What is changing?
Returning the NDIS to its original intent.
The NDIS was established to support people with permanent and significant disability, but its scope has expanded to cover many Australians with less significant support needs.
In line with the original intent of the NDIS, access will be based on a significant reduction in a person’s functional capacity that impacts their day‑to‑day living.
A lack of clarity about what supports are considered reasonable and necessary has also led to confusion, inconsistency and a broadening in supports funded by the NDIS over time.
This has also created a gap between what supports participants want and what the NDIS can deliver.
To address this we will:
- Reinforce the boundary between the NDIS and mainstream services.
- More consistently assess if the NDIS is the appropriate system of support and if treatment can alleviate or remedy an impairment.
- Strengthen guidance around what is reasonable and necessary.
- Introduce standardised, evidence‑based assessments of a person’s functional capacity to determine access to the NDIS.
- Remove diagnosis lists as the means of entry to the NDIS.
- End plan rollovers and stop unspent funds being rolled over to ensure plans align with reasonable and necessary decision making.
- Tighten the criteria around unscheduled reassessment requests, while ensuring people with significant changes in support needs can still request plan variations.
New framework planning will also deliver more equitable 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 more time to listen to feedback, test proposed rules and processes, and share more detailed information about the transition.
Next steps
- Introduce legislation to enable these changes.
- Establish a Technical Advisory Group to provide advice to government on an appropriate threshold and assessments for substantially reduced functional capacity, and engage with the community and states and territories.
- Tighter criteria for unscheduled plan reassessments will commence 7 days following Royal Assent of the legislation.
- Tighter assessment of reasonable and necessary supports for new entrants, plan reassessment for existing participants, and plan renewal changes will be progressively implemented from 1 February 2027.
- Participants will start to transition to new framework planning from 1 April 2027.
- Changes to the boundaries between the NDIS and mainstream systems will apply to prospective participants from 1 January 2028, with current participants reassessed over a transition period.
For more information visit the department’s website.