A lot is being said about the NDIS at the moment. Here’s a summary of where things are up to.
The Bill is not law yet.
The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill passed the House of Representatives in early July. It has not passed the Senate.
A Senate committee is still reviewing it, with hearings over the next couple of weeks and a report due on 14 August. Nothing in the Bill takes effect until it passes both houses and is signed into law.
The Bill was amended along the way. Here are some of the changes:
- If the NDIA cannot reach you, it must now try at least five times using your preferred contact method over three to four months before suspending a plan. Attempts made while you are in hospital or without stable housing do not count.
- Supports that run 24 hours a day for people who need them are specifically protected.
- When the NDIA looks at whether a disability is permanent, it can only consider treatment that is genuinely available in Australia through Medicare, the PBS or public hospitals. Restrictive practices cannot be counted as treatment.
- Pricing advice the NDIA gives the Minister has to be presented to Parliament after a pricing decision, which makes it public.
- An independent review of how the changes are working must happen in 2029.
Important dates.
- 1 October 2026 – Thriving Kids begins a phased rollout for children aged eight and under with developmental delay or autism and low to moderate support needs.
- 1 October 2026 – Participant budgets for Social and Community Participation supports and Capacity Building daily activities are progressively reset as plans are renewed or reassessed. The detail of how this will work has not been published yet.
- 1 February 2027 – Renewed plans replace automatic rollovers. Unspent funds no longer carry over in an extended plan.
- 1 April 2027 – Participants start moving to new framework plans.
- 1 October 2027 – Plan management moves to an approved panel of providers, with a six-month transition.
- 1 January 2028 – New applications are assessed under a new functional capacity assessment. Existing plans are reassessed over the following two years.
These dates could still move. We will let you know if they do.
More people are being moved to plan management.
Some of our new Members have told us the NDIA moved them from self management to plan management. If that’s happened to you, here’s what it means in practice.
Your providers do not have to change. Plan managed participants can use registered and unregistered providers, so you can keep working with the people you already work with.
You also still choose your supports and decide how your budgets are used.
What changes is the paperwork. Your plan manager receives the invoices, checks each claim against the NDIA’s rules and pays your providers. That takes the admin off your plate.
One thing to watch. Plan managers can only pay invoices that sit within the NDIA’s published price limits. If you’ve been paying a provider above those limits while self-managing, talk to them about it before your first invoice comes through.
You choose which plan manager you use. If you’re with Leap in!, or you’ve just been moved and haven’t decided yet, give us a call and we’ll take you through what changes and what doesn’t.
What you can do right now.
With the Bill still before the Senate and most of the detail yet to be published, it can be hard to know what to do next. The simplest answer is to keep going with your plan.
Use your supports. Book the things you’ve been meaning to book. If you’ve been holding off because you’re not sure something can be claimed, ask us before you book. It’s a quick question and we’re happy to answer it.
There’s no need to stop using your plan while things are being decided. Your plan includes funding for supports you need now, and from February 2027 unspent funding is due to stop rolling over into your next plan. So it’s worth taking a look at what’s in your plan and working out what supports you can get in place.
It also helps to keep a few notes as you go – what’s working, what isn’t and where you’ve needed more. At your next renewal or reassessment you’ll be asked how things have been going, and that’s much easier to answer with some notes to refer to.
If you’re stuck or unsure about anything, call us on 1300 05 78 78. We can book you into an Understand Your NDIS Plan session and go through it together.
