The NDIS cuts started on 1 October. Here is what it means for your plan

Your NDIS plan did not change on 1 October. The cuts only reach your plan when you get your first plan, when your plan is reassessed, or from 1 February 2027 when your plan is renewed. Until then you can keep using your plan as normal.

When it does reach your plan, two budgets get smaller:

• social and community participation is cut by half (50%)
• improved daily living skills is cut by 10%

The rest of your plan is not cut.

The two budgets that are cut

Social and community participation. Its full name is “Assistance with social, economic and community participation”. It pays support workers to help you get out into the community and do the things you are interested in. In the year to June 2026, 609 people in Central Australia and 70 in the Barkly had weekday support from this budget to get out into the community.

Improved daily living skills. This is in the capacity building part of your plan. It pays for things like occupational therapy and speech therapy.

How much you lose depends on how much of the budget you were using. The government gives this example: someone with $50,000 a year for social and community participation who was spending $30,000 now has $25,000. They can spend $5,000 a year less than before.

What is not cut

These parts of your plan are not cut:

• help at home with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, cleaning, laundry and medication
• community nursing care
• home and vehicle modifications
• mobility equipment and transport
• continence and period products
• Specialist Disability Accommodation

Some supports inside the two cut budgets are protected too:

• supports in employment
• disability-related health supports, like nursing
• high intensity supports
• intensive and complex behaviour supports
• customised and wearable technology, like a custom-made prosthetic
• hearing services

The NDIA finds these in its own records. You do not need to send anything.

When it reaches your plan

• From 1 October 2026: when you get your first plan, or when your plan is reassessed. If your reassessment started before 1 October but the new plan starts after it, the cut still applies.
• From 1 February 2027: when your plan is renewed. A renewal gives you a new plan with the same supports as your old one, and the cut is applied to it.
• Over 12 months: the government says the change will reach plans gradually, between 1 October 2026 and 30 September 2027.

The NDIA says it will contact you 60 days before a renewal, and 2 to 3 months before a scheduled reassessment.

The two-hour shift problem

Part-time and casual support workers employed under the disability award have to be paid for at least two hours each shift. If your plan paid for two hours a week of support to get out, a 50% cut leaves one hour a week. That is half a shift.

Every Australian Counts has warned that for too many people, the money left after the cut will be too little to use.

If the cut lands on you

Read the new plan. Check the amount in each budget. Check that nothing on the protected lists above has been cut.

Keep everything. Your old plan, your new plan, letters from the NDIA and any reports.

Know what you can challenge.

• The 50% or 10% cut itself cannot be reviewed. It comes from a law the Minister made, not from a decision about you.
• If you got a first plan or a reassessed plan, you can ask the NDIA to review its decision about your plan, like how much support it says you need before the cut. A review cannot remove the cut. You have 3 months from when you get the decision, and you can ask in writing or over the phone. The NDIA has to give you its decision and its reasons in writing.
• If your plan was renewed, there is no new decision to review. If your needs or your situation have changed in a big way that will last, you can ask for a reassessment instead. The cut on its own does not count as a change.
• If you get 24-hour support and your plan had $215,030 or more across daily life, home and living, and social and community participation before the cut, you can ask the NDIA for more daily living or home and living funding if the cut leaves a gap in your care. Ask within 90 days of the cut being applied. An advocate can help you apply.

Ring us. If a cut lands on you, call DAS on (08) 8953 1422. Our help is free.

Talk to an advocate

• Phone: (08) 8953 1422
• Email: admin@das.org.au
• Office: 12 Gregory Terrace, Alice Springs NT 0870