our platform are experienced, reliable and matched to your specific needs and preferences.

Whether you need a fortnightly cleaner, a regular gardener, or help with minor home maintenance tasks, MD Home Care can connect you with providers who offer service agreements that work within your NDIS plan budget, at or below the current NDIS price limits.

We work with plan-managed, self-managed and agency-managed participants, and can help you find providers who understand what is included in your plan and how to make the most of your household task funding.

Contact MD Home Care today to find the right household support provider and arrange an initial consultation at no cost.