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When you get funding from the government in NSW you may have choices about managing your personal budget. Lots of terms are used to talk about this. It can be confusing.Here are some tips to help you know more about managing a budget.

1. What things do I need to do to manage a budget?

There are lots of parts to managing a budget.Some of these things are

planning for the life that you would like working out your goals knowing what funding you have deciding what supports you want deciding where to get supports filling in and signing documents like agreements and

budget statements doing tasks like setting up a bank account and keeping

receipts doing reports about things like the hours and cost of

services you buy making sure staff you employ yourself get what they need

– like superannuation saying if you are happy or unhappy about the support you

get.

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Tip sheet –

Managing a personal budget

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Different people take different amounts of time to manage a budget.It may take longer if you have lots of supports to work out.Look at the list on page 1. What would you need to learn more about before you could do it?

Write or draw your ideas in the space below.

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2. Do I need to do everything when I have a personal budget?

When you get a budget you can say what you want to do and what you want help with.

You can also say if you want to choose someone who can do things for you. Like a family member or friend. This person will be called a nominee – or something similar.

Some people want to do everything. Maybe they have done research and know what to do now. Maybe they know people who can help.

Some people want to do everything but need some help to do it. Some start a team or circle of support to help them think and plan.

Some people want to control a lot of things about their budget but want some help to get started.

Some people want help about 1 thing. For example, some people do not want to employ their own staff. They buy supports from disability or community services so the service will be the employer and will be in charge of staff getting their needs.

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Some people decide that they want lots of help. They will say what they want to do and their goals but others will do all the paperwork.

All of these choices are ok.

You can change how much you do as your life changes.

Think about who you know now who could help you get the information you need to manage your budget.

Write or draw your ideas in the space below.

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3. You do not have to have all the ideas to manage your personal budget

If you think you would like to have lots of control but do not know what to do, do not worry!

You can get some input and ideas from others.

You can get ideas and information from people you know. Maybe a family member or friend knows the things you need too.

You can start a planning team or circle of support. Lots of people get help from people they know by asking them to think and plan on a regular basis. To get information you can look at the information in the Circle of Support topic.

You can get tools to help you. For example, there are tools online to help you plan and keep your budget on track:Moneysmart

Office of Fair Trading

You can talk to the organisation who gave you funding (your funder) or the person who helped you make your

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plan about what you need to do and tools they have to support you.

You can look at resources to get ideas about some of the things you need to do. The My Choice Matters website has lots of resources about hiring staff, talking to service providers, speaking up and more.

You can talk to organisations about where to find information. There may be workshops you can go to or videos you can watch.

You can pay people to the bits you cannot. Some examples could be:

o if you know you are bad at working out what you need to do to support staff, you could pay someone to do that part

o you could pay someone to help you plano you could pay someone to help you with accounts.

You would need to talk to your funder about the kind of support you want to pay for to manage your budget.

4. How can I spend my budget?You can pay for supports that the organisation that gave you funding says are ok.

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Your plan will be a guide to what you can do with your funding.

If your needs change at any time, you can contact your funder to talk about that.

To work out if you can use disability funding to buy something you can ask these questions.

Is the support or service I want to buy related to what I have said I will do in my plan?

Does it relate to my goals? Does it help me? Is it required as a result of my

disability?

Think about these things for each purchase. You should answer ‘yes’ to all these questions.

You should not use your funding to:

pay for something a person without disability funding would pay for themselves

pay for something another government department or community service should be doing.

5. What if I do not have enough money in my budget to do everything I want?

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Most people will not have enough funding to do everything they want to all the time - using paid support.

There are a few things you can do to get the biggest benefit from your funding.

You can decide what is most important to you. It is a good idea to start with what matters most.

You may need to do some research and planning before you act on your goals. This will take time. Some of this may not cost money.

Think about using money for paid support to help you build connections. Like use paid support to meet and get to know more people.

Think about using paid support so that you can get skills to do more things yourself. Like if you practice catching a train, you may not need to use paid support to travel places in the future.

Choose things to do that are ordinary. Lots of ordinary community things are free or cheap to do. Like if you want to paint you

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can do that at an ordinary art group. Maybe a friend or family member could go with you to give you some support? To get ideas about things you could do have a look at the topic Community Connections

Maybe a paid person could go with you until you meet some people in the group? Maybe the place where you do art has people in roles who could give you some support?

Keep hold of your vision for your life. If you cannot do everything now you can have a plan to do things in the future.

Some things you want have nothing to do with your disability – like a painting for your wall or a new DVD. If you want those things, you will need to get them like anyone else would.

6. How does this relate to funding available now?

If you are getting funding from the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) there are 4 ways you can manage your funding. These allow you to have as much or as little control as you want. To read a fact sheet about the 4 ways clickManaging supports and NDIS fundingAnd have a look at our NDIS Factsheet number 3.

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To read about self-managing funding clickSelf-managing fundingIf you get funding from the NSW State government, the funding is slightly different. You can self-manage funding. This means having funding for you that goes to a service provider. You decide how you are supported. Some people can self-direct their funding. This means that money for them goes directly to you. You do not need to use a disability service.To get information about funding available in NSW clickLiving Life My WayFor each funding type you will need to say what you want to do in the future. You will need to say your goals.

ExamplesHere are some examples of people managing funding.

Emma’s storyEmma has been getting funding to go to a service and do things with a group of people with disability.

She has an ok time but cannot do the things she really wants. She cannot choose when she does things.

Emma’s vision is to move out of home and start a small dog walking business.

What matters for Emma is to choose:10

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what she wants to do her own staff to support her when she does things.

Emma manages her funding and does most things. She gets some support from family and friends to think and plan. Her sister goes with her to meetings and is good with paperwork. Emma has a circle of support.

Emma wants a service to employ the staff so she does not need to worry about that now. She thinks she may employ staff herself when she feels more confident.

John’s storyJohn has some ideas about what he wants to do. He likes swimming but has not done that much for a while. He does not know many people and wants to change that. His biggest goal is to have a job.

John has nominated his dad to help him manage his funding.

John and his dad are thinking about how they can use the funding to help John have the life he wants.

They have employed Jeff to help them do this thinking and planning because it is new to them.

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Jeff makes sure that John says what he wants and then supports John to do it.Jeff is supporting John to get to know people. One way he does this is to talk about things that he knows interest John. That way he knows John will have things to say.

John and his father feel much more confident because they do not need to come up with all of the ideas!

Top Tips Think about your dreams and what you want to do before

you think about funding.

Use your budget to get your dreams.

Keep control of choices about things that matter to you.

Do the parts of managing your budget that you want to.

Get the information you need.

Do not be afraid to ask questions.

You can change how you manage your budget as you learn more.

You can pay people to do parts of budget management that you cannot or do not want to do. Just put it in your plan.

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