NDIS budget changes from October 2026, explained

From 1 October 2026, the NDIA is changing how two specific NDIS support budgets are worked out — Social, Economic and Community Participation, and Improved Daily Living Skills. It does not touch a participant’s whole plan, and it does not happen to everyone on the same day: the change reaches a plan only as that plan is created, reassessed or renewed, rolling out progressively over the following year.

This guide explains what is actually changing, when it is likely to reach your plan, which supports are excluded or sit outside the change altogether, and what you can do if your own circumstances mean your current plan no longer fits.

If you have heard about this and feel unsettled, that is understandable — but there is no need to act today. Nothing about your current supports changes before your plan is actually touched by this process, and even then the effect depends on what is in your plan, not on one number applied to everyone.

What is changing within Social, Economic and Community Participation

Social, Economic and Community Participation is the budget that funds things like getting out into the community, building relationships, and taking part in social, recreational, economic and civic life. The NDIA calls the change to it a support determination — a rule that reduces how much this part of a plan provides, by 50%, as plans are created, reassessed or renewed from 1 October 2026.

A number of supports inside this budget are specifically excluded from the reduction. They are not reduced by this change:

• Supports in employment
• High-intensity supports
• Intensive and complex behaviour supports

What is changing within Improved Daily Living Skills

Improved Daily Living Skills is the budget that funds building skills, independence and capacity for everyday life — things like allied health input aimed at developing a skill, rather than doing a task for you. This budget is reduced by 10% under the same rule, applying as plans are created, reassessed or renewed from 1 October 2026.

As with Social, Economic and Community Participation, some supports inside this budget are specifically excluded from the reduction:

• Disability-related health supports
• Customised and wearable technology
• Hearing services

It is worth repeating, because it is the detail most easily lost in a headline: this is a reduction to two particular budgets, not a cut applied evenly across a whole plan. A plan with little or nothing in these two categories is barely touched by this change at all. If you want the wider picture of how NDIS budgets work, our guide on what the NDIS funds and what it does not covers all three.

Quick reference: budgets and supports at a glance

A one-look summary of everything above and below, for anyone who wants the shape of it before the detail:

When will the changes reach your plan?

The NDIA is not applying this to every plan at once. It reaches a plan in stages, tied to when that plan is next touched:

1. 1 October 2026

   Plans created or reassessed

   The support determination starts applying to NDIS plans that are newly created or reassessed from this date.

2. 1 February 2027

   Plans renewed

   The NDIA gains the ability to apply the change when a plan is renewed — the standard replacement of a plan around the end of its current period.

3. Through 30 September 2027

   Progressive rollout

   The change is intended to reach all relevant plans progressively over the following twelve months, as each one is created, reassessed or renewed in its normal cycle.

If your plan is not due to be created, reassessed or renewed within that window, this change does not reach it until it is. There is no separate date that applies to you outside your own plan’s cycle.

Will every NDIS participant be affected?

No. The effect of this change is individual, because it depends on what is actually in a participant’s plan — their goals, their circumstances and their support needs — and on when that plan is next created, reassessed or renewed. Some participants will see a meaningful change to these two budgets. Others, particularly those whose plans rely mainly on excluded supports or on budgets outside these two categories altogether, will see little or no practical difference.

It is also not a reduction applied to a whole plan. The supports described through the rest of this guide as excluded, or as sitting outside these two budgets, are not part of this change at all.

This is a reduction to two specific budgets, not to a plan as a whole — and whether it reaches you at all depends on what is actually in your plan.

Everyday support at home

These supports are not part of either affected budget, so they are not reduced by this change:

• Assistance with eating
• Assistance with drinking
• Assistance with dressing
• Assistance with toileting
• Laundry
• Cleaning
• Community nursing care
• Medication support

Health and high support needs

These are specifically excluded from the reduction to the two affected budgets:

• Disability-related health supports
• High-intensity supports
• Intensive and complex behaviour supports

Employment supports

Supports that help you find or keep a job are excluded from this change.

Equipment, technology and property-related supports

These also sit outside this change:

• Customised and wearable technology
• Hearing services
• Home modifications
• Vehicle modifications
• Personal mobility equipment
• Specialist Disability Accommodation

A note on SIL and SDA

Specialist Disability Accommodation funds the building, not the support delivered inside it, and it is not part of either budget this change applies to — it is not affected by this support determination.

Supported Independent Living funding sits within Home and Living, which is also outside Social, Economic and Community Participation and Improved Daily Living Skills, so it is not directly reduced by this change either. Separately, and unrelated to this budget change, SIL providers face their own registration requirements around the same period — that is a different matter, about who can deliver SIL, not a reduction to SIL funding. If you are unsure which of the two applies to your situation, your provider or a Support Coordinator can help you tell them apart; our guide to SIL vs SDA, the difference covers how the two supports work.

A new pathway for some participants with 24-hour support needs

A separate variation pathway exists for a smaller group of participants: those with very high, round-the-clock support needs, for whom this budget reduction could put their ability to safely receive 24-hour support at risk.

The request has to come from the participant or their nominee — the NDIA cannot start one on your behalf — and it must be made within 90 days of receiving the new plan, not before it arrives. Once a request is made, the NDIA has 21 days to decide whether the high support needs test is met, and a further 21 days to decide the variation itself. Where a variation is granted, the NDIA may increase funding for Assistance with Daily Life or Home and Living to help maintain safe 24-hour support.

This pathway is specific and the eligibility test is exact, so it is worth checking the detail against your own circumstances rather than this summary alone. The NDIS’s own page on what a plan variation is (opens in a new tab) is the right starting point.

What if your circumstances have changed?

Outside the 24-hour pathway above, participants can still ask for a plan reassessment or plan variation at any time, where there has been a significant and ongoing change to their situation. A reassessment generally means the NDIA creating a new plan with a new end date; a variation generally means a smaller change made without replacing the whole plan. The grounds the NDIA looks at are:

• Ability to complete daily activities
• Living arrangements
• Education or employment circumstances
• Available informal supports

The change needs to be both substantial and likely to continue, not a temporary dip or a one-off event. It is worth knowing, too, that the funding reduction itself is not, on its own, treated as this kind of significant and ongoing change — a request needs to point to what has genuinely changed in your life, not to the policy change alone. Raising a request does not guarantee a particular outcome; the NDIA assesses each one on its own facts. Our guide on preparing for your NDIS plan review covers how to put that kind of evidence together.

A reassessment request needs to point to what has genuinely changed in your life — not to the funding change itself.

What should participants do now?

A calm, practical starting point:

1. 1

   Check your current plan

   Identify which of your supports sit within Social, Economic and Community Participation and Improved Daily Living Skills, and which do not.

2. 2

   Find out your plan’s timing

   Check when your plan is next due to be created, reassessed or renewed — that date is what determines when any of this could reach you.

3. 3

   Keep using your supports as normal

   There is no reason to cancel or pause a support you currently rely on because of this announcement.

4. 4

   Keep a record of any genuine change

   If your circumstances have changed significantly and are likely to stay changed, keep reports, assessments or other evidence of what has changed and why.

5. 5

   Consider whether a reassessment or variation fits

   If you think your situation may meet the grounds above, raise it with your NDIA contact, or ask a Support Coordinator to help you put the case together.

6. 6

   Check the official NDIS information for your situation

   This guide is a starting point, not a substitute for your own plan details — the sources below link to the NDIA’s own pages.

Checking your plan is always worth doing. Cancelling a support you rely on because of this announcement is not.

If this feels unsettling

It is understandable to feel uneasy hearing about a change like this, especially before you know how, or whether, it applies to you. A few things are worth holding onto while you find out more.

Nothing about your current plan changes today. The change reaches a plan only when it is created, reassessed or renewed, and even then it applies to two specific budgets, not to a plan as a whole. A wide range of commonly relied-on supports — personal care, home and vehicle modifications, nursing care, medication support and Specialist Disability Accommodation among them — are not part of this change at all.

There is no need to cancel or reduce a support you currently rely on because of this announcement. Understanding what is actually in your plan, and whether anything about your own circumstances might make a reassessment or variation worth raising, is something you can work through calmly, in your own time.

The bottom line

The October 2026 changes reduce two specific NDIS budgets — Social, Economic and Community Participation and Improved Daily Living Skills — not a participant’s whole plan, and they reach each plan at a different time depending on when it is next created, reassessed or renewed. A wide range of commonly relied-on supports sit outside these two budgets altogether. If your circumstances have changed significantly and are likely to stay changed, you can still ask for a plan reassessment or variation, and a separate pathway exists for some participants with 24-hour support needs. Understanding how the change applies to your own plan — rather than reacting to the headline — is what actually matters here.

Important information

NDIS rules and dates can change, and this rollout continues over the next twelve months. This guide reflects NDIS and Department of Health, Disability and Ageing information available as at its publish date, and it is general information rather than advice about your own plan. If anything here differs from current NDIS information, follow the NDIS’s own guidance, and speak with your NDIA contact, plan manager or Support Coordinator about how the change applies to you specifically.

Sources and further information

The official NDIS page on plan variations is linked above, in the 24-hour support pathway section. The other sources behind this guide:

• NDIS — Changes to support budgets from 1 October (opens in a new tab)
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Funding changes for NDIS supports (opens in a new tab)
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (Support) Determination 2026 (opens in a new tab)
• National Disability Insurance Scheme (High Support Needs Participants) Determination 2026 (legislation.gov.au)