NDIS Changes 2026: Every Date, Every Change, and What It Means for Your Plan

Last updated 22 July 2026. We review this page every two weeks while the reform Bill is before Parliament.

The NDIS is going through its biggest change since 2013. Some changes have already started. Provider registration rules for supported independent living and platform providers began on 1 July 2026. From 1 October 2026, funding for social and community participation is set to be cut by 50 per cent, and capacity building daily activity by 10 per cent. Thriving Kids begins for young children on 1 October 2026. A new way of planning starts 1 April 2027. New eligibility rules start 1 January 2028.

Is any of this actually law yet?

This is the first thing to get straight, because a lot of the panic online skips it. There are two separate things happening.

That Bill is the one that carries the funding reset, the new eligibility test, and the new planning framework. Every date below that depends on the Bill is marked Proposed. Dates already in force are marked In force.

Anyone telling you your funding is definitely being cut on a specific day is going further than the evidence allows. Anyone telling you nothing is happening is also wrong.

The full timeline at a glance

1. The October 2026 funding reset

This is the change that will be felt first and felt hardest, and it is the one your news feed is probably arguing about.

What is proposed

From 1 October 2026, the Government plans to reduce two specific budget lines:

• Social, civic and community participation: down 50 per cent
• Capacity building daily activity: down 10 per cent

The stated goal is to bring average plan spending back to roughly 2023 levels. Average plan budgets have risen to about $31,000. The target is about $26,000 over two years.

How it would actually work

Three details matter more than the headline number.

• It is progressive, not overnight. The reduction applies as plans are reassessed or renewed. Your plan does not change on 1 October if your reassessment is in March.
• It uses a new ministerial power called a support determination. This power sits inside the Bill that has not passed. A support determination can only apply to old framework plans, which is what everyone has right now.
• Critical supports are excluded. The Government has said the reset does not touch supports essential to critical care and daily living. That includes help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry, cleaning, community nursing care and medication.

What it means in real numbers

If you currently have $12,000 a year for social and community participation, a 50 per cent reset takes that to about $6,000. That is roughly one supported outing a week instead of two, at typical group rates.

If you run a day program with 20 participants in that category, your revenue from that line halves as those plans roll over. There is a $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund meant to rebuild community options outside the NDIS, but consultation on it only opened in July 2026. It is not operating yet.

The main criticism

Disability representative organisations, including People with Disability Australia and Advocacy for Inclusion, have raised sequencing as their central concern. The funding comes out from October 2026. The replacement supports are not built yet. That gap is the thing to watch in the 14 August Senate report.

2. Thriving Kids: the new front door for young children

Thriving Kids is confirmed. It is not a proposal any more.

The basics

• Who: children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism, with low to moderate support needs
• When: state services begin rolling out from 1 October 2026, at full national scale by 1 January 2028
• Diagnosis: not required. Access is based on a functional needs assessment, not a label
• Where: delivered in everyday settings such as home, childcare and kindergarten

What it includes

Parenting programs and peer support. Routine child development checks to pick up delays early. Information and advice about child development. Inclusive supported playgroups. Group and individual early childhood intervention and allied health therapy.

The Australian Government runs the national parts. States and territories deliver the local services, and each jurisdiction is still finalising its own mix.

Who stays on the NDIS

Children with permanent and significant disability stay on the NDIS. So do children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism who have substantially reduced functional capacity, which is the formal way of saying high support needs.

The bit that reassures most parents

If your child is already enrolled in the NDIS before 1 January 2028, their reassessments will be made under the eligibility rules that existed before that date. The new access rules apply to children coming in from 1 January 2028 onward.

So a child on a plan today is not being moved off the NDIS on 1 October 2026 because Thriving Kids exists.

3. New Framework Planning from April 2027

This is a change to how your budget is built. It is not a change to whether you are eligible. People mix these two up constantly, and the confusion causes a lot of unnecessary fear.

What is changing

The three current budget buckets, Core, Capacity Building and Capital, are replaced by two:

• Flexible funding: can be spent on any support that is an NDIS support for you
• Stated funding: the plan specifies exactly how it can be used

Plans will also run for longer than they do now.

The Support Needs Assessment

Instead of negotiating with a planner, you will have a Support Needs Assessment. An NDIA assessor meets with you, at a time and place that works for you, and you can bring a family member, carer or support person.

The tool is called I-CAN v6, developed with the University of Melbourne. It is strengths based, meaning it is built to identify the support you need rather than list what you cannot do.

There is a useful distinction here. A functional assessment looks at what you can and cannot do. A needs assessment looks at the level of support you need to live your life. A functional assessment might record that someone can put bread in the toaster but cannot butter it. A needs assessment records that they need help making breakfast.

You receive both the assessment report and your plan, so you can see how your budget was calculated. That transparency is genuinely new.

The timing

• From 1 April 2027 for participants aged 16 and over, staged, starting with people with less complex needs
• Participants under 16 transition later, and no assessment tool has been chosen for that age group yet
• Everyone is transitioned by 31 December 2030

4. Eligibility changes from January 2028

Here is the correction that matters most, because a lot of published articles have this backwards.

If you are a participant today, your eligibility is not being re-litigated under a new test. You will move to New Framework Planning, which changes how your budget is worked out, and you will continue to have scheduled reassessments.

Two other proposed changes do affect current participants:

• Unscheduled plan reassessments would be restricted to exceptional circumstances. Currently about one in five plans is reassessed each year, with an average 20 per cent increase resulting
• Unspent plan funds would no longer roll over into your next plan period

Reasonable and necessary stays as the funding test. The Bill refines how it is applied rather than removing it. Internal review rights and access to the Administrative Review Tribunal continue.

5. What providers need to do

Already happened, 1 July 2026

Mandatory registration with the NDIS Commission now applies to supported independent living providers and digital platform providers. New SIL Practice Standards started the same day. If you deliver SIL and you are not registered, you cannot deliver and claim SIL supports.

Certification takes 8 to 12 months in practice. If you have not started, you are behind, and that is a business continuity problem, not a paperwork problem.

The 2026–27 price limits were published on 23 June 2026 and applied from 1 July, with profession-specific therapy rates and a new line item structure.

Coming

• 1 December 2026, proposed: the claim window drops from two years to 90 days. Any support delivered from that date has to be claimed within 90 days or you lose the ability to claim it. If your billing runs monthly or quarterly in batches, that model breaks.
• Ongoing: the claims and payments system uplift cross-checks every claim against service delivery records, plan details and registration data. Mismatched claims get flagged or rejected. Contemporaneous service records stop being good practice and start being a precondition for getting paid.
• Proposed: a seven year record retention duty, with a civil penalty for breach.
• 2027 to 2030, proposed: registration expands to personal care, daily living supports and supports in closed settings.
• 1 Oct 2027 and 1 Jul 2028, proposed: plan management moves to a commissioned panel, then support coordination becomes a commissioned function. If either is your core business, your route to market changes, not just your compliance load.

The strategic read

Providers concentrated in social and community participation face a revenue reduction from October at the same time as compliance costs rise. Concentration risk in one support category is now the single biggest thing on a provider balance sheet. Pull your billing breakdown by category. That report is your risk register.

6. What plan managers and support coordinators need to do

• The 90 day claim window makes chasing provider invoices a core operational function, not admin
• Plan management moving to a commissioned panel from 1 October 2027 means your place in the market is not guaranteed by being good at it today
• Support coordination becomes a commissioned function from 1 July 2028
• Participants will ask you what is happening long before the answers are final. Having a clear, dated, honest explanation ready is a retention strategy

What to watch next

• 14 August 2026: Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee report. This determines whether the funding reset proceeds as drafted, gets amended, or gets delayed
• From October 2026: whether state Thriving Kids services actually exist in regional areas on day one
• The Inclusive Communities Fund: consultation opened July 2026. Whether it delivers real community options before funding is withdrawn is the sequencing question the whole sector is asking

Myths and facts

• Myth: everyone is being reassessed under a new test in 2028. Fact: the new functional capacity eligibility test applies to new applicants from 1 January 2028. Existing participants keep their eligibility.
• Myth: my funding is being cut on 1 October 2026. Fact: the reset is proposed, depends on the Bill passing, and applies progressively as plans are reassessed or renewed. Your date is your reassessment date.
• Myth: autistic children are being removed from the NDIS. Fact: children with high support needs stay on the NDIS. Thriving Kids is for low to moderate support needs. Children enrolled before 1 January 2028 are reassessed under the older criteria.
• Myth: personal care funding is being cut. Fact: critical care and daily living supports are excluded from the reset.
• Myth: the reforms have passed. Fact: the main Bill is before the Senate. The committee report is due 14 August 2026.