26/08/2026
NDIS CHANGES START THIS THURSDAY, 27 AUGUST:
There’s a lot of information going around about the new NDIS laws, so I’m going to try to make this really bloody simple.
Your current NDIS plan and funding won’t suddenly change on Thursday. You can keep using your plan and supports as usual, and the new access and eligibility rules don’t start yet.
What does change on Thursday is some of the law sitting behind the NDIS.
1. Asking for your plan to be reassessed early gets harder.
This is about asking the NDIA to reassess your whole plan before your normal reassessment date.
From Thursday, only you, your plan nominee or your child representative can request this.
There needs to have been a significant and ongoing change in your disability support needs, your ability to do everyday things, your living arrangements, education, work or the unpaid support available to you.
The NDIA then has 90 days to decide whether it will reassess your plan.
This does NOT remove urgent or short-term plan changes. You can still request those through a plan variation.
2. There are new legal requirements to keep records.
Participants: 3 years
Nominees: 5 years
Providers: 7 years
The NDIS Rules will give us more detail about exactly what records need to be kept.
The NDIA has also said that if you can’t provide the records needed to show that NDIS funding was used correctly, you may have to pay that money back.
If you self-manage, this is particularly important.
Keep your invoices, receipts, payment records and anything else showing what support or item was purchased and what was paid.
3. The NDIA gets stronger powers to demand information.
The NDIA will have stronger powers to require information from participants and providers where it is investigating compliance, fraud or whether NDIS requirements have been followed.
There are also stronger enforcement powers and new civil penalties for providers who fail to comply with certain legal requirements.
4. The Minister gets new powers over NDIS prices.
The Minister will be able to formally set maximum prices for NDIS supports.
That does NOT mean NDIS prices change this Thursday.
Current pricing arrangements continue for now.
5. The NDIA can use computer systems to automate some administrative work.
That includes things such as processing claims and payments.
The NDIA says decisions that are complex, involve discretion or require judgement will still be made by people.
It will also have to publish information about where and how automated systems are being used.
That’s what changes this Thursday 27th August 2026.
Then we get to October 2026 when 2 major changes will begin to rollout.
The first affects funding for social, civic and community participation and capacity building daily activities.
Those budgets will start being reset under the new arrangements when individual plans are reassessed or renewed.
That does NOT mean everybody’s funding changes in October.
It is supposed to happen progressively as people reach a plan reassessment or renewal.
There will also be a new way to vary plans for people with high support needs who require continuous 24-hour disability-related care.
The second October change is one people really need to know about.
The NDIA will be able to suspend a participant’s plan if they don’t respond to requests for information.
They can’t just suspend it after one missed email.
The NDIA says it must first make reasonable attempts to contact the participant, nominee or authorised representative, which it currently describes as at least five attempts over an extended period.
So please make sure the NDIA has your correct contact details and don’t ignore requests for information. If they call you and you’d prefer to have everything in writing, you can ask them to send the request to you by email. You can also follow up the call yourself by email and ask that any further requests or communication about the matter be provided in writing.
There are more changes coming after October, but they are not happening this Thursday, and I’ll break those down separately before they start.
The next dates include changes to claiming from December 2026, plan renewals and reasonable and necessary supports from February 2027, the new planning system from April 2027, provider registration and plan management changes later in 2027, and the major access and eligibility changes from January 2028.
For right now, the main things to know are:
Your current plan does not suddenly change on Thursday.
Keep your records.
Keep copies of anything you send the NDIA and anything they send you.
Make sure your contact details with the NDIA are up to date.
Don’t assume every scary thing you hear about the new legislation starts this week. It doesn’t.
The legislation is being rolled out in stages.
The first stage starts Thursday.
This is current as at 25 August 2026.
