NDIS budget changes from 1 October: What to know

In September 2026, we shared news about the new NDIS rules that have been approved by Parliament.

One of these new rules is something called a support determination. This lets the Minister for the NDIS adjust funding for certain supports in your NDIS plan. From 1 October 2026, the Government will use this tool to reduce funding for two types of support.

But don't worry, your funding won't change all at once on that date. The change will roll out gradually over the next 12 months, as each person's plan is created, reassessed, or renewed. The NDIA will contact you before anything changes for you. We explain what this means and when below.

Your current funding stays the same for now

If your plan isn't being reassessed or renewed right now, nothing about your current funding changes on 1 October. A reassessment is when the NDIA reviews your plan and gives you a new one, either on a scheduled date or because your support needs have changed. A renewal is when your plan reaches its end date, and your current support arrangements simply roll over into a new plan.

You can keep using your current plan and supports as usual until your plan is reassessed or renewed. The rules for what you can spend your funding on haven't changed.

When will the change take effect on my plan?

If you're a new participant starting on 1 October 2026, the change applies as soon as your first plan starts.
If your plan is reassessed from 1 October 2026, the NDIA will contact you 2–3 months in advance to schedule the reassessment. If you've asked for an unscheduled reassessment, the change will also apply to your reassessed plan. Either way, it applies as soon as your reassessed plan starts.
If your plan is renewed from 1 February 2027, the NDIA will contact you 60 days before your plan renewal. You don't need to give the NDIA any extra information.
By 30 September 2027, everyone who receives funding in these categories will have had the change applied to them. If your scheduled reassessment date is on or after 1 October 2027, it will be brought forward.
From 1 April 2027, participants will gradually move to a new way of planning, called new framework planning. The funding reset does not apply to new framework plans.

A case study: meet Priya

Priya is an NDIS participant whose plan is due to be reassessed on 15 January 2027. Nothing happening on 1 October 2026 changes her current plan.

The NDIA will contact Priya two to three months before her reassessment. When she receives her reassessed plan, it will show how much her funding for these supports has been reduced. The change applies from the day that the new plan starts.

If Priya feels worried about her next plan, cutting back on her current supports won't help. Instead, she can start collecting up-to-date information about her support needs, so her reassessment reflects her current situation.

What supports are affected?

The change applies to two parts of an NDIS plan:

Social, economic and community participation (part of your Core budget). This covers help or supervision to enable you to take part in community, social, recreational, or economic activities. These supports can be provided in a range of settings, such as out in the community or at a centre.
Improved daily living skills (part of your Capacity Building budget). This covers professional assessments, training and therapeutic services to increase your independence.

When the change is applied to your plan, the amount available will be reduced by 50% for social, economic, and community participation supports, and by 10% for improved daily living skills supports. The Government has said the change to social, economic and community participation funding will take average spending back to 2023 levels.

What this could mean in dollars

The reduction applies to the amount in your plan, not to what you actually spend. Many people don't use their full budget, so the real impact depends on how much of your funding you're currently using.

Here's an example from the NDIA: A participant has $50,000 a year for social, economic and community participation supports, but only uses $30,000 of it. After the change, they will have $25,000 available each year. That means their actual spending on these supports drops by $5,000 a year, not $25,000.

When you receive your new plan, it will show both your total plan funding and the funding available after the change.

What isn't affected

The rest of your plan. Only these two categories are changing. Critical supports are not affected, including:

Supports in the home, such as help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry, cleaning, community nursing care and medication
Home and vehicle modifications
Personal mobility equipment and transport
Consumables for incontinence and menstruation
Specialist Disability Accommodation.

Some supports within the two affected categories. The NDIA says these supports are essential to participants' health, safety and wellbeing, so they won't be reduced:

Supports in employment
Disability-related health supports
High intensity supports
Intensive and complex behaviour supports
Customised and wearable technology
Hearing services.

You don't need to do anything to protect these. When applying the change, the NDIA will check whether your plan includes these supports and whether payments have been made for them. If so, the reduction won't apply to them. From 1 October 2026, new and reassessed plans will clearly show which funding isn't affected.

For more on what counts as an NDIS support, see Mable's guide to NDIS support lists.

Can I ask for a review or a reassessment?

You can't request a review of this change itself. The reduction on its own doesn't count as a reason to request a reassessment or a plan variation.

You can still ask for changes to your plan at any time if your support needs change significantly and on an ongoing basis. That might be because of a change in your functional capacity, your living arrangements, your education or employment, or the informal support you get from family, carers or others. See the NDIS pages on plan reassessments and plan variations.

There are two other situations to know about:

If you need 24-hour disability support, eligible high-support-needs participants can use a new plan variation pathway if the reduction would affect their 24-hour supports.
If you experience fraud, a crisis, or an emergency, you can contact the NDIA to discuss whether your plan needs to be changed

What you can do to prepare

There are 3 things you can do to prepare.

Check your plan's reassessment date. If it's not coming up soon, the change hasn't reached your plan yet. It will be applied by 30 September 2027 at the latest, and the NDIA will contact you beforehand.
Don't cut back on the support you need just because you've heard changes are coming. If you're not sure what to do, ask your Local Area Coordinator (LAC) or support coordinator. If you don't have funding in these two categories, this change won't affect you.
Write down your questions as they come up. Even if we don't have an answer today, we'll be covering any new updates or changes and exactly what to do about them in future articles.

Talking to your support worker

Social, economic and community participation funding is exactly the kind of support many NDIS participants use to book independent support workers. When your plan is reassessed or renewed, this part of your budget is likely to be smaller. Because with Mable, you're not locked into a fixed roster the way you might be with an agency, you can talk with your support worker about adjusting session lengths or frequency to make your funding go further.

This is also a good moment to have an honest conversation about your goals for these supports, so you can prioritise what matters to you most and whether your hours need to change.

Note: Improved daily living skills funding can't be used to pay independent support workers, so this section applies to your social, economic and community participation budget only.

Unsure how this affects you and your plan?

If you don't have a support coordinator, or you'd just like a second, plain-English opinion, that's exactly what our Mable Compass service is for. It's a free session with no strings attached. In the session, a Mable representative will go through your plan with you, explain what a change like this means for your budget, and help you work out your next step.

Book your free Mable Compass consultation now.

Official NDIS resources

Here are some official sources of information. Many of these links also have Easy Read resources.

The information in this article is general information only and based on current information as of the date of publication. In addition to the information shared here, Mable encourages you to conduct your own research and seek independent advice about your funding and support services.

NDIS support budget changes are coming from 1 October