Securing the Future of the NDIS for Coming Generations

About the Changes

The NDIS plays an important role in supporting people with permanent and significant disabilities, but it continues to grow at a much higher rate than other comparable government programs.

The current size of the NDIS and the way the market operates do not always deliver the level of high-quality support that participants need. At the same time, costs continue to increase due to rising plan budgets and existing weaknesses within the Scheme.

If these challenges are not addressed, they could affect the long-term sustainability of the NDIS and its ability to continue supporting future generations of Australians with disability.

On 14 May 2026, the Australian Government introduced the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill to Parliament.

The government has stated that further NDIS reforms will still be required to ensure the Scheme continues to support people with disability and their families while improving outcomes into the future.

The Australian Government is committed to continuing its engagement with the disability community, as well as state and territory governments, as it develops and implements these longer-term reforms.

Timeline for Securing the NDIS for Future Generations

The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations reform timeline highlights the key milestones and implementation dates for the Australian Government’s plan to strengthen the NDIS and support its long-term sustainability

Priorities to Secure the Future of the NDIS

The government’s plan to ensure the long-term sustainability of the NDIS will be delivered through four key pillars:

• Tackling fraud and preventing misuse of funds
• Controlling and slowing down rapid cost growth
• Introducing clearer eligibility criteria
• Improving service quality and support for participants

What is Changing Under the NDIS

The NDIS was set up to assist people with permanent and significant disability, however over time its coverage has extended to include many Australians with less severe support needs.

In line with the original intent of the NDIS, eligibility will now be determined by a significant reduction in a person’s functional capacity that affects their daily living activities.

A lack of clarity around what supports are regarded as reasonable and necessary has also resulted in confusion, inconsistency, and an expansion of supports funded by the NDIS over time. This has also led to a gap between what participants expect and what the NDIS is able to deliver.

To address this we will:

• Clearly reinforce the distinction between the NDIS and mainstream service systems.
• Apply a more consistent process to determine whether the NDIS is the right support system and whether treatment can help reduce or resolve an impairment.
• Strengthen the guidelines on what is classified as reasonable and necessary support.
• Introduce standardised, evidence-based assessments to evaluate a person’s functional capacity for NDIS eligibility decisions.
• Remove diagnosis-based lists as an entry pathway into the NDIS.
• Discontinue plan rollovers and prevent unspent funds from being carried forward to ensure alignment with reasonable and necessary decision-making.
• Tighten rules around unscheduled reassessment requests, while still allowing plan variations for people experiencing significant changes in support needs.

New framework planning will also deliver more fair and consistent participant budgets through a new support needs assessment process and budget method.

Following consultation with people with disability and their families, carers and advocates, the rollout of new framework planning will be delayed until 1 April 2027. This will allow additional time to gather feedback, trial proposed rules and processes, and provide more detailed information about the transition.

Next steps:

• Introduce legislation to enable these changes.
• Set up a Technical Advisory Group to advise government on an appropriate threshold and assessment approach for substantially reduced functional capacity, and engage with the community and states and territories.
• Stricter criteria for unscheduled plan reassessments will begin 7 days after Royal Assent of the legislation.
• Tighter assessment of reasonable and necessary supports for new participants, plan reassessments for existing participants, and plan renewal changes will be gradually introduced from 1 February 2027.
• Participants will begin transitioning to new framework planning from 1 April 2027.
• Changes to the boundaries between the NDIS and mainstream systems will apply to future participants from 1 January 2028, with current participants reassessed over a staged transition period.

Delivering Meaningful Social and Community Participation

The NDIS was created on the promise of inclusion. It was intended to function as a framework that helps open society for people with disability.

However, the current approach to social and community participation has resulted in programs that once enabled meaningful connection being allowed to decline. We will restore the role of the community in community participation.

To support this, we will:

• Create a $200 million fund – the Inclusive Communities Fund – to strengthen the capacity of community organisations to deliver genuine participation activities.
• Reset participant budgets for social, civic and community participation, as well as capacity-building daily activities.

These changes will not affect supports that are essential for participants’ critical care and daily living needs. They will be implemented under existing planning arrangements, ahead of the introduction of new framework planning.

Next steps:

• Introduce legislation to enable these changes.
• Participant support budgets for social, civic and community participation, and capacity-building daily activities will be gradually adjusted from 1 October 2026.

Improving Standards Across NDIS Providers

Policy settings have not promoted transparency and innovation within NDIS markets and, in some cases, have contributed to challenges in provider viability, inconsistent quality, and poor outcomes for certain participants.

We are addressing pricing arrangements and the design and delivery of plan management, support coordination, and home and living supports to enhance quality, encourage innovation, and better respond to participant needs.

To support this, we will:

• Transfer responsibility for pricing decisions to the Minister for Disability and the NDIS.
• Begin consultation on differentiated pricing for unregistered providers delivering social, civic and community participation, capacity-building daily activities, and assisted daily living supports.
• Establish a panel of plan management providers to strengthen service quality, improve integrity standards, and reduce fraud.
• Establish a new, more efficient support coordination and connection function.
• Commence consultation and design a commissioning approach for home and living supports for Supported Independent Living (SIL) participants requiring 24/7 support, ensuring better outcomes for participants and addressing provider viability issues.

Next steps:

• Introduce legislation to enable these changes.
• Consultation on commissioning home and living supports will begin in July 2026.
• The new plan management approach will be implemented from 1 October 2027, starting with a 6-month transition period.
• The newly commissioned support coordination function will commence from 1 July 2028.

Tackling Fraud and Non-compliance

Fraud and non-compliance undermine the social licence of the NDIS and have a direct and serious impact on the lives of participants and their families, resulting in lower quality services, exploitation, and harm.

We are introducing a range of changes to strengthen oversight of providers and claims and improve controls to protect participants and the NDIS from exploitation.

To support this, we will:

• Expand mandatory registration of providers delivering supports to participants who are most at risk of abuse and/or exploitation.
• Introduce a new enrolment system requiring a minimum level of identifiable information for most NDIS providers.
• Increase the evidence required for payments for NDIS supports, including payments at the point of service.
• Strengthen the NDIA’s investigative and enforcement powers and introduce new regulatory controls to address fraud and non-compliance.
• Improve how information is collected and monitored to enable faster and more targeted responses to fraud and suspicious activity.
• Take additional steps to reduce conflicts of interest.

Next steps:

• Introduce legislation to enable these changes.
• Reforms to strengthen the powers of the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission and NDIA will be introduced over the next 18 months.
• Expansion of provider registration will begin from July 2027, with full implementation by the end of 2030.
• Improvements to NDIS claims and payment systems will commence from July 2026 and will be rolled out by the end of 2030.

How These Changes May Affect People

The actions we are taking may impact different groups in different ways, including participants, families and carers, providers, and the workers who deliver care and support services.

More information will be provided to help explain what the changes mean for you and when they will occur. These changes will be introduced gradually, and participants will be informed first.

Who We Work With

We recognise that further changes will be needed and will continue working with the disability community and sector on long-term reforms to ensure the NDIS remains fairer, safer, and sustainable into the future.