A plain-English companion to our full write-up, what changed in the NDIS Price Guide for 2026-27. General information only. For anything about your own plan, talk to your planner, plan manager or support coordinator.
If a provider has told you their prices are changing, you're not alone. NDIS price limits are reviewed every year, and the 2026-27 limits are now set in a new document called the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, which took effect on 24 September 2026.
The NDIA says the maximum prices in it match the guidance it published in June, and that participants and providers don't need to do anything. That's right as far as paperwork goes, but a price change can still change how far your plan stretches.
What a price limit is (and isn't)
A price limit is the most a provider can charge for a support when your funding is managed by the NDIA or by a plan manager. It isn't a set price. Providers can charge less, and many do.
If you self-manage, the limits don't bind you in the same way. You can agree a different price with a provider, as long as the support fits your plan and you can show what you paid for.
Every amount in the schedule already includes GST, so a provider can't add GST on top of a capped price.
The changes you're most likely to notice
Support workers. The most a provider can charge for an hour of standard help with personal care on a weekday daytime went from $70.23 to $73.58. Evenings, nights, weekends and public holidays went up by similar proportions, mostly because support workers' minimum wages rose this year.
Psychologists went up, from $232.99 to $252.99 an hour.
Some therapy prices went down. The limit for dietitians fell from $188.99 to $178.99, and for exercise physiologists from $166.99 to $161.99. If your provider has been charging the old maximum, their price should come down.
Some prices didn't move. Occupational therapy and speech pathology stayed at $193.99 an hour, and physiotherapy stayed at $183.99. Support coordination is unchanged, and so is the plan management monthly fee of $104.45, with no set-up fee. Our plan management fee calculator works out the total for a part year if you're changing plan managers.
Some household help goes up on 1 December. The NDIA has announced higher limits from 1 December 2026 for four items, after a wage decision for some workers under the SCHADS Award. House cleaning and other household activities rises from $60.10 to $64.59 an hour, house or yard maintenance from $59.01 to $63.42, and both assistance with personal domestic activities and specialised home-based assistance for a child from $61.16 to $65.73.
If you'd like to see how these limits have moved over time, our NDIS price limit history shows the main ones every year from 2019-20 to 2026-27.
Why your therapy invoice might look different
The new schedule lists therapy in more detail. For each type of therapy there's now a separate line for face-to-face sessions, telehealth, travel, cancellations, work done when you're not there (such as writing a program) and reports the NDIA has asked for. Therapist travel time has its own lower limit, half the hourly rate.
So an invoice might show two or three lines for one appointment. If a line doesn't make sense, ask your provider what it was for. They should be able to point to the work and to your service agreement.
Respite stays are priced differently
If you use short term accommodation (often called respite), the price is no longer one daily amount. It's now made up of the support hours you actually receive, charged by time of day, plus a separate amount for the accommodation of up to $162.85 a day (higher in remote areas). Quotes for a stay may look quite different from last year's, even if the stay itself is the same.
Your service agreement still decides the price
A higher limit doesn't mean your price goes up automatically. The price you pay is the one in your service agreement, and a good agreement says how and when prices can change. If a provider wants to raise their rates, they should talk to you about it first. For the December increases, the NDIA says providers must discuss any change to an existing agreement with you, and you must agree before it's made.
Questions worth asking when a price changes:
- What is the new price, and from what date?
- Is it still at or under the 2026-27 limit for that support?
- What does our agreement say about price changes?
- Will the change mean fewer hours over the rest of my plan?
Our longer guide, Before you sign an NDIS service agreement: a plain-English guide for participants and families, covers what a fair agreement includes.
Check your budget will last
Even a small rise adds up over a year. Our free NDIS plan budget calculator takes a support category budget, what you've spent and your plan dates, and shows how long the money lasts at the current rate and the weekly spend that would make it last to the end of the plan.
If you want to look up the limit for a particular support, our NDIS price guide search covers every support item, with the amounts for national, remote and very remote areas.
For providers reading this
Rostery is NDIS software that applies these price limits to every shift, invoice and bulk claim file automatically. If you run a provider and want to see how, you can book a demo with the Rostery team.
Sources: NDIA, NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 (in effect from 24 September 2026); NDIA, Pricing updates page; NDIA news, 19 October 2026; NDIA, Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26 v1.1. Read 29 October 2026.
The Rostery team
Comments
Post a Comment