You may have noticed plans coming back smaller.
You are not imagining it, and it is not only happening to you. A set of changes to the NDIS began in August and continues into 2027. Each was announced separately. Nobody has to explain them together, except the family living underneath all of them.
What is changing, and when
-
27 August 2026In effect
Only you can ask for an early reassessment
Only a participant, their plan nominee or their guardian can ask the NDIA to reassess a plan early. A support coordinator or provider can help you get ready and gather the evidence, but cannot make the request for you as they used to.
The NDIA then has 90 days to decide whether it will reassess. If it does not decide within that window, the request counts as refused, and you can ask for a review of that.
What it means for your file: the request now rests with you, and it needs to arrive with evidence already behind it. There is no second chance inside the 90 days to go and find a missing report.
-
1 October 2026Starting
Budgets begin resetting
The NDIA starts changing what it funds for social, civic and community participation, and for improved daily living therapies. This happens when a plan is reassessed or a new plan is approved from 1 October, and when plans are renewed from 1 February 2027.
On the published figures, social, civic and community participation allocations are reduced by around half and brought back toward 2023 levels, with capacity building daily living down around ten per cent. It phases in over roughly twelve months from 1 October. Funding for eating and drinking, employment and disability-related health is not affected.
What it means for your file: supports in the affected categories now need to be justified rather than assumed. The report that explains why a support is necessary matters more than the one that says it has been in place for years.
-
1 October 2026Starting
Thriving Kids begins
Children aged 8 and under with developmental delay or autism, and low to moderate support needs, begin getting support through a new service called Thriving Kids. Children with permanent and significant disability stay eligible for the NDIS.
If your child is already on the NDIS, this change does not take them off it straight away. Your Early Childhood Partner can tell you what applies to your child.
What it means for your file: where a child sits on that line is an evidence question. What the reports say about permanence and functional impact is what decides it.
-
February 2027Announced
A tighter test for what gets funded
Renewals begin picking up the budget changes that started in October, and a tighter funding test applies.
What it means for your file: the gap between a well-evidenced request and a thin one widens. Same need, different paperwork, different answer.
-
April 2027Announced
A new way of working out budgets
The NDIA starts setting budgets from a standardised support needs assessment. You have a guided conversation with a trained NDIS assessor about the support you need, and what you say helps set your budget. A person at the NDIA approves the plan.
The reports already sitting in your file help decide whether a deeper, targeted assessment happens at all.
What it means for your file: this is the one that matters most. What is written down today shapes what you are asked for in 2027, before the conversation even starts.
Running out of funding is no longer a reason on its own
For years, people were told they could use their plan funding and ask for a reassessment if it ran out. That is no longer enough on its own.
A request now has to show that there has been a significant, ongoing change in your functional needs or your circumstances. If it does not, you may be told to wait until your next scheduled reassessment, which can mean a long time without the support you need.
If you are close to running out, the evidence that shows what has changed is the thing to work on now, not at the point the money stops.
One variable is still on the table
You cannot lobby five changes. What you can do is make sure that when your turn comes, the evidence in front of the assessor is the best true account of your life.
- Find out what is actually in your file. Most people have never seen their own evidence as a whole. Old reports matter, because they show how long a disability has been present.
- Check whether your reports still describe your life. A report written three years ago may describe someone whose needs have changed since.
- Look for the places two reports disagree. Small contradictions between clinicians who have never met each other are very hard to spot by eye and can quietly cost funding.
- Write your own account, in your own words, before you need it. Under the new assessment model, what you say about your own life carries weight.
BellaAssist does the first three against the scheme’s own criteria, and gives you a place to do the fourth. What is BellaAssist? →
If you support participants
The changes land differently on your side of the table.
You can no longer lodge an early reassessment request, but gathering and structuring the evidence behind one is still your work, and the 90-day clock starts whether or not the file is ready. From April 2027, the reports your team has already written help decide whether a participant gets a deeper assessment at all.
What this means for frontline teams →
Dates are drawn from the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act, which received assent on 20 August 2026 and commenced on 27 August 2026, and from subsequent Department of Health and NDIA announcements. Where a change has been announced but not yet commenced, it is marked as announced rather than in effect. This page is maintained as things move. It is general information about the scheme, not advice about your plan.
Questions about funding?
Bella Sláinte is actively engaging with prospective customers, partners, investors, and regulatory bodies across the Australian care sector. We respond to every thoughtful inbound message within five working days.
jessica@bellaassist.au · Jessica on LinkedIn
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia