The NDIS Reforms Act is 151 pages long. Here are seven things in it nobody is talking about.
Practice note · Zac Eaton, Registered Nurse and Clinical Nurse Consultant
Most coverage of the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act 2026 stops at new framework planning and the I-CAN. Those are in Schedule 1 and Schedule 4. Schedules 2 and 3 run to a hundred pages, and that is where the provisions that will change daily practice for providers, coordinators and families are sitting unread.
I read the Act as passed (No. 66, 2026, assented to 20 August 2026). Each item below gives the section, the date it starts, and what to do about it. For the headline changes to functional capacity and assessment, see the companion note.
One
The Minister can cut two budget categories by a set percentage. The Act names which two.
For the purpose of financial sustainability, the Minister may by legislative instrument determine a percentage reduction to funding component amounts for a group of supports (s 34A(1)). The group must be one of two: assistance with social, economic and community participation, or improved daily living skills (s 34A(1A)). Each can take a different percentage (s 34A(1B)).
Those are the two categories most autistic participants' social, therapy and capacity-building supports are funded from. The Act then says which subgroups will be excluded from the cut: the note to s 34A(1C) names supports in employment and disability-related health supports. The exemption list tells you what the government regards as core. Social participation is not on it. The Australian Association of Social Workers has raised the 1 October cuts publicly (AASW, 2026); almost nobody has explained the mechanism.
What to do. No determination has been made. When one is, it applies to plans commencing after it, so plan timing will matter. Coordinators should know which of a participant's supports sit in the two named groups and which sit in employment or health, because that line decides exposure. Providers should be able to say what functional capacity each support builds, since that is the argument that survives a percentage cut.
Two
A participant who can't be reached can lose their place in the Scheme.
The CEO may revoke a person's status as a participant if reasonable attempts to contact them have failed and they are not contactable, or if their plan has been suspended for at least 90 days (s 30(1A)). Reasonable attempts means at least five attempts by the person's preferred method, the last at least three months after the first, with one in writing if their preferred method isn't (s 30(1C)). Attempts don't count if the person was in hospital or experiencing homelessness at the time (s 30(1D)).
Read the safeguards and notice what isn't in them. Being too unwell to answer the phone at home is not hospital. Being isolated, overwhelmed or in burnout is not homelessness. The people who go quiet are often the people whose supports have already failed. The death reported this year of a participant whose substantial package went untouched is the case to hold in mind (Australian Associated Press, 2026).
What to do. Make sure every participant's preferred form of contact and an authorised contact are recorded with the Agency, not just with you. If a participant stops responding, treat the third month as a deadline, because the Act does.
Three
"Permanent" now means "after all appropriate treatment", and not being able to get the treatment doesn't count.
An impairment is not permanent, or likely to be permanent, unless the person has undertaken all appropriate treatment for it and it is likely to persist for life (s 25(1B)). Appropriate treatment is treatment that is evidence-based, can reliably be expected to materially improve, reverse or alleviate the impact of the impairment, and is regularly undertaken in Australia, which the note defines as publicly funded (s 25A(1)). Treatment may be appropriate regardless of whether the person's individual circumstances, including their finances or where they live, restrict them from accessing it (s 25A(2)).
The last sentence is the one to sit with. A family in a town with no public clinic within two hours is held to the same standard as a family in inner Melbourne. The only carve-out is treatment the person cannot undertake for medical reasons (s 25A(3)(a)), plus whatever the rules later prescribe (s 25A(4)). Restrictive practices are expressly not treatment.
For autism the open question is obvious and nobody has answered it: what is "appropriate treatment" for a lifelong neurodevelopmental difference? Early intervention changes functioning; it does not reverse autism, and the Act's own note concedes that ongoing treatment may be needed to maintain functional capacity. The rules will decide how this is applied, by impairment class (s 25A(5)). They have not been made. Watch for them.
Four
Claims must be lodged within 90 days. It used to be two years.
One line in Schedule 2, Part 5: omit "2 years", substitute "90 days". Commences 1 December 2026.
Providers with slow invoicing. Plan managers with backlogs. Self-managed participants who batch their claims. After 90 days the money is gone.
Move to weekly claiming now, so December is a non-event. Tell self-managed families in writing. And keep the records: a new s 45B requires providers to retain claim records for seven years, with a civil penalty of 120 penalty units for failing to, and the same retention duty applies to participants who claim.
Five
Inducements are banned, and the Act names gift cards.
A provider contravenes the Act if it gives, offers or causes to be given a gift, benefit or other thing that is not itself a support, and that is reasonably likely to induce someone to engage the provider, keep using it, add a support, or increase intensity (s 73VA(1)). The Act defines "cash-like products" to include gift cards, store cards, vouchers, money orders and digital currency, which tells you what the drafters had seen.
There are exceptions for legitimate pricing practices such as discounts and fee reductions, for a provider's own merchandise, and for conduct the rules permit (s 73VA(3), (5), (7)). So a genuine discount is fine. A voucher for signing up, a thank-you for a referral, or a benefit routed through a coordinator is not.
What to do. Audit anything you give away. Coordinators should decline anything a provider offers that isn't a support to the participant, and say why. We don't offer inducements and never have; the point of raising it is that the line is now statutory, and the marketing that used to be normal in parts of this sector is now a contravention.
Six and seven
Plan managers can't also deliver supports, and software can now make decisions.
Six: separation of plan management (s 73E(2B), from 27 August 2026)
The Commissioner must not register a person to manage plan funding if they are registered, or applying to be registered, to provide other supports, and the reverse. Vertically integrated providers that both manage plans and deliver services have to split. For coordinators this changes who you can refer into, and removes a conflict of interest the sector has argued about for years.
Seven: automation of administrative action (s 59B to 59D, from 27 August 2026)
The CEO may arrange for computer programs, under the CEO's oversight, to take administrative action under designated provisions of the Act (s 59B(1)). The Act separately defines an "evaluative determination" as a discretion, an evaluative judgement or a state of mind, and attaches conditions before those can be automated. Plainly: decisions taken by software are now lawful under the Act, with safeguards for the judgement calls. Whether a budget produced by a support needs assessment method counts as a judgement call or an outcome by operation of law is exactly the kind of question that will be tested.
Also in the Act
Three smaller things worth knowing.
- Whistleblower protection is wider. A worker's disclosure is now protected when made to a medical practitioner or Psychologist for care, to a lawyer for advice, or to a union or professional association (s 73ZA(3) to (5)).
- Debts get a notice first. Before recovering a debt the Agency must issue a written notice setting out the circumstances and the amount, with at least 14 days for a provider and 28 for anyone else to respond (s 182A).
- The review must look at thin markets. An independent review of the Act is mandated and must consider participant outcomes, appeal rights, provider viability, service delivery in thin markets and the interaction with foundational supports (s 4). For regional Victoria that is the clause to quote back.
Working with us through the changes
We'll keep reading the instruments as they're made, and say plainly what they mean.
Functional assessments written to the new definition, and programs reported as the capacity they build. For support coordinators and clinicians.
References
Australian Association of Social Workers. (2026). You cannot build the future NDIS without social workers. https://www.aasw.asn.au/you-cannot-build-the-future-ndis-without-social-workers/
Australian Associated Press. (2026). Substantial NDIS package untouched before woman's death. AAP News. https://aapnews.aap.com.au/news/substantial-ndis-package-untouched-before-woman-s-death
National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013 (Cth). https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2013A00020/latest/text
National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 (Cth), No. 66. https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2026A00066/asmade/text
Section numbers refer to the NDIS Act 2013 as amended by the 2026 Act. Several provisions depend on NDIS rules or ministerial determinations not yet made; where that is so the text says so. This is a practice note, not legal advice.