NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026‑27: What Changed for Providers

The short version

If you run an NDIS business, three things matter this year:

• The document changed. The old Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL) was not updated for 2026-27. Prices now live in the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 and the NDIS Support Catalogue 2026-27.
• The legal status changed. Since 24 September 2026, the price limits are set by the Minister in a legislative instrument, not just NDIA guidance.
• The way you invoice therapy and STA changed. Therapy claim types now have their own item numbers, and Short Term Accommodation is billed as hours plus a daily accommodation rate.

Everything below is sourced. Where sources disagree, we go with the NDIA's own documents.

What replaced the PAPL

The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026‑27

The NDIA published the "National Disability Insurance Scheme Pricing Schedule 2026-27" alongside the Annual Pricing Review (APR) on 22 June 2026, effective 1 July 2026. It holds the price tables: item number, item name, unit, and national, remote and very remote prices, grouped into schedules for disability support workers, accommodation, nursing, therapy, early childhood, support coordination, plan management, notional $1 items, unpriced items, quotable supports and isolated towns (NDIA news, 22 June 2026; Pricing Schedule, 1 July edition).

That July edition was revised twice: version 1.1 on 3 July 2026 fixed item numbers for new psychology and exercise physiology items, and version 1.2 on 22 July 2026 added text on provisional psychology claiming and fixed typos (Pricing Schedule, 1 July edition).

A second edition took effect on 24 September 2026. This one is written as a legal schedule of "maximum amounts". It covers the priced items in seven appendices (support workers, accommodation, nursing, therapy, early childhood, support coordination, plan management), plus the Type 1 isolated towns list and definitions of units and times of day. It drops the $1 notional unit items and quotable items that the July edition listed (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition). Specialist Disability Accommodation has its own "NDIS Pricing Schedule for Specialist Disability Accommodation 2026-27" (NDIA pricing arrangements).

The NDIS Support Catalogue 2026‑27

The catalogue is the spreadsheet your software should load. The NDIA says it lists every support providers can claim, the maximum price, and "which claim type applies to each support item", and it should be used with the Pricing Schedule (NDIA, What is the support catalogue). The 2026-27 file has a "Current Support Items" sheet and a "Legacy Support Items" sheet, and a single National price column instead of the old per-state columns (NDIS Support Catalogue 2026-27).

The rules document: not out yet

The PAPL used to carry the claiming rules: cancellations, travel caps, non-face-to-face time, group claiming. The new Schedule does not. As of the page we checked on 2 October 2026, the NDIA says it "will shortly publish updated pricing and claiming guidance documents", and still lists the 2025-26 PAPL under "Other pricing and claiming guidance documents" (NDIA pricing arrangements).

Some secondary sources describe a separate rules document as if it already exists. We could not find one published by the NDIA. Team DSC advised providers in July to keep using the 2025-26 PAPL for claiming rules in the meantime (Team DSC FAQ). That is the sensible default until the NDIA publishes the new guidance.

Why the Schedule is now law

The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 was introduced on 14 May 2026 and passed on 19 August 2026 (APR report; NDIA provider consultation paper, September 2026). It lets the Minister set maximum prices by legislative instrument.

Minister Mark Butler signed the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Pricing Arrangements) Determination 2026 on 16 September 2026. It was registered on 23 September and commenced the day after. It makes the amounts in the two Pricing Schedules the legal maximums (Federal Register of Legislation, F2026L01268). The NDIA says the limits match its June guidance and that "participants and providers don't need to do anything" (NDIA pricing updates).

The limits apply to NDIA-managed and plan-managed funding. Providers can't charge more than them, and the NDIA can't pay a claim above them (NDIA pricing arrangements).

What changed for 2026‑27

Support worker, SIL and core prices

The APR recommended indexing prices set by the Disability Support Worker Cost Model to the Fair Work Commission's Annual Wage Review decision of 2 June 2026 (APR report). In practice most support worker items rose about 4.8%. Nursing and other non-DSW supports were indexed using an 80/20 mix of wage and consumer price movements, which came out at about 3.6%.

National prices, 2025-26 versus 2026-27 (Support Catalogue 2025-26; Support Catalogue 2026-27):

Remote prices on these items work out at 40% above national and very remote at 50% above (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition).

Support coordination and plan management were held flat on the APR's recommendation (APR report). Daar's analysis says support coordination rose about 5% alongside other everyday supports (Daar). The NDIA's catalogue shows no change, so go with the NDIA.

SIL items also appear under a new registration group, 0138 "Assistance in Supported Independent Living", at the same prices as the existing 0115 SIL items (Support Catalogue 2026-27).

Therapy prices

The APR benchmarked therapy against Medicare and private health insurance data and moved some disciplines up and some down (APR report):

Sources: APR report, Support Catalogue 2026-27. Plan Partners puts the dietetics cut at 7.7% (Plan Partners). The NDIA's own prices give 5.3%.

Therapy claim types are now separate items

This is the change that breaks old invoice templates. In 2025-26 you claimed travel, non-face-to-face time, reports and cancellations against the main therapy item using a claim type. For 2026-27, the APR recommended separate line items for provider travel and for non-face-to-face work, including NDIA-requested reports (Recommendations 10 and 11) (APR report).

Each therapy item now comes with five sibling items, marked by a suffix on the item number (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition):

The _PT item is priced at half the hourly rate, which matches the existing rule that therapy travel time is paid at 50% (APR report). In the catalogue, the base therapy items now carry "N" in the non-face-to-face, travel, cancellation and report columns, because those are claimed through the suffixed items instead (Support Catalogue 2026-27).

Watch for typos. The 24 September edition prints a few odd codes, such as 12_027_0126_3_3_CA2 and 01_700_118_1_3_NF2, that don't appear in the July edition or the catalogue (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition). Bill against the catalogue's codes.

Short Term Accommodation is unbundled

The APR found the old bundled daily STA price mixed disability supports with food and utilities, which it said doesn't fit section 10 of the NDIS Act (Recommendation 3) (APR report). From 1 July 2026, STA is claimed as:

• Support worker hours on new hourly items, for example 01_200_0115_1_1 (weekday daytime, $73.58), with evening, night, weekend, public holiday and sleepover versions.
• High intensity hours on 01_252 to 01_257, from $79.60.
• Accommodation per day: 01_250_0115_1_1 Participant Accommodation and 01_251_0115_1_1 Support Worker Accommodation, both $162.85, the same as Medium Term Accommodation.

Sources: Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition, Support Catalogue 2026-27. STA funding can't pay for holiday packages, airfares, food or entry fees (NDIA CEAG summary, July 2026).

The old ratio-based day rates (1:1 to 1:4, for example 01_058_0115_1_1 at $2,178.57) sit on the catalogue's Legacy Support Items sheet with an end date of 30 June 2027 (Support Catalogue 2026-27). They are not in either edition of the Pricing Schedule. Check with your plan manager or the NDIA before relying on them.

Travel

The travel rules have not been rewritten yet. Under the 2025-26 PAPL, you can claim up to 30 minutes of travel time per participant in MM 1 to 3 areas and up to 60 minutes in MM 4 to 5. Remote and very remote travel can be agreed with the participant. Therapy travel time is paid at 50% of the hourly rate (APR report).

What's new:

• Therapy travel has its own _PT items.
• The APR created "Type 2" isolated towns: MM 4 and 5 locations with low plan use, long travel times and high disadvantage. Providers there can negotiate travel costs in service agreements, but there's no extra loading (Recommendation 18) (APR report).
• The $1 "provider travel non-labour costs" items (the 799 codes) are still in the catalogue but not in the 24 September Schedule (Support Catalogue 2026-27).

Cancellations

No new cancellation rules have been published. The 2025-26 PAPL lets you claim up to 100% of the agreed fee for a short notice cancellation or no-show. "Short notice" means less than 2 clear business days for most non-support-worker supports, and less than 7 days for support worker supports. You must have been unable to find other billable work for the worker, and your terms must be in the service agreement (PAPL 2025-26). The difference this year is that therapy cancellations use the _CA item rather than a cancellation claim type.

How many items changed

Daar counts 210 items up, 65 down, 106 new and 41 removed, out of 670 price-limited items (Daar). Our own comparison of the NDIA's 2025-26 and 2026-27 catalogues comes out differently, because the totals depend on how you treat the 332 suffixed therapy items. The catalogue went from about 620 rows to 976, and most of that growth is those suffixed items (Support Catalogue 2026-27). Treat any headline count as approximate.

How to read a support item number

Take 01_013_0107_1_1. Reading left to right (PAPL 2025-26):

• 01: support category (Assistance with Daily Life)
• 013: sequence number
• 0107: registration group (Daily Personal Activities)
• 1: outcome domain (Daily Living)
• 1: support purpose (1 Core, 2 Capital, 3 Capacity Building)
• Suffix: new for 2026-27 and therapy only, one of _TH, _NF, _RR, _CA or _PT for the claim type

The fields in the catalogue that matter when you invoice (Support Catalogue 2026-27):

• Unit: H (hour), D (day), E (each), MON (month) and so on. Hours and days can be claimed in fractions; "Each" can't (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition).
• Start and End date: claim on the item that was valid on the day you delivered the support.
• National, Remote, Very Remote: price is set by where the support happened, not where the participant lives.
• Quote: if "Yes", there's no fixed price and you need a quote.
• Claim type flags: whether non-face-to-face, travel, short notice cancellation, NDIA reports or irregular SIL can be claimed on that item.
• Type: priced, quotable, or $1 unit price.

Two time rules from the Schedule catch people out. If a shift crosses two time bands and one worker delivers it, the higher rate applies to the whole shift. Weekday daytime for support workers runs from 6am to 8pm (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition).

Registered vs unregistered pricing: confirmed vs proposed

Confirmed:

• The APR recommends cutting prices by 10% from 1 January 2027 for Social, Community and Civic Participation (SCCP) supports delivered by unregistered providers, and stopping indexation on those prices. This covers high intensity items and related travel, non-face-to-face, cancellation and transport claims. Registered providers would keep current prices and indexation (Recommendation 16) (APR report).
• The NDIA says it expects the gap to widen to about 16 to 19% by 2028-29 if indexation stops (APR report).
• As at 24 September 2026, the government was "currently consulting disability stakeholders on the implementation of differentiated pricing" (NDIA news, 24 September 2026).
• Neither edition of the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule, nor the Determination, sets different prices for registered and unregistered providers today (Pricing Schedule, 24 September edition; F2026L01268).

Proposed or not yet decided:

• The 1 January 2027 start date. It's a recommendation, not law yet.
• Expanding differentiated pricing to assisted daily living and capacity building daily activities as well as community participation (NDIA provider consultation paper). The government's timeline reportedly ran consultation on this from 1 July to 30 September 2026 (DHDA timeline).
• Differentiation for therapy and support worker supports more broadly. The NDIA is looking at this through its DSW Cost Model, SIL and Therapy pricing reviews (NDIA provider consultation paper).

What else is coming

• SCHADS pay rise. On 11 September 2026 the Fair Work Commission decided on Schedule E of the SCHADS Award, effective 1 December 2026. The government says the Pricing Schedule "will be updated later this year to reflect any required changes" (NDIA news, 24 September 2026).
• 2027-28 pricing review. Consultation is open until 1 November 2026 and covers therapy, support worker prices, SIL, community participation, support coordination and plan management (NDIS Engage).

What to do now

1. Load the 2026-27 catalogue and check every service you sell maps to a current item number.
2. Rebuild therapy invoices around the _TH, _NF, _RR, _CA and _PT items. Stop sending claim types on the base item.
3. Bill by delivery date. Shifts before 1 July 2026 use 2025-26 prices. Anything after uses 2026-27.
4. Restructure STA into hours plus daily accommodation, and record actual support hours and times.
5. Update service agreements. The NDIA said providers must discuss price changes with participants, who must agree (NDIA news, 22 June 2026). Put your cancellation and travel terms in writing.
6. Keep the 2025-26 PAPL handy for claiming rules until the NDIA publishes new guidance.
7. If you're unregistered and deliver community participation, model a 10% cut from January 2027 and decide whether registration is worth it.
8. Budget for the December SCHADS change and watch for an updated Schedule.
9. Have your say in the 2027-28 review before 1 November 2026.

If your software can't hold more than one year's prices, this year will hurt. Orangised prices every shift off the catalogue year it falls in and loads each year's catalogue centrally, so a June shift and a July shift get the right rates without anyone re-keying them.