NDIS funding safeguards for people with high support needs | Supports | Budgets | Choice and control | NDIS
| NDIS Fund Management | Policy and Advocacy | News | Know your rights
| Text only
| Supports | Budgets | Choice and control | NDIS
| NDIS Fund Management | Policy and Advocacy | News | Know your rights
| Text only
The Government has announced a way for some NDIS participants to ask for extra funding after planned funding cuts. This explainer sets out who can apply, the deadline, and what the safeguard covers.
What is changing
From 1 October 2026, funding changes will gradually apply over 12 months as plans are created, reassessed, or renewed. They affect social, economic and community participation supports, and improved daily living skills supports. Some supports within these categories are excluded from the cuts.
Who can apply
You must meet all three conditions before the funding cut:
- You receive NDIS-funded support throughout the day and night for needs arising from the impairments you access the NDIS for.
- Your support is funded at a level of at least one worker for every three participants. More intensive support, such as one-to-one support, also counts.
- You have at least $215,030 in combined funding across Assistance with Daily Life, Home and Living, and Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation.
Your 24-hour support can include a mix of shared support, individual support, and overnight assistance.
Meeting these conditions does not guarantee extra funding. You must also show that your remaining funding cannot safely maintain your 24-hour support at the support ratios you need.
When and how to apply
You or your nominee must ask the NDIA for a plan variation through this pathway. A plan variation means a change to your existing plan. A support worker, advocate, nominee, or another person can help you apply.
Apply within 90 days of the funding cut being applied to your plan. The NDIA can extend this deadline in exceptional circumstances. The NDIA cannot start this special process for you, so protection is not automatic.
What extra funding can cover
The NDIA may add the amount it decides is needed to safely maintain your 24-hour support. It cannot add more than the amount that was cut.
- Extra funding can be added to assistance with daily living and home and living supports.
- It cannot be added back to community participation or improved daily living skills through this pathway.
This means the safeguard does not necessarily restore your previous funding or protect your existing level of community participation.
Decisions and review rights
The NDIA must decide whether you meet the high support needs definition within 21 days or tell you it needs more time. If you qualify, it has a further 21 days to approve or refuse the variation, or tell you it needs more time.
You can ask for a review if you disagree with a decision about whether you qualify or whether your plan variation is approved.
If you do not qualify
You can still request a plan variation or an unscheduled reassessment where there have been significant and ongoing changes in your functional capacity, support needs, or circumstances.
But this does not close the gap for people whose needs remain the same while their funding is cut.
Our concern about unpaid family support
Self Manager Hub is concerned that people who need support 24 hours a day, but rely on family members to provide much of it unpaid, can be left out of this special safeguard.
Under the published rules, having 24-hour support needs is not enough. You must already receive 24-hour NDIS-funded support and meet the funding threshold.
A person’s needs do not become smaller because a parent, partner, or sibling is doing more. Cutting funded support risks putting even more pressure on people with disability and our families.
What needs to change
We need safeguards based on the support a person actually needs, including the unpaid support provided by family. They must recognise how people who self-manage or self-direct their supports organise their lives.
Our families’ contribution must not become a reason to leave us out. Safeguards must protect our safety, choice and control, and our ability to participate in community life.
Source: Australian Government, Funding changes for NDIS supports: Safeguards for high support needs participants, September 2026.