In June 2025, the National Disability Support Agency (NDIA) announced that several of its price limits and support arrangements would be changing in response to the 2024-25 Annual Price Review (APR). These changes to NDIS pricing came into effect on the first of July—only a few weeks after they were announced—and have already impacted the ways thousands of Australians provide or receive disability support services.
The announcements were largely aimed at providers rather than participants, so you may be feeling some uncertainty about how you might be impacted.
National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) participants are all too familiar with sudden changes in policy or legislation creating a whole new maze to navigate. While most support plans won’t be directly affected by the 2025 NDIS pricing changes, shifting margins and hourly limits may change how some providers structure or deliver their services—especially in regional areas.
What’s actually changing and why?
The NDIA’s report summarises the changes to how services are priced and delivered. The relevant details are scattered across several different pages and announcements, but here’s a general snapshot:
- The NDIA wants prices to be “fairer and more equitable”, reducing the gap between NDIS prices and market rates (some participants have been paying 68% more than market rates for their supports than non-NDIS customers).
- NDIS price caps are being changed (mostly reduced) for specific services, so those providers will have to adjust their pricing to match the new caps. Lower caps will bring down prices for participants, giving them more flexibility in how their plan funds are allocated, but the reduced funding may force some providers to change how they deliver their services.
- Travel claims for therapy are being reduced by 50%, making it more expensive for therapy providers to offer in-home or out-of-office services; however, regional loading has been removed so participants who live in remote areas won’t be charged.
- Since many support workers are paid based on relevant NDIS price limits, those limits were increased by 3.95% to give them a pay rise in line with the Federal Government’s 3.5% minimum wage increase and superannuation guarantee.
Shifting towards digital/online service
One of the major points the NDIA took away from their pricing review was that a lot of participants are receiving their support digitally rather than face-to-face. Based on this information, the agency is cutting support for therapy travel costs by 50%, significantly reducing the funding that can support in-home or out-of-office visits.
This has already caused some issues for regional participants who rely on in-home care from allied health physiotherapists, psychologists, and OTs, as the reduced funding means a lot of providers simply cannot afford to travel. However, not all the changes make things more difficult; regional loading has been removed for several services (including plan management, which is usually done via email/Zoom anyway), so participants in more remote areas won’t be charged extra based on their postcode anymore.
New NDIS plans starting after 1st July 2025
While none of the new pricing changes will have an immediate effect on existing plans (their funds will already have been allocated at the previous rates), participants entering the NDIS for the first time will have a slightly different experience. Support plans will now factor the new price caps into their allocations from the start, giving new participants instant access to the revised model.
New participants requesting a plan manager will still pay the same $104.45 monthly fee (which, as mentioned above, is no longer affected by regional loading), but the additional $232.35 establishing fee has been removed. The FAQs under the NDIS report specify that existing plans won’t be affected by price decreases, so unfortunately, even under the new NDIS changes, there won’t be any refunds for people who paid this fee before the 1st of July.
Setting National Standards for Capacity Building Supports
Previously, each state had its own rates for capacity-building supports like physiotherapy and psychology. Under the new rule changes, those individual rates will be scrapped in favour of standardised national pricing.
Depending on where you live and which supports you use, this could mean a slight increase or decrease in your service costs. The psychology cap, for example, will be increasing slightly for NSW, VIC, QLD, and ACT, but decreasing in other states and territories. Other services like physiotherapy and podiatry will have their caps lowered across the board.
For a full list of affected supports and new national rates, check the NDIS pricing recommendations report.
How to Cut Through the Noise
The best way to find out how the latest NDIS changes will affect your specific services is to log into your NDIS participant portal—or, if you have a plan manager, ask them directly. Reach out to your providers and ask if you’ll need to adjust your plan, especially if they typically travel to see you.
Finding a relevant, straight answer can be exhausting, but you don’t have to do it alone. Space for Life can help with whatever level of support you need, from full plan management to helping you decoding dense government reports. Feel free to reach out with anything you need.
