Written by the Provider360 team. Provider360 is Australia’s leading done-for-you NDIS registration and compliance solution, supporting 3,000+ disability service providers nationally. We track commencement dates because our clients’ documentation has to change on them.
Key takeaways
- Providers must keep records of supports and payments for 7 years from 27 August 2026, and failing to retain them carries a civil penalty.
- From 1 December 2026 the claiming window drops from 2 years to 90 days, counted from the date the support was delivered.
- From 1 July 2027 mandatory registration expands to personal care, daily living supports and supports in closed settings. NDIA enrolment is a separate duty.
Information on this page is current as at 25 August 2026.
What actually changed on 19 August 2026?
Parliament finished with the Bill on 19 August, and nothing started that day. The Governor-General signed it the next day, and the first obligations begin a week after that. So there are three dates, and the gaps between them are where the confusion sits.
Royal assent is the Governor-General’s signature on a Bill that has passed both Houses, and it is the moment a Bill becomes an Act. That happened on 20 August 2026. The Parliament of Australia bill record now reads “Assent” and carries the Act number: 66 of 2026.
The Act starts its first wave on the seventh day after assent, which puts wave one at 27 August 2026. Five separate changes start on that one day.
This page is the operating calendar: what changes inside your business, when it starts, and what you have to do about it. Explaining the Act itself is a separate job, and we do that on our Securing the NDIS for Future Generations page.
Where these dates come from
Every date on this page comes from two government sources: the NDIA’s official timeline of legislation changes for providers, and the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s page on the changes to the NDIS. Where the two differ, we have followed the provider-specific one, because that is the document written for the person running the business. The 27 August 2026 start date comes from the Act itself, which sets its first changes to begin seven days after it was signed.
We have added no facts of our own, only the order: one date-sequenced list, cross-checked against both documents.
Which NDIS changes for providers apply to your business?
Four business types, four very different exposures. Find yours.
If you claim NDIS funds at all, four changes are unavoidable
No provider is exempt. Seven-year record keeping and stronger information-gathering powers both start in wave one, and automated processing of claims and payments starts with them. The claiming window drops to 90 days on 1 December 2026, and NDIA enrolment opens on 1 July 2027. These are back-office changes: retention, billing cadence, bank details and the ability to produce evidence on request.
If you deliver plan management, 1 October 2027 is an existential date
From that date the NDIA sets up a panel of plan management providers, and only providers on the panel may deliver plan management services. Panel providers must meet strict quality, regulation and monitoring standards, and participants using a plan manager who is not on the list get six months to move. There is no version of this where a plan management business carries on without winning a place.
If you deliver support coordination, your funding mechanism ends on 1 July 2028
From 1 July 2028 support coordination is no longer funded individually in participant plans. The NDIA sets up a commissioned support coordination and connection function instead: providers apply, and successful providers are chosen through a merit-based process. The service continues. The way you get paid for it does not.
If you deliver personal care, daily living supports or supports in closed settings, mandatory registration reaches you on 1 July 2027
Registration expands to these categories from 1 July 2027, with rollout finalised by December 2030. That expansion has its own page, and we work through scope, pathway and timing there: mandatory NDIS registration expansion.
Supported independent living sits outside the dated calendar for now. The Government is consulting on a commissioning approach for 24/7 home and living supports and has not decided whether to proceed, so it is a watch item rather than an obligation. Our SIL registration transition pathways page tracks it.
The provider compliance calendar
Fourteen obligations across the eight provider waves. The third column is what matters: what each change demands of the business.
| From | What changes | The action it demands |
|---|---|---|
| 27 August 2026 | Providers can no longer ask for a plan reassessment on a participant’s behalf. Only participants, plan nominees or child representatives may. | Retrain support and admin staff, and strip the request step from your procedures |
| 27 August 2026 | Records of supports and payments must be kept for 7 years. Failure to retain them results in a civil penalty. | Fix retention schedules and storage now, before the duty starts |
| 27 August 2026 | Stronger NDIA compliance, enforcement and information-gathering powers. Providers may be required to give information on request. | Name one accountable person for regulator requests, and know where your evidence lives |
| 27 August 2026 | The Minister for Disability and the NDIS becomes the decision-maker on NDIS pricing, advised by the NDIA through the existing Annual Pricing Review. | Nothing yet: the NDIA states there are no immediate changes to pricing, and current arrangements continue. Our NDIS pricing schedule page tracks it |
| 27 August 2026 | Computer systems may automate some administrative actions, including claims and payment processing. Complex, discretionary and judgement decisions stay with people. | Expect machine-speed claim decisions. Clean, consistent claim data matters now, not later |
| October 2026 | Support budgets for social, civic and community participation and capacity-building daily activities are progressively updated as plans are reassessed or renewed. A new plan variation pathway opens for participants needing continuous 24-hour care. | Demand and cash-flow context. Model revenue exposure by support category before it moves |
| October 2026 | Plans may be suspended where a participant does not respond to requests for information, after at least five contact attempts over an extended period. | Watch for suspended plans interrupting service continuity and payment |
| 1 December 2026 | The claiming window drops from 2 years to 90 days, counted from the date the support was delivered. | The sharpest row. Move to weekly or fortnightly claiming, clear unbilled backlog before December, and reset billing software alerts |
| April 2027 | The new way of planning begins to be introduced. | Watch item. It reshapes how plans and budgets are built, reaching you through demand rather than duty |
| 1 July 2027 | Most providers must enrol with the NDIA: a minimum basic level of identifiable information plus a nominated and validated bank account. Payments are made into that account. Some providers, such as mainstream retailers, will not need to enrol. | A distinct back-office action, not the same thing as registration. Confirm now who owns your bank and entity records |
| 1 July 2027 | Mandatory registration expands to personal care, daily living supports and supports delivered in closed settings, with rollout finalised by December 2030. | Covered in full on our mandatory registration expansion page |
| 1 October 2027 | A panel of plan management providers is established. Only panel providers may deliver plan management, under strict quality, regulation and monitoring standards. Participants transition over 6 months. | Existential for plan managers. Prepare to compete for a panel place |
| 1 January 2028 | Access and eligibility changes begin for new applicants, with existing participants reassessed progressively over 3 years. | Long-range demand context. No direct provider action |
| 1 July 2028 | Support coordination is no longer funded individually in participant plans. The NDIA commissions a support coordination and connection function, and successful providers are chosen through a merit-based process. | Existential for support coordinators. Start planning for an application-based future |
February 2027 is demand context, not an obligation. Plan renewals replace plan continuations, unspent funds are not carried over, and clearer reasonable-and-necessary and parental-responsibility criteria apply. It is absent from the NDIA’s provider timeline, so it sits off the calendar deliberately. It still reaches your revenue: participants whose unspent funds stop rolling over spend differently.
Announced, no start date published. These are confirmed changes with no commencement date in any government source we could find: a ban on providers offering kickbacks and inducements; supporting documentation required for claims above a threshold (value not published); new offences covering false or misleading information, defrauding the NDIS, and intentionally destroying records; and strengthened whistle-blower protections. They are kept off the dated rows on purpose: a calendar is only useful if every date on it is real.
The change that will hurt first: the four different 90-day rules
One date on this calendar will cost providers real money: 1 December 2026. From that date the time to claim for a support drops from 2 years to 90 days.
The number is not the dangerous part. The trigger is. Today a payment request must be submitted within 90 days of the end of the service booking, which is why batching a month or a quarter of supports under one booking works. From 1 December 2026 the clock runs from the date the support was delivered.
Every service date starts its own 90 days, and batching stops working. The work sits in your billing system and your cash-flow planning rather than in your paperwork.
There will be four separate 90-day rules to keep straight, and they are not the same rule:
- A payment request within 90 days of the end of the service booking. Applies today, for NDIA-managed supports.
- An outer limit of 2 years to claim. Applies today, and it is the limit that 1 December 2026 replaces.
- A claim within 90 days of the date the support was delivered. From 1 December 2026.
- The NDIA gets 90 days to decide a plan reassessment request. Starts on 27 August 2026, and it is the NDIA’s clock, not yours.
When does the 90-day claiming rule start?
1 December 2026. One thing about it is still unresolved: official guidance does not say whether supports delivered before that date keep their existing window, or whether the 90-day limit applies to every claim submitted from that date regardless of when the support was delivered. Credible industry sources read it both ways, and neither the NDIA nor the Department resolves it.
We are not going to guess in print. The advice that holds under either reading is the same: clear your unbilled backlog before December. If old supports keep their window, you have lost nothing. If they do not, you have just protected revenue that would otherwise have become unclaimable.
Do I have to keep NDIS records for 7 years?
Yes, from 27 August 2026. Providers must keep records relating to payment and receipt of NDIS funds for 7 years, and failure to retain them results in a civil penalty. No penalty figure has been published in any government source, so treat the amount as unknown rather than small.
The NDIA adds a second consequence: you may have to pay money back if you cannot produce records showing NDIS funding was used correctly. The Department notes there will be time to build filing and storage systems, but the duty itself starts on 27 August 2026.
Retention is the cheapest of these obligations to fix and the most expensive to discover late. We build and maintain the documentation sets these requirements are audited against, and across the 3,000+ providers we have supported, our pre-audit evidence review catches an average of 16 gaps before an auditor sees them. The pattern is consistent: the policy exists, and the evidence that it was followed cannot be produced.
Can you find the records if the NDIA asks?
From 27 August 2026 the NDIA can require a provider to give information on request, and can issue a civil penalty for non-compliance. Two internal questions now get asked from outside: are your compliance systems actually being followed, and how fast can your team produce a record when the request comes?
The second catches providers out. Retention and retrieval are different problems, and it is retrieval that carries the risk of having to pay funding back. This is the gap between what you say and what you can prove. Pick a participant and a date from six months ago, and time how long it takes your team to produce the service record, the invoice and the evidence that the support was delivered.
How far ahead do you need to start?
Two changes land on 1 July 2027: mandatory registration expands, and provider enrolment opens. Certification runs 8 to 12 months end to end in our experience, so a provider who starts in mid-2027 will not be registered by then. Pick the package that matches your service scope and start while the calendar still favours you.
Find the registration package that fits your scopeCommon questions about the 2026 NDIS changes
Is the NDIS phasing out support coordinators?
No, but the current way of funding support coordination ends on 1 July 2028. From that date it is no longer funded individually in participant plans. The NDIA sets up a commissioned support coordination and connection function: providers apply, successful providers are chosen through a merit-based process, and participants choose from the resulting list of directly funded providers.
The work continues. What changes is how the revenue reaches you: through a competitive application instead of participant choice. If support coordination is your main revenue line, that is a business-model question worth opening well before 2028.
What are the changes to the NDIS in 2026 for providers?
Three sets start in 2026. From 27 August 2026: 7-year record keeping backed by a civil penalty, stronger information-gathering powers, automated processing of claims and payments, the Minister becoming the pricing decision-maker, and the end of provider-initiated plan reassessment requests.
From October 2026: support budgets progressively updated as plans are reassessed or renewed, and plans may be suspended when a participant does not respond after at least five contact attempts. From 1 December 2026: the claiming window drops from 2 years to 90 days. Everything else on the reform calendar starts in 2027 or later.
Is mandatory registration expanding to personal care and daily living supports?
Yes, from 1 July 2027. Mandatory registration expands to providers delivering personal care, daily living supports and supports provided in closed settings, with rollout finalised by December 2030. Providers will have time to work out whether the change applies to them and register with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission before it starts.
Scope, pathway and timing for these supports are covered on our mandatory NDIS registration expansion page.
Is enrolling with the NDIA the same as registering?
No. The Department states that provider enrolment “is a separate process to being a registered NDIS provider”. Enrolment starts on 1 July 2027 and is an identity and payment check: a minimum basic level of identifiable information plus a nominated and validated bank account, which is where payments will be made.
Registration is the audited process against the NDIS Practice Standards that determines which supports you may deliver. Most providers will need to enrol, including those that are not registered; some, such as mainstream retailers, will not. Being registered will not exempt you from enrolling.
