I-CAN v6 for Older NDIS Participants
What you need to know about the assessment, the aged care boundary, and how to prepare
Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information about the I-CAN v6 framework and NDIS aged care boundary rules as at August 2026. Rules and programs are subject to change. This guide does not constitute professional disability support, legal, or financial advice. For advice specific to your situation, contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110 or a disability advocacy organisation.
The I-CAN v6 assessment applies to NDIS participants of all ages. But for older participants — particularly those in their 60s, 70s, and beyond — several specific questions arise: How does the new assessment framework interact with the aged care system? What happens when you turn 65? How do age-related changes in capacity present across the 12 domains? And what should you prepare differently if you have lived with a disability for decades?
This guide addresses those questions directly.
The Aged Care Boundary: The Most Important Thing to Understand
The single most important thing older Australians need to understand about the NDIS is the age boundary rule.
The general rule: If you turn 65, you can remain on the NDIS if you are already a participant. But if you acquire a disability or become eligible for support after the age of 65, you are generally directed to the aged care system, not the NDIS.
What this means in practice:
If you are an existing NDIS participant and you turn 65, you have a choice:
- Stay on the NDIS — keeping your current plan, moving to the I-CAN v6 framework at your next review, and retaining the NDIS's structure of individualised, funded supports
- Transition to aged care (currently the Support at Home program) — taking a different type of support package
Once you leave the NDIS for aged care, you cannot return to the NDIS. This is a one-way door.
For most people with significant, lifelong, or complex disability needs, remaining on the NDIS provides substantially better support — typically higher funding, greater flexibility, and more tailored services than the aged care system currently offers for disability-related needs.
What to do: Before turning 65, speak with your Support Coordinator and consider independent advice from a disability advocate. The decision has long-term consequences, and in most cases for people with significant disability, staying on the NDIS is the better outcome.
The Support at Home Program: A Brief Overview
For those who either cannot access the NDIS or who choose to transition to aged care, Support at Home is the current aged care home support program. It replaced the Home Care Package (HCP) system on 1 July 2025 and provides:
- Home care and domestic assistance
- Personal care
- Nursing and clinical care
- Allied health and therapy
- Social support and community access
Support at Home is means-tested: participants contribute to costs based on income and assets, unlike the NDIS which is not means-tested. Packages are generally less flexible than NDIS plans and typically provide lower total funding for people with significant disability needs.
For people with complex, ongoing disability that predates 65 — such as cerebral palsy, spinal cord injury, congenital disability, or severe psychosocial disability — the NDIS almost always provides more appropriate support than the aged care system.
How Age-Related Changes Affect the 12 I-CAN Domains
For older NDIS participants, disability does not exist in isolation. Age-related physical changes — declining muscle strength, reduced cardiovascular endurance, joint deterioration, increased fatigue, and higher rates of co-morbid health conditions — interact with pre-existing disability in ways that progressively increase support needs across multiple domains simultaneously.
Understanding how this manifests in the I-CAN v6 framework is key to effective preparation.
Domain 1: Mobility
For older participants with physical disability, mobility needs typically increase with age. What was manageable at 45 may no longer be manageable at 65 or 70.
What to document: How your mobility capacity has changed in recent years; what you could previously manage that you can no longer manage; whether assistive technology that was adequate previously now requires upgrading; how fatigue affects mobility differently from ten years ago.
Domain 2: Domestic Life
The cumulative fatigue of lifelong disability, combined with age-related decline in strength and endurance, often makes domestic tasks progressively more difficult.
What to document: Tasks you previously managed independently that now require support; how much longer domestic tasks take compared to your 40s or 50s; what happens when planned support is unavailable.
Domain 3: Self Care
Ageing with a disability that affects self-care typically means increasing support requirements over time, sometimes gradually and sometimes in step-changes following health events.
What to document: The current level of assistance required; how this has changed in recent years; any recent health events (falls, hospital admissions, surgery) that have altered your self-care capacity.
Domain 12: Physical Health
Older NDIS participants typically have more complex physical health needs — co-morbid conditions associated with ageing, greater medication complexity, and more frequent specialist appointments.
What to document: All current health conditions and their management requirements; how the complexity of health management has increased with age; the total support burden of health management across the week.
Domain 11: Mental & Emotional Health
Ageing with disability can carry significant emotional weight — grief over reduced capacity, isolation as peer networks age and pass away, anxiety about future support, and adjustment to progressive conditions.
What to document: Any mental health impacts of ageing with disability; current mental health support; how emotional wellbeing affects daily functioning.
What to Describe Differently as an Older Participant
Describe your trajectory, not just your current status
One of the most important things an older participant can communicate in preparation is how their functioning has changed over time. This matters because:
- It establishes that support needs are increasing, which is relevant to future plan design
- It contextualises current functioning — a level of capacity that looks adequate as a snapshot may look very different when set against where the person was five years ago
- It helps the assessor understand progressive conditions in their clinical context
Describe specifically: what you could do ten years ago that you can no longer do; when functional decline accelerated and why; whether the trajectory is stable or continuing.
Document your informal supports honestly
Older NDIS participants are often supported substantially by ageing spouses or partners, adult children, or friends who are themselves ageing. When these informal supports are relied upon unsustainably, the assessment should reflect this.
If a spouse who is 75 is providing significant daily personal care, and that arrangement is not sustainable indefinitely, say so. The sustainability of informal caring arrangements is a legitimate factor in what the NDIA should fund.
Don't minimise age-related changes as "just getting older"
A common pattern in older participants' preparation is attributing declining functional capacity to age rather than disability. This can understate legitimate support needs.
Age-related changes and disability-related changes interact — and NDIS funding is for disability-related support needs, including the support needs arising from the interaction of pre-existing disability with age. You do not need to separate these neatly in your preparation; describe what your daily life actually requires.
Before Your I-CAN v6 Assessment: Specific Steps for Older Participants
1. Confirm your NDIS status and what happens at your next review. Log in to myNDIS or contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110. Know when your plan is next due for review and whether your review will fall under the new framework (from April 2027).
2. Update your allied health reports. Reports more than two years old carry less weight. For older participants with changing conditions, recent OT and physiotherapy reports that document current functional capacity — and how it has changed — are particularly important.
3. Document co-morbid conditions carefully. As health complexity increases with age, the Domain 12 Physical Health section of your preparation becomes more important. Document all conditions, all medications, all appointments.
4. Talk to your Support Coordinator now. If you do not have a Support Coordinator, consider whether the complexity of your situation warrants one. For older participants navigating the transition to the new framework, Support Coordination is increasingly valuable.
5. If you are approaching 65, get independent advice before your birthday. The decision about whether to remain on the NDIS or transition to aged care has long-term consequences. Make it with full information and independent advice.
ICANReady helps older NDIS participants build a thorough, structured preparation document across all 12 I-CAN domains — including the trajectory-based descriptions of changing capacity that matter most for older participants.
Sources: NDIA support for participants over 65 (ndis.gov.au), Department of Health Support at Home program (health.gov.au), Disability Advocacy Network Australia (dana.org.au), Centre for Disability Studies I-CAN v6 framework
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