What Is Supported Independent Living?

Supported Independent Living, usually shortened to SIL, is NDIS funding for the help a person needs with everyday tasks in the home where they live. It is often used when someone shares a home with one or two others and support is available across the day, and sometimes overnight.

The important thing to understand first: SIL pays for support, not for housing. It is not rent, and it is not the building.

Who SIL suits

SIL generally suits people with higher daily support needs who want to live away from the family home. That might be:

• a young adult moving out for the first time
• someone whose ageing parents can no longer provide daily care
• a person leaving hospital or a rehabilitation setting
• someone who wants the company and routine of a shared home

If your support needs are lighter, other options may fit better – such as drop-in support in your own home under Core funding, or Individualised Living Options.

How SIL is funded

SIL sits in your Core supports budget. Funding is based on a roster of care that sets out how many support hours you need, at what times, and whether those hours are shared with housemates or delivered one to one.

The NDIA usually asks for evidence: allied health reports, a functional assessment, and a proposed roster from a provider. Because it is a stated support, SIL funding cannot be spent on other things.

You still pay your own living costs from your income – rent, food, utilities and household items – just as anyone would.

SIL and SDA are not the same

Specialist Disability Accommodation, or SDA, is funding for the building – a home designed or modified for people with extreme functional impairment or very high support needs. SIL is the human support inside it.

Some people receive both. Many people receive SIL and live in an ordinary rental or a family-owned home. You do not need SDA to access SIL.

What daily life looks like

A good SIL home should feel like a home, not a facility. A typical day might include support to get up and get ready, shared breakfast, heading out to work, study or a program, then cooking dinner together in the evening with as much or as little help as needed.

Residents choose their own routines, meals, visitors and activities. Support workers are there to enable those choices, not manage them.

Questions worth asking a SIL provider

• Who else lives in the house, and how are housemates matched?
• What does the roster look like, including overnight?
• How do you handle conflict between housemates?
• How much say do residents have over meals, decor and daily routines?
• What happens if it is not the right fit?

Our approach

Empower You Support Services supports participants in permanent and shared living accommodation across the Ballarat region. We focus on the ordinary things that make a house feel like home – cooking what you like, keeping your own routine, having people over, and building the skills to do more for yourself over time.

See our support services or get in touch to talk through your living options.