Last Updated on 17/07/2026 by Daniel G. Taylor
The NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 arrived on 22 June, and it changed more than the numbers. Gone is the familiar Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document. In its place sits a Pricing Schedule, born from a Bill still working through the Senate.
Support coordinators carry the job of translating this shift for clients. They want one answer: will my hours stretch as far as they did last year? This guide gives you the numbers, the structural changes, and the conversations worth having with clients before 1 July — alongside our NDIS Worker Screening Check 2026 Guide, if compliance checks are already on your list this quarter.
Why the Document Changed Its Name
Every year since the Scheme began, the NDIA has published a document called the Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits. This year, that document doesn’t exist.
The reason sits in Parliament. The National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 landed on 14 May 2026, and it proposes something new: power for the Minister to set binding NDIS prices, with NDIA advice behind the decision. The formal price-limits document sits on hold while the Senate works through it.
The Bill hasn’t passed. A Senate inquiry pushed the reporting date back eight weeks, to 14 August 2026, so passage sits months away. None of that changes what you bill against from 1 July. The Pricing Schedule governs your clients’ invoices regardless of where the Bill lands.
For support coordinators, the practical upshot is simple: use the Schedule, not the old PAPL terminology, when you’re checking a rate with a client or a provider.
Greg Smith, SALT’s COO, confirms the internal transition has brought few surprises. “The biggest changes are in how billing cycles are generated, how services are described in agreements, and how exceptions are handled,” he says.
Support Coordination and Plan Management: Held Steady
Here’s the news your clients will want first. Support Coordination pricing hasn’t moved.
- Level 1 (Support Connection): $80.06 per hour
- Level 2 (Coordination of Supports): $100.14 per hour
- Level 3 (Specialist Support Coordination): $190.54 per hour
These rates have sat frozen since 2019, alongside a chunk of the therapy schedule. The Plan Management monthly fee holds too, at $104.45, unchanged for years running.
Don’t read the freeze as permanent comfort. The NDIA has flagged both pricing models for structural review — a commissioned panel approach for plan management, and possible commissioning models for support coordination itself. No timeline exists yet. Worth watching, not worth alarming a client over today.
Support Worker Rates: The 4.8% Increase
Where support coordination sits still, support worker pricing moves. The standard weekday rate for community participation and personal care rises from $70.23 to $73.58 per hour, a 4.8% increase.
The Fair Work Commission’s 2026 wage decision drives this, alongside superannuation climbing from 11.5% to 12%. Psychosocial Recovery Coach rates follow the same logic, up from $105.43 to $110.44 per hour, because their pricing tracks the same Disability Support Worker Cost Model.
Most participant plans will be indexed automatically to absorb the rise. Clients using self-managed or plan-managed arrangements with providers charging near the ceiling deserve a heads-up: hours may compress slightly if their budget doesn’t stretch to match.
Therapy Pricing: A Rebalance, Not a Rise
Last year brought a single national rate for therapy. This year brings a rebalance, benchmarked against Medicare and private health insurance rates rather than a blanket increase.
- Psychology: up from $232.99 to $252.99 per hour
- Dietetics: down from $188.99 to $178.99 per hour
- Exercise Physiology: down from $166.99 to $161.99 per hour
- Other Professionals: down to $156.16 per hour (Early Childhood supports excluded, holding at $193.99)
- Occupational Therapy, Speech Pathology, Physiotherapy, Podiatry, Audiology: unchanged
A new line item also appears this year for Orientation and Mobility Specialists, priced at $156.16 per hour, open to providers holding current OMAA registration.
The logic matters for how you brief clients. Psychology rose because the NDIA found it sitting below comparable market rates. Dietetics and Exercise Physiology fell because they sat above. None of it reflects service quality — it reflects where each profession landed against an external benchmark.
SIL Registration: The New 0138 Code
Supported Independent Living gets its own registration group this year. Services delivered before 1 July 2026 still run under the old 0115 code. Anything delivered from 1 July uses the new 0138 code instead.
Registration matters more than the code change alone suggests. Every SIL and NDIS digital platform provider must now hold NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission registration. Unregistered SIL providers already operating have until 1 October 2026 to apply.
If you coordinate for a client in shared living arrangements, check whether their provider has made the switch. Providing SIL without registration after 1 July carries real compliance risk for the provider, and real disruption risk for your client.
Claiming Rules Get Unbundled
This is the change most likely to generate confused invoices in your inbox. Previous years bundled travel, cancellations, non-face-to-face work, and report writing into a single service rate for many support types.
The 2026-27 Schedule pulls these apart. Every therapy discipline now runs six separate line items: direct service, cancellation, non-face-to-face time, provider travel, NDIA-requested reports, and telehealth. Provider travel sits at 50% of the hourly service rate.
For disability support workers, nursing, and support coordination providers, the claiming rules that used to spell out how travel and cancellations applied have simply been removed, with no replacement guidance published yet. Expect some provider confusion here through July while everyone catches up.
The short-notice cancellation window has also shifted, from 3 business days to 2, for supports outside the disability-support-worker category. Worth flagging to any client who’s had a provider quote the old timeframe.
Short Term Accommodation Restructured
STA, often called respite, no longer runs as a single bundled daily rate. The Schedule now separates participant accommodation, support worker accommodation, and support worker hours into distinct items, with accommodation priced at $162.85 per day nationally.
This should make STA invoices easier to audit line by line. It also means service agreements written against the old bundled structure need a second look before your client’s next respite booking.
What Support Coordinators Should Flag With Clients
Three groups deserve a proactive conversation rather than a wait-and-see approach:
Clients close to their hourly support budget, since the 4.8% support worker increase may compress remaining hours faster than expected. Clients using psychology, dietetics, or exercise physiology, since three of those five therapy categories just moved in different directions. Clients in SIL arrangements, since a registration gap on their provider’s end from 1 July creates a compliance problem that lands on the participant’s plan, not just the provider’s paperwork.
Action Steps
- Cross-check every service agreement referencing the old PAPL by name and update the terminology to Pricing Schedule.
- Confirm SIL providers on your caseload hold current NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission registration ahead of the 1 October 2026 deadline.
- Flag the psychology, dietetics, and exercise physiology rate changes with any client accessing those supports.
- Review STA bookings against the new unbundled accommodation and support-hour line items before the next respite stay.
- Bookmark the official NDIS pricing page and check it monthly — the NDIA has flagged more updates outside the standard July cycle this year.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does the new Pricing Schedule replace the PAPL permanently?
For 2026-27, yes. The NDIA published a Pricing Schedule instead of a PAPL this year, tied to a Bill before Parliament. Whether the format reverts depends on how that legislation lands.
Has Support Coordination pricing changed for 2026-27?
No. Levels 1, 2, and 3 hold at $80.06, $100.14, and $190.54 per hour, the same rates in place since 2019.
Why did support worker rates rise while support coordination stayed flat?
Support worker pricing tracks the SCHADS Award and superannuation directly, so it moves when those inputs move. Support coordination pricing doesn’t sit on the same cost model, which is part of why the NDIA has flagged it for a separate structural review.
Do self-managed participants need to follow the Pricing Schedule?
No. Self-managed participants can negotiate above the price limits with any provider. The Schedule still serves as a useful reference point for fair market rates.
Where can support coordinators verify a specific rate?
The official NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 sits on the NDIS pricing and payments page. Check the support item code directly rather than relying on a provider’s quoted figure.
Conclusion: Steady Rates, Shifting Structure
Support coordination pricing didn’t move this year. Almost everything around it did.
That gap between stable rates and shifting structure is where your value sits. Clients don’t need to memorise six new therapy line items or a SIL registration deadline. They need someone who already has.
If you’re a support coordinator referring a participant, make a referral and our team will work through their plan with you directly.
If you’re a participant, or a family member managing this on someone’s behalf, get in touch and we’ll walk you through what these changes mean for your specific plan.
Related Reading
Daniel G. Taylor has been writing about the NDIS for six years. His focus has been on mental health and psychosocial disabilities as he lives with bipolar disorder I. He’s been a freelance writer for 32 years and lives across the road from a surf beach. He’s the author of How to Master Bipolar Disorder for Life and a contributor to Mastering Bipolar Disorder (Allen & Unwin) and he’s a mental health speaker. In May 2026, he celebrated 25 years without a major manic or depressive episode.