The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 is the law that changes who can get into the NDIS, how plans are made and renewed, and how the National Disability Insurance Agency decides what to fund. It amends the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, and it rolls out in stages — from shortly after Royal Assent through to 1 January 2028, with one provider-registration measure able to commence later by Proclamation.
This is the largest set of changes to the scheme since the Getting the NDIS Back on Track No. 1 Act in 2024. Some of it is genuinely protective — stronger fraud penalties, new debt-recovery safeguards, better whistleblower protections. Some of it narrows what participants can ask for and what the NDIA has to fund. Both things are true, and you are better served by a guide that says so.
This article explains what actually changed, using the section numbers of the Act so you can check anything here against the source. Where the Government’s plain-English summary goes further than the law itself, we say so.
Key takeaways
- Access to the NDIS will be based on a defined test of functional capacity — your ability to do an activity without help from other people, though commonly used aids you would ordinarily use (the legislation names glasses and walking sticks as examples) no longer count against you.
- From 1 January 2028, an impairment is not treated as permanent unless you have undertaken all appropriate treatment for it. Affordability and distance from the treatment do not excuse you.
- You can still request an unscheduled plan reassessment, but only where there has been a significant and ongoing change. The NDIA now has 90 days to decide, not 21. If it does not decide, that counts as a refusal — and you can appeal it.
- From 1 October 2026, the Minister can reduce funding in plans for two specific groups of supports: assistance with social, economic and community participation, and improved daily living skills. No other group can be cut this way.
- Participants who need continuous 24-hour care can apply for a plan variation within 90 days of a reduction applying to them, under new section 47B.
- When deciding what is reasonable and necessary, the NDIA must now weigh published, peer-reviewed research above your own demonstrated outcomes — a change that matters most for supports with a thinner evidence base.
- Old framework plans will renew automatically for 12 months from 1 February 2027, with no new planning meeting and no reviewable decision at the point of renewal.
What is the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act 2026?
The Act is a set of amendments to the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013, grouped into five Schedules: access and planning measures, fraud measures, governance arrangements, new framework planning, and transitional rules.
Its stated purpose runs through the whole text. Section 3(1)(d) of the NDIS Act is rewritten so that the scheme provides supports that are reasonable and necessary “so far as is consistent with the financial sustainability of the scheme”. A new section 17B requires the NDIA Chief Executive Officer to have regard to sustainability principles when exercising planning powers, including that the distribution of scheme funding across participants as a whole should be equitable, having regard to similarities in needs and circumstances.
That is a meaningful shift. Decisions about your plan must now be made with an eye to the scheme’s total cost and to consistency between participants — not only to what you individually need.
The Act also requires an independent review of how the changes work in practice. Section 4 obliges the Minister to commission a review, conducted by people independent of the NDIA and the Department, covering access to the scheme, participant outcomes including continuity and quality of supports, review and appeal rights, provider market viability, and service delivery in thin markets. The report must be tabled in Parliament.
When do the 2026 NDIS changes start?
The changes commence in stages. Some are already in effect; the biggest access changes are more than a year away.
| Date | What starts |
|---|---|
| Shortly after the Act commences | Functional capacity definition; unscheduled reassessment limits; the “directly from an impairment” test; most fraud and integrity measures; pricing and automation provisions |
| 1 October 2026 | Support determinations; plan suspension where a participant is not contactable |
| 1 December 2026 | Claim window for providers cut from 2 years to 90 days |
| 1 February 2027 | Automatic plan renewal; the rewritten reasonable and necessary rules |
| 1 July 2027 | Strengthened whistleblower protections |
| 1 January 2028 | The permanence and “all appropriate treatment” test; the compensation-scheme eligibility bar |
If you take one thing from this table: nothing about your current plan changes overnight. The provisions most likely to affect an existing participant — plan renewal and the reasonable and necessary rules — start on 1 February 2027.
What is “functional capacity” and why does the new definition matter?
Functional capacity is defined in section 9B as your ability to undertake an activity either without assistance from other people, assistive technology or modifications, or only with commonly used aids you would ordinarily use — and in a context that excludes, as far as possible, your environmental and personal circumstances.
Read that carefully, because it is doing a lot of work. The test asks what you can do largely unaided and stripped of context — not what you can do on a good day with the right support in place.
The original drafting was harder still: it excluded assistive technology and modifications altogether. That was amended before the law passed. The final test allows for assistive technology or modifications “that are commonly used and that the person would ordinarily use”, and for children, assistance from other people appropriate to their age.
A note to section 9B gives glasses and walking sticks as examples of aids that are commonly used “within the ordinary meaning of that expression”. Be precise about what that does: it explains what “commonly used” means where the NDIS rules have not prescribed a particular item. It is not a guarantee that any given aid will be treated as commonly used — rules made under section 9B(3)(d) can prescribe what is, and is not, commonly used.
Section 24(1)(c) is also amended so that reduced functional capacity is assessed “in relation to one or more of the following activities (considering each activity as a whole)”. That phrase matters: it directs assessors to look at whole activities like communication, social interaction, learning, mobility, self-care and self-management, rather than breaking them into small sub-tasks you might manage individually.
Why this matters for psychosocial disability in particular. Fluctuating conditions are hard to capture in a single unaided snapshot. A person can look capable on assessment day and be unable to leave the house a fortnight later. The Act’s rule-making power allows for classifications and thresholds, and how the eventual assessment tool handles variability will matter more than the definition itself. That detail is not in the Act — it will come in the NDIS rules.
What does “all appropriate treatment” mean for NDIS access?
From 1 January 2028, an impairment is not permanent, or likely to be permanent, unless you have undertaken all appropriate treatment for it and it is likely to persist for your lifetime (new sections 24(5) and 25(1B)).
New section 25A defines appropriate treatment as treatment that is evidence-based, can reliably be expected to materially improve, reverse or alleviate the impact of the impairment, and is regularly undertaken or performed in Australia.
Two things are worth being precise about, because they are widely misreported.
First, affordability and location do not excuse you. Section 25A(2) states that treatment may be appropriate “regardless of whether the person’s individual circumstances restrict the person from accessing the treatment”, with a note confirming that individual circumstances include financial circumstances and geographical location. The only carve-out in the operative text is appropriate medical treatment you cannot undertake for medical reasons, plus any circumstances later set out in the NDIS rules.
Second, some widely repeated reassurances sit outside the legislation. Government material explaining the changes states that people will never be expected to undergo treatment that could alter their fertility or have other major lifelong impacts. There is no such provision in the legislation. The words “fertility” and “lifelong” do not appear anywhere in the access provisions.
That is not to say the assurance is worthless — a protection of that kind could be delivered through the NDIS rules, which section 25A(4) allows the Minister to make. But until those rules exist, it is a policy commitment rather than a legal entitlement.
Similarly, the two most-cited protections — that restrictive practices do not count as appropriate treatment, and that treatment is “regularly undertaken in Australia” if public funding is available for it — appear as Notes to section 25A(1) rather than as operative subsections. Notes form part of an Act and are used in interpreting it, so this is not nothing. But an explanatory note carries less weight than operative words, and cannot override them.
We flag this not to alarm anyone, but because the difference between what the legislation says and what the explanatory material says matters if you are ever arguing an access decision. If a protection matters to your situation, check whether it sits in the operative text, in a note, or only in a fact sheet.
One further note to section 24(5) is worth knowing: it confirms that a person may still require ongoing treatment for a permanent impairment in order to maintain functional capacity, even after undertaking all appropriate treatment. Needing continuing treatment does not, by itself, make an impairment non-permanent. Like the others, this sits in a note rather than an operative subsection — but it states the position plainly.
Can I still ask for a plan reassessment?
Yes — but the conditions are tighter and the timeframe is longer.
Under new section 48A, an unscheduled reassessment can only be conducted on request where there has been a significant change to your ongoing support needs arising from an impairment for which you meet the disability or early intervention requirements, and that change results from either:
- an alteration in your functional capacity, which must be significant and ongoing, must directly relate to a change in an existing impairment or arise from a new one, and must involve “a substantial reduction in the participant’s ability to perform daily activities”; or
- a significant and ongoing alteration in your living arrangements, education arrangements, work arrangements, or informal support network.
The original bill required that a change in circumstances be “unanticipated”. That word was removed before the law passed, so a change you could see coming is not disqualified for that reason alone. The alteration must still be significant and ongoing, and must fall within one of those four categories — living, education, work or informal support. Removing “unanticipated” widened the gate; it did not open it.
The decision timeframe moves from 21 days to 90 days (section 48(3)). If the NDIA does not decide within 90 days, it is taken to have decided not to conduct a reassessment — and that deemed refusal carries review rights. You do not have to keep re-lodging a request into silence.
Requests must be in the approved form with the required information. If you do not use the approved form, the NDIA is not obliged to decide the request at all, so this is worth getting right.
What is a support determination, and could my funding be cut?
From 1 October 2026, new section 34A allows the Minister to make a legislative instrument reducing funding in plans by a percentage, for a specified group of supports, “for the purposes of ensuring the financial sustainability” of the scheme.
Here is the part most summaries omit. Only two groups of supports can be reduced this way, and they are named in the Act at section 34A(1A):
- assistance with social, economic and community participation
- improved daily living skills
Nothing else can be cut by a support determination. Personal care, home and living supports, home and vehicle modifications, mobility equipment, continence and menstrual consumables, and Specialist Disability Accommodation are all outside this power.
The determination can also carve out an excluded subgroup within those two groups, so particular supports are protected from the reduction. The Act’s note says excluded subgroups will include supports in employment and disability-related health supports.
Three features of section 34A deserve to be understood plainly:
- Your plan document does not change. Section 34A(4) says the determination does not alter the text of your plan. The figure on the page stays the same; the amount actually available is lower. The NDIA must notify you of the effect when it gives you a copy of your plan.
- A reduction can leave you short of the cost of a support. Section 34A(5) states, to avoid doubt, that the determination has effect even where the funding for a reasonable and necessary support ends up less than the total cost of that support, or where all your reasonable and necessary supports taken together cost more than the plan provides.
- The Minister must have regard to participant safety when making the determination (section 34A(3)).
If you use a lot of community participation or capacity building funding — which describes many people with psychosocial disability — this is the provision to watch.
What happens if I need 24-hour support?
New section 47B creates a plan variation pathway for high support needs participants — broadly, people who require continuous 24-hour care to meet disability-related care needs, though the precise class will be set by a ministerial determination.
If a support determination reduces your total funding and you are a high support needs participant, you can request a variation within 90 days of the determination starting to apply to your plan, or longer if the NDIA extends the period for exceptional circumstances.
The NDIA must decide within 21 days whether you are a high support needs participant, and then within a further 21 days whether to vary the plan. Read those timeframes carefully: in both cases the CEO can instead simply tell you more time is required, and then must decide “as soon as reasonably practicable”. They are not hard deadlines. If the CEO does nothing at all, a refusal is deemed — and all three decisions in this pathway are reviewable.
Two limitations worth knowing. A variation under section 47B can increase funding for assistance with daily living and home and living supports, plus any further group the Minister specifies. It expressly cannot increase funding for assistance with social, economic and community participation, or improved daily living skills — the two groups a support determination reduces. The pathway protects your care, not your community participation. The total increase is also capped at the amount your plan was reduced by, so it restores rather than adds.
How does the NDIA decide what is “reasonable and necessary” now?
From 1 February 2027, section 34 gains a detailed set of mandatory considerations. This is the change most likely to affect what appears in an ordinary plan.
Support needs must arise “directly” from an impairment. Section 34(1)(aa) is amended to insert that word — and note this particular change commences within days of Royal Assent, not on 1 February 2027, applying to statements of participant supports approved from that earlier date. A support with an indirect connection to your impairment is harder to justify.
Value for money is now a structured test. The CEO must consider whether comparable supports are available at lower cost, and whether one of them would be better value. For equipment and modifications, the CEO must compare purchasing against leasing — and where your circumstances are likely to change in the short term, must presume, unless satisfied by evidence to the contrary, that only leasing represents value for money.
Evidence is ranked. Section 34(1E) requires the CEO, when weighing whether a support will be effective and beneficial, to consider these in order of importance:
- research and evidence that is published, peer-reviewed and generalisable
- evidence of effectiveness given your circumstances, including your age and impairment
- evidence of outcomes for you from using the support under your previous plan
- other matters the CEO considers appropriate
Section 34(1F) then makes explicit what that ordering means: the CEO may decide a support is not effective and beneficial where there is limited or no published peer-reviewed research, even where there is good evidence of effectiveness for your circumstances and evidence that the support worked for you in your last plan.
This is the provision we would most want participants and coordinators to understand. It is a defensible way to allocate scarce funding, and it is also a real risk for supports where the research base is thinner — which includes a good deal of psychosocial and recovery-oriented practice, not because those supports do not work, but because they have been studied less than physical rehabilitation. Evidence of your outcomes still counts. It simply no longer counts first.
A new exclusion. Section 34(1)(g) provides that a support is not reasonable and necessary if it would be more appropriately provided or funded by another scheme or an existing government service system.
The practical implication: reports and evidence for plan reassessments will need to do more work than before. Naming the published evidence base for a support, not just describing the person’s progress, is now part of making the case.
What changes for children and families?
Section 34(1G) requires the CEO to apply a presumption that parents are responsible for providing substantial care and support for their children.
Section 34(1H) defines substantial care and support as including supervision, personal care, transport, emotional support and behavioural support. Critically, the final version adds that it does not include additional care and support required because the child’s care and support needs are substantially greater than those of other children of a similar age because of the child’s disability. An earlier limb about “assistance reasonably expected of a parent” was removed in the Senate — that concept now survives only in section 34(1J).
That second limb is the protection. Ordinary parenting is expected of parents; disability-related support above that is not automatically pushed onto the family.
Section 34(1J) sets out what the CEO must not fund: supports whose primary or substantial purpose is to reduce demands on parental time below what is reasonably expected, to improve household efficiency, or to give effect to a parent’s preference for someone other than a parent to provide care.
For informal supports generally, section 34(1K) requires the CEO to consider whether relying on family, carers or community would expose anyone to a risk of harm, abuse or neglect that cannot be reasonably mitigated, the desirability of strengthening rather than replacing informal supports, and — added late in the process — the capacity of your family or carers to provide support, having regard to their age, the intensity and type of support required, and whether it is age and gender appropriate for a particular family member to provide it.
If you have an ageing parent providing intimate personal care, that last consideration is now something the NDIA must weigh.
What if my disability came from a car accident or a workplace injury?
From 1 January 2028, a new access test applies. Under section 21(1)(d) and new section 25B, a person must meet the alternative support requirements to gain access to the scheme.
An impairment is an “excluded impairment” if it was caused by a motor vehicle accident and a law provides for compensation or benefits for it, or if it was caused by a work-related injury and a workers’ compensation law provides for compensation or benefits. Rules can also declare a support to be an “alternative support” for an impairment, which excludes it — but before making such a rule the Minister must be satisfied it is not appropriate to fund the support through the NDIS.
Two safeguards were added before the Act passed:
- Existing participants are protected from this particular power. The power to revoke participant status for failing the alternative support requirements applies only to people who become participants on or after commencement. If you are already in the scheme, that revocation power does not reach back to you. It is worth being precise, though: the separate power to revoke participant status where someone is not contactable does apply to existing participants.
- Rules can clarify when a scheme is taken to provide compensation, including by reference to whether a claim could be made, or has been made, granted or refused. This is aimed at preventing people falling between systems while a compensation claim is undecided.
What if the NDIA cannot contact me?
From 1 October 2026, new section 40A lets the NDIA suspend a plan where a participant is not contactable. The safeguards around it are more substantial than the headline suggests.
Before the CEO can be satisfied that reasonable attempts were made, at least five contact attempts must have been made using the person’s preferred contact method, the last at least three months and no more than four months after the first, and if the preferred method is not in writing, at least one additional attempt must have been made in writing.
There is also a protection for people in hospital or experiencing homelessness: an attempt does not count where the participant was in the care of a hospital or another institution, or experiencing homelessness, at the time. Note the limit on it — it applies only where the NDIA becomes aware of that circumstance before suspending the plan. It is not automatic, so telling the Agency about a hospital admission matters.
If you make contact within 90 days, the NDIA must within 28 days either lift the suspension or request information. A suspension decision is reviewable. A plan suspended for at least 90 days can lead to revocation of participant status, so if you have been out of contact, getting back in touch quickly matters.
What changes for providers, and why it affects you
Three provider-facing changes are worth knowing as a participant.
Providers have 90 days to claim, not two years (section 45A(5)(a), from 1 December 2026). Expect providers to invoice faster and chase service agreements and documentation more promptly.
Record-keeping obligations are tiered. Providers must keep records relating to claims for seven years, backed by a civil penalty of 120 penalty units. Participants who make claims must keep records for three years, and other claimants for five. Records must be in English, or readily convertible into English.
No civil penalty attaches to the participant obligation — but do not read that as meaning there is no consequence. Section 182(4) makes an amount equal to the NDIS amount a debt due to the Agency where required records have not been kept, and that applies to participants too. The saving grace, added late in the process, is that no debt arises if you can otherwise demonstrate an entitlement to the payment. In plain terms: if you self-manage or plan-manage and you are claiming, keep your invoices and receipts.
Price caps become enforceable. New section 45C lets the Minister determine maximum amounts for supports, and section 45C(7) prohibits providers from charging above the cap. Note that these caps apply only where funding is managed by the NDIA or by a registered plan management provider — self-managed funding sits outside the regime.
There is also a new power for automated decision-making. Sections 59B to 59E allow the CEO to arrange for computer programs to take administrative action, and section 59B(4) expressly permits automating action that involves a discretion, an evaluative judgement or the forming of a state of mind. Section 33 — the provision governing plan preparation and approval — is on the list of provisions that can be automated from the start. The safeguards are procedural: a published standard operating procedure instrument, disclosure on notices that a decision was automated, and annual reporting of decisions the CEO found were not correct or preferable. A failure to comply with most of those safeguards does not affect the decision’s validity.
If you receive a decision notice, check whether it says the decision was made by a computer program. You have the same review rights either way.
What should you do now?
- Do not panic about your current plan. The provisions most likely to affect you start on 1 February 2027 and 1 January 2028.
- Keep your contact details current with the NDIA, and respond to requests for information. The suspension provisions only bite where the Agency cannot reach you.
- Keep your own records of supports received for at least three years if you claim. There is no civil penalty for participants, but a missing record can create a debt unless you can otherwise show you were entitled to the payment.
- Ask your allied health professionals to name the evidence base, not just describe your progress, in reports supporting a reassessment. The new section 34(1E) ordering makes that framing matter.
- If you need 24-hour care, diarise the 90-day window under section 47B. It is a short clock and it runs from when a determination starts applying to your plan.
- Read your plan copy when it arrives. Where a support determination has reduced a funding component, the plan text will not show it — the NDIA must notify you separately.
Questions to ask your provider or support coordinator
These are worth asking whoever supports you, including us.
- Which of my supports sit in “assistance with social, economic and community participation” or “improved daily living skills”? Those are the two groups a support determination can reduce.
- What published evidence supports the therapies and supports in my plan?
- If my plan renews automatically in 2027, what one-off funding will I lose?
- Do you know whether I am likely to be treated as a high support needs participant?
- How will you help me evidence a significant and ongoing change if I need a reassessment?
A good provider will answer these without hedging, and will tell you when the answer is genuinely uncertain — much of the detail sits in NDIS rules that have not been made yet.
Frequently asked questions
Will my NDIS plan be cut in 2026?
Not automatically. A support determination under section 34A can reduce funding for two named groups of supports — assistance with social, economic and community participation, and improved daily living skills — from 1 October 2026. No other group can be reduced this way, and your plan text will not change even where a reduction applies.
Do I lose my NDIS access under the new rules?
Existing participants are not re-tested by the new access provisions simply because the law changed. The permanence and “all appropriate treatment” test and the compensation-scheme exclusion commence on 1 January 2028, and the power to revoke participant status under the alternative support requirements applies only to people who become participants after that provision commences.
What does “all appropriate treatment” mean?
Under section 25A, treatment that is evidence-based, can reliably be expected to materially improve, reverse or alleviate the impact of an impairment, and is regularly undertaken in Australia. Cost and distance do not excuse you from undertaking it. Medical treatment you cannot undertake for medical reasons is carved out.
Am I forced to have treatment I do not want?
No. Nothing in the Act compels medical treatment. The consequence of not undertaking appropriate treatment is that an impairment may not be assessed as permanent for access purposes.
How long does the NDIA have to decide a reassessment request?
Ninety days from 2026, up from 21 days. If no decision is made in that time, the request is taken to have been refused, and you can seek review of that refusal.
Does using glasses or a walking stick count against my functional capacity assessment?
No. The Act allows for assistive technology and modifications that are commonly used and that you would ordinarily use, and gives glasses and walking sticks as examples. Children may also receive age-appropriate assistance from others during assessment.
What is automatic plan renewal?
From 1 February 2027, old framework plans renew by force of section 50A for a further 12 months with the same text, minus any one-off funding and minus any further alterations the Minister determines by legislative instrument under section 50A(3). No new planning meeting is required, and the renewal itself is not a reviewable decision — though your review rights in relation to the original plan are preserved and flow through to the renewed plan.
Does SESI Care Services support people with psychosocial disability?
Yes. SESI specialises in psychosocial and mental health support, combining psychosocial recovery coaching, counselling and mentorship with everyday living assistance. Support Coordination and Recovery Coaching are available Australia-wide, with direct supports across Melbourne’s south-east.
Does SESI Care Services provide plan management?
No. SESI does not offer plan management. We can explain how the three funding management options work — self-managed, plan-managed and NDIA-managed — and how the new price caps apply differently to each.
Where can I check any of this myself?
Every provision named in this article is in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, available on the Federal Register of Legislation, and in the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 as amended.
Talk it through
If you are unsure how these changes affect your plan, or you want help preparing evidence for a reassessment, our team can talk it through with you — no pressure and no jargon.
Call 1800 017 374 or get in touch.
SESI Care Services is a registered NDIS provider delivering individualised disability and aged support across Melbourne’s south-east, with a whole-person approach. Our team speaks English, Hindi, Punjabi, Bengali, Marathi, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Sinhalese, Mandarin, Persian, Farsi and Dari.
Sources
- National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 — Federal Register of Legislation, legislation.gov.au
- Parliament of Australia, Bill homepage and Schedule of the amendments made by the Senate — aph.gov.au
- National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 — Federal Register of Legislation
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Final changes to the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 — health.gov.au
- National Disability Insurance Agency — ndis.gov.au
This article explains the law in general terms and is not legal advice. For advice about your own plan or access decision, speak with your support coordinator, an advocate, or a lawyer.
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