NDIS Changes Since August 2026: The October Provider Checklist

The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026. The first changes started seven days later, on 27 August 2026.

The change providers feel first is the tighter rule on unscheduled plan reassessments. Only the participant, their plan nominee or their child representative can ask for one. The request needs to show a significant and ongoing change in support needs or circumstances. If your support coordinators or service managers have been lodging these requests for participants, stop. Help the participant make the request themselves, and keep a record of the help you gave.

The later dates in the Government's timeline to put in your diary:

• 1 February 2027 — tighter assessment of reasonable and necessary supports for new entrants, and changes to plan reassessment and plan renewal, begin to phase in.
• 1 October 2027 — a new approach to plan management begins.
• 1 January 2028 — new boundaries between the NDIS and mainstream services, and Thriving Kids is fully rolled out.

Our guide to what the Bill changes covers the full content of the Act.

On 16 September 2026 the Minister for the NDIS, Mark Butler, made the first NDIS pricing determination under the new Act. It sets the 2026-27 price limits after advice from the NDIA. The limits match the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 the NDIA had already published, and they have been in force since 24 September 2026, the day after the determination was registered.

The numbers you bill against have not changed. What has changed is where their authority comes from. Price limits used to be set by an NDIA publication. Now a ministerial legislative instrument sets them. Charging above a price limit was always a problem. Now it breaches a legal cap under the Act.

Two more pricing items to watch:

• Differentiated pricing. The Government is consulting on different price limits depending on whether a support is delivered by a registered or unregistered provider. The NDIA's 2026-27 Annual Pricing Review recommended it start on 1 January 2027. If you are unregistered and deliver community participation supports, model a lower price now.
• An update later in the year. The NDIA says the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule will be updated later this year for any necessary changes. As at 27 September 2026 no increase tied to the SCHADS Schedule E pay rise has been announced.

For the rate-by-rate numbers, see NDIS Pricing 2026-27 vs SCHADS costs.

From 30 September 2026 you can no longer log in to the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission portals with PRODA. Access moves to myID, the Government's Digital ID app that proves who you are, plus RAM (Relationship Authorisation Manager), which links you to your business and sets your access level.

This is the deadline most likely to catch a small provider off guard, because nothing about it is about service delivery. If nobody in your organisation has set up myID and RAM, you lose access to registration management, incident reporting and complaints on 30 September. Reportable incidents still have to be notified on time whether or not you can log in.

If you have not done it yet: make sure at least two people have a working myID at the right identity strength and a RAM authorisation for your ABN. Then test a log-in.

Earlier reporting, including the Minister's April speech, put the community participation cut at around 30%. The Government's own September 2026 material is clearer and larger:

• Social, economic and community participation budget allocations are cut by 50%.
• Improved daily living skills budget allocations are cut by 10%.
• The cuts phase in over 12 months from 1 October 2026, as each participant's plan is created, reassessed or renewed. Participants keep using their current plan until then.
• Employment supports, disability-related health supports, high intensity supports, and intensive and complex behaviour supports are not affected. The rest of a participant's plan is not affected either.

For providers the maths is simple and harsh. Work out what share of your revenue comes from social and community participation. Expect that share to halve over the next year, one plan at a time. Your wage bill does not halve with it. See the community participation budget reset guide for how to model it.

From 1 October 2026, children aged 8 and under with developmental delay and/or autism and low to moderate support needs start getting support through Thriving Kids instead of the NDIS. It is fully rolled out by 1 January 2028. Children with substantially reduced functional capacity, or with permanent and significant disability, stay eligible for the NDIS.

Rollout depends on funding agreements with each state and territory, so check what is actually available in your state before you plan around it. Early childhood providers should read our Thriving Kids provider guide.

This one is for your payroll team. The Fair Work Commission's final decision on 11 September 2026 moved the interim SCHADS increase of about 15% for Schedule E (disability home care) employees. It now starts from the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2026, not 1 October. The size of the increase did not change.

If your payroll system is set to apply the rise in October, change it before your first October pay run. Full detail is in Schedule E pay rise moved to 1 December.

1. By 30 September (or now, if you missed it): set up myID and RAM for at least two people and test the NDIS Commission portal log-in.
2. Before your first October pay run: move the Schedule E effective date to the first full pay period on or after 1 December 2026.
3. This week: stop staff lodging unscheduled plan reassessment requests for participants, and write down the new process.
4. This month: model your revenue with social and community participation funding halved and daily living skills funding cut by 10%, phased over 12 months.
5. This quarter: if you are unregistered, model differentiated pricing from 1 January 2027 and decide whether registration is worth it.
6. Always: keep timesheets, rosters and claims in line with each other, and keep them for 7 years. The Act's record-keeping and fraud offences mean a mismatch between what you paid, what you rostered and what you claimed is now a legal risk, not just an admin one.