NDIS Price Guide Updates: What Is Changing This Year

Every year, the NDIS price guide updates reshape how support is funded and delivered. These changes directly affect your plan budget, the services you can access, and what you’ll pay out of pocket.

At Nursed, we’ve seen firsthand how confusing these updates can be for participants and their families. This guide breaks down exactly what’s changing and how to prepare.

What’s Actually Changing in Your NDIS Prices

The 2025-26 NDIS price guide introduced changes on 24 November 2025 that go far beyond simple percentage increases. Support worker rates climbed 4%, with weekday daytime support rising from $67.56 to $70.23 per hour. The real shifts happened in therapy pricing and how you claim certain supports. Art and music therapy rates dropped significantly from $193.99 to $156.16 per hour, which forces providers to rethink how they structure sessions. The NDIA based these changes on over 10.5 million therapy transactions-the largest dataset they’ve ever used for pricing decisions. Physiotherapy and psychology now have single national rates at $183.99 and $232.99 per hour respectively, eliminating the state-based pricing differences that previously existed. If you live in a regional area, you might have paid more before. Support coordination increased from $77.00 to $80.06 per hour, and psychosocial recovery coaching went up about 3.95%. These adjustments reflect wage movements and cost of living changes across Australia that the NDIA tracks annually.

How Claiming Works Differently Now

Several claiming rules changed fundamentally. The vague Other Professional therapy billing line no longer exists, so providers must bill under their registered profession like Occupational Therapist or Speech Pathologist. This stops ambiguity but means you need to verify your provider’s actual credentials. Low-cost assistive technology items now claim under Core Supports as Consumables, with the dedicated Low-Cost AT line item removed entirely. Travel loadings shifted to the MMM 2023 classification system, which redefines which regional areas qualify for higher reimbursements. If you live in Port Lincoln, you’re MMM3, but Ceduna is MMM5, and that difference affects what providers can charge for travel. All COVID-era pricing rules disappeared, so temporary pandemic pricing no longer applies. The NDIA also capped provider travel labour costs for therapy at 50% of the therapy support’s price limit, directly limiting what providers can add for travel time. You can check your postcode’s MMM classification to understand how this affects your specific situation.

What Activities Can Actually Be Claimed as Therapy

The NDIA’s distinction between therapy and community participation is strict for good reason. Recreational activities, standard gym memberships, and hobby-based group classes cannot be claimed as therapy unless a registered allied health professional delivers them with clearly documented therapeutic goals. Structured art therapy by an accredited therapist counts. Clinical exercise programs run by physiotherapists or occupational therapists count. Group programs with documented outcomes count. General socialising does not. Participants lose funding because activities lack proper documentation as therapeutic, so ask your provider exactly how they link each session to your plan goals in writing before starting.

Why These Changes Matter for Your Budget

The 4% increase in support worker rates means your funded hours may stretch less far if your plan doesn’t increase. Higher therapy rates (except art and music therapy) affect what you’ll pay out of pocket if you exceed your plan allocation. The removal of state-based pricing for physiotherapy and psychology creates fairer access across Australia, but it also means some participants in previously lower-cost states may see increases. Travel loading changes hit regional participants hardest, as the MMM 2023 system redefines eligibility. You need to understand these shifts now, before your next plan review, so you can work with your support coordinator to adjust your budget allocation accordingly.

How Price Changes Hit Your Plan Budget

The Real Cost of Rate Increases

Your plan funding amount itself hasn’t changed, but what that money actually buys you has shifted dramatically. A participant receiving 20 hours of weekday daytime support at the old $67.56 rate could access those hours for $1,351.20 monthly. At the new $70.23 rate, the same 20 hours now costs $1,404.60-a $53.40 monthly increase that compounds across the year to $640.80. If your plan hasn’t increased proportionally, you’re effectively getting fewer hours for the same budget. The NDIA’s own data shows support worker rates climbed 4% across the board, reflecting Fair Work wage adjustments and cost of living movements throughout 2025.

For participants relying heavily on daily personal care or living in Supported Independent Living arrangements, this compounds quickly. Someone funded for 168 hours monthly of SIL overnight support feels the impact acutely when roster-based pricing structures shift. The removal of state-based pricing created national uniformity, but participants in previously lower-cost states like Queensland now pay more. Physiotherapy and psychology supports have been aligned to national rates of $183.99 and $232.99 per hour respectively.

Your support coordinator can run scenario modelling with you using the NDIA’s Price Guide Navigator to show exactly how these rates affect your specific allocation, but you must initiate that conversation early. Don’t wait for your next plan review to discover your hours have effectively shrunk.

Regional Travel and Therapy Rate Shifts

Regional participants face a completely different budget reality under the MMM 2023 travel classification system. If you live in Ceduna (MMM5), you qualify for higher travel reimbursements than someone in Port Lincoln (MMM3), but the NDIA capped provider travel labour costs at 50% of the therapy support’s price limit. This means providers can’t simply add unlimited travel charges anymore.

Art and music therapy rates dropped to $156.16 per hour, which sounds positive until you realise many providers may reduce session frequency or move toward small-group delivery to maintain viability. Your access to individual sessions may actually decrease. The critical action here is to audit your current service agreements immediately. Contact each provider and ask them explicitly how the 2025-26 price changes affect your rates, your session frequency, and your total monthly costs. Get this in writing before any changes take effect.

Taking Control of Your Budget Now

Track your Core Supports spending monthly using your plan management software to catch budget overruns early. If you exceed allocations, discuss alternative delivery methods with your support coordinator-group programmes, shared support arrangements, or assistive technology solutions that reduce ongoing paid support hours. The NDIA expects participants to actively manage these shifts, and passivity will cost you access.

When you contact providers about rate changes, ask them three specific questions: How do the new rates affect your hourly cost? Will your session frequency change? What is your total monthly cost under the new structure?

Written responses protect you and create a clear record if disputes arise later. Many participants discover budget problems only after services have already shifted, leaving them scrambling to adjust mid-plan cycle.

Your next step involves working with your support coordinator to map out exactly where your plan sits under the new pricing structure and identifying which supports need adjustment before your plan review arrives.

Get Your Numbers Right Before Anything Else

Calculate Your Actual Costs Under New Rates

Pull your current plan documents and calculate exactly what your funded supports cost under the new 2025-26 rates. Open your plan management software and locate your Core Supports allocation, then multiply each support type by the updated hourly rate from the NDIS Price Guide. If you receive 15 hours weekly of support worker assistance at the new $70.23 rate instead of the old $67.56 rate, that’s an additional $40.05 per week or roughly $2,082 annually on a single support line. Multiply this across multiple support types and the gap between your plan funding and actual costs becomes impossible to ignore. This model is the basis of the price limits set by the NDIA for supports delivered by disability support workers, so use it to verify current price limits before you contact providers.

Write down the total monthly cost for each support under the new rates, then compare it to what your plan actually funds. This document becomes your negotiation foundation when you speak with your support coordinator.

Most participants skip this calculation step and discover budget problems mid-year when providers invoice at the new rates, leaving no time to adjust allocation before overspending occurs. The numbers reveal whether your plan funding has kept pace with rate increases or whether you face a shortfall that requires immediate action.

Request a Formal Plan Review Meeting

Your support coordinator needs to see this calculation when you meet, because vague conversations about budget concerns never produce real results. Request a formal plan review meeting specifically focused on the price guide changes, not a casual phone call. Bring your cost breakdown and ask your coordinator to run the same numbers through the NDIA’s systems to confirm your calculations. If your plan funding hasn’t increased proportionally to the rate increases, ask directly what adjustment your coordinator recommends and in which support categories.

Some coordinators suggest shifting hours from lower-priority supports to maintain access to essential daily living assistance. Others recommend exploring group programmes or shared support arrangements that cost less per hour than individual delivery. The critical conversation centres on which supports matter most to your independence and quality of life, then protecting funding for those first.

Identify Your Priority Supports

Work with your coordinator to rank your supports by importance to your daily functioning and wellbeing. Essential supports-those that enable you to live safely and participate in your community-should receive protection in your budget allocation. Secondary supports, while valuable, may absorb the impact of rate increases through reduced hours or alternative delivery methods. This prioritisation prevents you from losing access to supports that genuinely matter while you adjust to new pricing.

If your coordinator cannot provide a clear strategy to manage the price changes within your current plan, that signals you need a different approach or additional advocacy support. Some participants benefit from working with a support coordinator who specialises in plan management and budget optimisation across multiple support categories.

Explore Alternative Delivery Models

Group programmes and shared support arrangements often cost less per hour than individual delivery, allowing your plan to stretch further. Ask your providers whether they offer these options and how they compare in cost to your current individual sessions. Assistive technology solutions can also reduce ongoing paid support hours by enabling greater independence in specific areas (for example, communication aids or mobility equipment). Your coordinator can help identify which supports might transition to alternative delivery without compromising your outcomes or quality of life.

Final Thoughts

The 2025-26 NDIS price guide updates reshape how your support funding works in ways that demand your immediate attention. Support worker rates increased 4%, therapy pricing shifted across multiple categories, and claiming rules changed to affect your budget and access to services directly. The NDIA based these changes on over 10.5 million therapy transactions, reflecting real cost pressures across the disability support sector that won’t disappear without action on your part.

Your plan funding amount has not increased to match the rate rises, which means your funded hours effectively shrink without intervention. Pull your plan documents now and calculate your actual costs under the new rates using the NDIS Price Guide Navigator, then request a formal plan review meeting with your support coordinator focused specifically on how these price changes affect your budget. Contact each provider and ask in writing how the new rates affect your hourly costs, session frequency, and total monthly expenses so you have written records to reference.

Explore alternative delivery models like group programmes or shared support arrangements that cost less per hour than individual sessions. Nursed can help you navigate these changes and manage your daily living support as your plan adjusts under new pricing. Act now to get your numbers right and take control of your support before budget problems emerge mid-year.