EnableNSW Continence Assistance Explained: Who Qualifies and How It Works
By Kim Hando
, Owner & Founder
│ 02 September 2026
Last reviewed: 02 September 2026
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What EnableNSW continence assistance is
Your GP probably cannot prescribe your EnableNSW continence products. That is not a reflection on your GP. EnableNSW keeps continence prescribing with continence nurses and specialist nursing roles, and lets other clinicians in only where an eligible prescriber is not available locally.
EnableNSW continence assistance is a NSW Health program that subsidises continence products for NSW residents whose needs are greater than the Continence Aids Payment Scheme covers. It funds pads, pull-ups, catheters and drainage equipment against annual allocations, is requested through an eligible prescriber, and sits on top of CAPS rather than replacing it.
The funding rules are published by HealthShare NSW in a document called the Continence Funding Criteria, most recently approved in April 2025. That document, rather than any general page about the scheme, is where the answers actually live. This article walks through it in plain language, and sits under our complete guide to NDIS continence funding alongside the national schemes.
Who qualifies for EnableNSW continence assistance
EnableNSW publishes one set of eligibility criteria that applies to all of its assistive technology programs, then adds a continence-specific test on top.
The general criteria are that you are a resident of NSW or Lord Howe Island, or an asylum seeker, refugee or humanitarian visa holder residing in NSW or Lord Howe Island; that you are enrolled with Medicare; that the assistive technology is prescribed to support a health need; that you are not receiving or eligible for assistive technology through third party insurance or another Commonwealth, state or territory government scheme for the identified health need; and that you are not an in-patient at a private hospital.
On that fourth point, EnableNSW names possible alternative funding sources rather than a closed list. The ones it names are the NDIS, the Department of Veterans' Affairs, Australian Government aged care services, and compensation or damages for the condition requiring the assistive technology, such as worker's compensation. CAPS is not among them, so holding CAPS does not trigger that exclusion. EnableNSW requires the opposite: its continence page states that EnableNSW policy requires eligible consumers to use CAPS assistance each year before accessing assistance through EnableNSW.
The continence-specific test is narrower again. The Continence Funding Criteria fund equipment for someone with permanent or long-term moderate to severe incontinence and, or, bladder or bowel dysfunction, whose equipment needs are greater than would be covered by CAPS funding.
There is no concession card test
Worth clearing up: the published EnableNSW eligibility criteria do not include a concession card requirement. A Pensioner Concession Card or Health Care Card is relevant to what you contribute, not to whether you qualify. The concession card list that does appear in the EnableNSW income band tables sits against prosthetic limbs, which is a different program.
That is different to how several other states run it. Queensland, for one, does require an eligible concession card in your own name. If you are comparing jurisdictions, the state by state guide to continence schemes maps the lot, and Queensland's Medical Aids Subsidy Scheme is the closest counterpart article to this one.
CAPS first, then EnableNSW
This is the rule that trips up applications, and EnableNSW states it plainly: EnableNSW policy requires eligible consumers to use CAPS assistance each year before accessing assistance through EnableNSW.
So the order is fixed. If you are eligible for CAPS, you use that year's CAPS assistance first, and EnableNSW picks up the need that sits beyond it. The two are not alternatives you choose between, and applying to EnableNSW instead of CAPS does not get you there faster.
CAPS is a Services Australia payment for people with permanent and severe incontinence confirmed by a registered health professional. The eligibility rules, the payment amount and the application steps all sit with Services Australia, and we cover them in full in our guide to the Continence Aids Payment Scheme (CAPS). Check the current figure at Services Australia rather than anywhere else, because it is indexed.
The Continence Funding Criteria describe EnableNSW as providing a subsidy towards a person's yearly product requirements, and say the assessment considers your eligibility for CAPS, the product selected, and the actual number of products requested, which may vary due to packaging. It also records that people assessed in financial Band 3 are funded for 80% of their annual allocation.
What EnableNSW funds, and how much
Here is the part people actually want on a page they can come back to. The Continence Funding Criteria set standard annual allocations by the type of incontinence being managed.
| Need being managed | Product type | Standard annual allocation |
|---|---|---|
| Urinary incontinence | Disposable pads, pull-ups or tab pads over 200mL capacity | 810 |
| Urinary incontinence | Washable pads, pull-ups or pant systems | 18 |
| Faecal incontinence | Pads, pull-ups or tab pads over 200mL capacity | 810 |
| Urinary and faecal incontinence | Disposable pads, pull-ups or tab pads over 200mL capacity | 1,080 |
| Urinary and faecal incontinence | Washable pads, pull-ups or pant systems | 24 |
Read those numbers with the caveats EnableNSW attaches to them. They are standard allocations, maximum annual allocation limits apply to all products, and where two products are requested from the same category or type the maximum is the allocation for a single product rather than two. EnableNSW also says the funded list is not exhaustive and that it reserves the right to make the final decision on equipment not specifically included or excluded. The prescriber information notes the actual quantity delivered may differ slightly because of packaging.
Two things to note on terminology. The 200mL capacity threshold means light bladder leakage liners generally sit outside this. And what EnableNSW calls tab pads are what this website calls slips.
Beyond absorbent products, the criteria also fund sheaths and condom drainage, intermittent and indwelling catheters, reusable catheter sets, drainage bags and bottles, catheter valves, straps and washable bed pads, each with its own allocation and its own prescriber requirements.
How it works once you are in
Two forms, two people. That is the shape of it, and it is where the confusion starts.
You complete the EnableNSW application form yourself, either the first time you apply or when it has been two years since you last completed one. Your prescriber completes the Continence Equipment Request Form. Neither one alone gets you there.
Have your documents ready before you start, because an incomplete application creates delays. EnableNSW asks for a copy of whichever of these apply to you: your Medicare card, a visa or letter from Immigration, a Centrelink pension card including your partner's, proof of permanent residency, and an Australian Taxation Office assessment notice including your partner's. You can apply online in one sitting, or complete an editable Word or PDF form, print it, sign it and send it to enable@health.nsw.gov.au or to Locked Bag 3005, Sydney Markets NSW 2129.
Who can prescribe
The Continence Funding Criteria name the eligible prescriber group for continence products: a continence advisor or continence nurse, a clinical nurse consultant, a clinical nurse specialist or a nurse practitioner. A registered nurse also qualifies if they have completed a relevant continence course, or have had specific training within their clinical service to prescribe continence products.
Relevant medical specialists and allied health professionals may submit an Equipment Request Form in exceptional circumstances, where an eligible prescriber is not available locally. If you do not already have a continence nurse, that referral is the practical first step, and your GP is the right person to ask for it.
How the products reach you
Continence items are supplied through a NSW Government contract, and EnableNSW is required to order from it. Non-contract products are purchased only where nothing on the contract meets a person's specific clinical need. EnableNSW has also told prescribers that products may come from a different supplier while the product itself remains the same, so a change of packaging on your doorstep is not necessarily a change of product.
There is a co-payment for people accessing EnableNSW, charged in each financial year you receive equipment, consumable re-orders or repairs, and capped at one payment per financial year. What you pay depends on your income band. EnableNSW publishes the current bands and amounts, and its customer service team on 1800 362 253 will talk through your own situation.
Reorders do not lodge themselves. Email enable@health.nsw.gov.au with your full name, date of birth, delivery address, contact number, and the name, item code and quantity of what you need, or call 1800 362 253 and choose option 1 for continence orders.
EnableNSW, CAPS or the NDIS: which one is yours
Before applying, EnableNSW asks you to check that you are looking at the right program at all.
If you are under 65 with a permanent and significant disability, check your NDIS eligibility first. Continence consumables sit inside an NDIS plan under Core Supports, and if that is your pathway then EnableNSW is not. Our NDIS ordering page covers how supply works once a plan is in place.
If you are 65 or over, EnableNSW frames this against Australian Government My Aged Care, which it names as Support at Home 1 to 8 including short-term pathways, or Home Care Package 1 to 4, and it rules you out in three specific situations: you have had an ACAT assessment and are on the National Queue waiting on a package, you have had an ACAT assessment and have removed yourself from the National Queue, or you are receiving a package or have accepted an interim one while waiting on a higher level.
CAPS and the NDIS cannot both be held for the same need, which is a separate decision covered in which of the two national schemes applies to you. For the country-wide picture of every subsidy on offer, see what you can claim across the country.
What to do next
Book time with a continence nurse, or ask your GP for a referral to one. That single appointment is what turns an idea into an Equipment Request Form, and it is also where the assessment of how much product you actually need gets made.
The National Continence Helpline on 1800 33 00 66 is free, funded by the Australian Government and staffed by continence nurse advisors who are not selling anything. Continence Health Australia runs it. For questions about your own EnableNSW application, ring EnableNSW on 1800 362 253, Monday to Friday.
Keep copies of everything you send. Since the application form comes around again every two years, a folder with your last form, your approval letter and your product codes in it saves repeating the exercise from scratch.
Where Comfort First fits
Comfort First is not part of the NSW Government contract arrangement, and we do not supply funded product through EnableNSW. What we do is the other half of the picture, and EnableNSW is upfront about it: where a clinically appropriate contract item is available and a person would rather not change products, they may choose to self-purchase directly from suppliers. Annual allocations are capped, so private top-ups may be needed.
Before you buy anything privately, get the size right. Sizing is by waist measurement, and every range sizes differently, so a size that fitted a product from one supplier is not a safe assumption about ours. If you are between two sizes, try the smaller one first, because a pull-up that gaps at the leg leaks regardless of how absorbent it is.
Order a free sample before committing to a full pack, then browse the Comfort First range once you know what fits. If you want to talk it through with someone rather than work it out from a size chart, call us on 03 5443 2239 or email sales@comfortfirst.au. Comfort First is Australian owned and run, a registered NDIS provider, and dispatches from our East Bendigo warehouse and our Sydney fulfilment centre.
If you are arranging supply that repeats without you having to think about it each month, setting up ongoing supply through a registered provider covers how that is put together.