NDIS price limits now have legislative effect under a ministerial determination. The maximums do not apply to self-managed participants

This is general information about what the instruments say, not advice about any participant’s plan or any provider’s prices.

What changed, and when

The power came first. Schedule 3 Part 1 of the Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Act, headed Decision-making on pricing, inserted section 45C and commenced on The seventh day after this Act receives the Royal Assent, which was 27 August 2026. Subsection 45C(1): The Minister may, by legislative instrument, determine the maximum amount, or the method for determining the maximum amount, for the acquisition or provision of an NDIS support or class of NDIS supports. The Department’s September timeline lists, under 27 August, The Minister for Disability and the NDIS becomes the decision‑maker on NDIS pricing.

The first use of it followed three weeks later. The explanatory statement to the National Disability Insurance Scheme (Pricing Arrangements) Determination 2026 says: This is the first Determination to be made under subsection 45C(1) since the commencement of the Amending Act. It commences, in its own words, on The day after this instrument is registered. The Register shows it registered on 23 September, and its data interface shows a companion instrument, which starts immediately after it, changing the text it amends from 24 September.

1. 1 July 2026The 2026-27 price limits apply. A June amendment, made by Jenny McAllister as Minister for the National Disability Insurance Scheme, names the document titled Pricing Schedule as a pricing document for old framework plans.
2. 27 August 2026Section 45C commences, the seventh day after Royal Assent on 20 August.
3. 16 September 2026Mark Butler, Minister for Disability and the National Disability Insurance Scheme, makes the Pricing Arrangements Determination and the companion old framework amendment.
4. 23 September 2026Both are registered on the Federal Register of Legislation (F2026L01268 and F2026L01269).
5. 24 September 2026The determination commences, the day after registration. The old framework amendment follows immediately after.
6. 30 September 2026The Department’s consultation on Expanding differentiated pricing for unregistered providers concludes. A consultation, not a decision.

Dates from the Act’s commencement table, the two instruments and their Register entries, the Old Framework Plans compilation and version list, and the Department’s September 2026 timeline. All listed under Primary sources.

How a price limit now gets its force

The determination itself is short. Its operative provision is one subsection, 5(1): the maximum amount for a support is the amount specified for the NDIS support or class of NDIS supports in an NDIS pricing document, or the amount worked out by a method the document specifies. Section 4 defines an NDIS pricing document as either of the two schedules published on the National Disability Insurance Agency’s website, as in force or existing from time to time. The explanatory statement gives the Specialist Disability Accommodation schedule as the example of a method: it applies a location factor to a base price.

1. The ActSection 45C(1): the Minister may determine the maximum amount, or the method for working it out.
2. The determinationF2026L01268, section 5(1): the maximum is the amount, or the result of the method, in an NDIS pricing document.
3. The documentsNDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 and the SDA Pricing Schedule 2026-27, on the NDIA’s website, as in force or existing from time to time.
4. The limitThe figure for a support item in those documents, which may vary with, for example, complexity, location or mode of delivery.

Two features of the Act shape what that means. The documents are not themselves legislative instruments: where a determination adopts a document created for that purpose, subsection 45C(12) says the instrument or other writing is not a legislative instrument, and the Minister must ensure it is published on the Agency’s website. And because the adoption is as in force or existing from time to time, the explanatory statement says the documents can change without a new determination: this is necessary to allow incorporated documents to be updated at short notice to respond to changes in market conditions, such as a Fair Work Commission decision on wages.

Who it binds, and who it does not

Subsection 45C(2) limits where a determination applies. It does not apply to a support under a participant’s plan unless the funding for the support or class of supports is managed by a registered plan management provider or the Agency.

Agency-managed

Maximums apply

s 45C(2)(b)

Plan-managed by a registered plan management provider

Maximums apply

s 45C(2)(a)

Self-managed

Maximums do not apply

Explanatory statement

A maximum is a ceiling, not an entitlement. The explanatory statement says so in terms:

The maximum amount is a limit on the amount that may be charged and paid from NDIS funding in the circumstances in which the determination applies; it is not an amount that a provider is automatically entitled to charge or receive. Providers and participants may agree to a lower amount.

It also sets out what the determination does not touch. It is not relevant to whether a participant is eligible for the NDIS, what supports are reasonable and necessary, or whether a particular support may be purchased using that funding, and a maximum amount does not guarantee that the participant’s plan contains sufficient funding to acquire a particular quantity of the support.

What happens to a claim above the limit

Where the determination applies, the Act now carries the consequences directly, in subsections 45C(3) to (7):

1. The providers 45C(7): An NDIS provider must not charge more than the maximum amount where the determination applies.
2. The Agencys 45C(3): it must not pay an amount that exceeds the maximum. s 45C(5): for a claim above it, the Agency may refuse to pay, or pay the maximum.
3. The excesss 45C(6): no one is entitled to be paid the part above the maximum, and the Act’s note says that part is a debt due to the Agency.
4. The exceptions 45C(4): a determination may prescribe circumstances in which the bar on payment does not apply. This one prescribes none.

The Act’s own note to subsection 45C(5) adds that a refusal does not, by itself, prevent a person from making a subsequent claim for the acquisition or provision of the support that does not exceed the maximum amount. Subsection 45C(8) lets a determination require processes before a support is bought, with the example of requiring a particular number of quotes; this first determination does not use that power.

One more connection. Section 45C is one of four provisions listed in new subsection 59C(1), which means the Agency’s chief executive may, in writing, arrange for the use, under the CEO’s oversight, of computer programs to take administrative action under it. We have not seen any such arrangement and make no claim that one exists.

Old framework plans now point at the same documents

The companion instrument matters to anyone on an old framework plan. The Old Framework Plans Determination 2024, its explanatory statement says, specifies a method for calculating the funding component amounts to be allocated in a participant’s plan, and that method uses the prices in its pricing documents. The amendment made on 16 September changes which documents those are.

Left column from Compilation No. 1 of the Old Framework Plans Determination 2024 (F2026C00852, compilation date 1 July 2026), paraphrased except where quoted. Right column from Schedule 1 of F2026L01269. The start date of the new text is from the Register’s version list for the 2024 Determination.

The explanatory statement says the change means the 2024 Determination does not need to be updated every time new documents are incorporated into a section 45C instrument, and that the Code Guide is now the sole document that deals with what items are and are not subject to a quote when developing a participant’s old framework plan. It also says the amendment does not introduce new pricing arrangements, pricing methodologies, or policy settings.

How long this matters: the Department’s timeline says participants start to transition to new framework planning on 1 April 2027, and that the transition period ends on 31 December 2030.

If you search the Register for the companion instrument, the name differs inside it. Its cover and page footers say (Pricing Documents No. 2); its section 1, which sets the name, and the Register say National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Old Framework Plans) (Incorporation of Pricing Documents) Determination 2026.

What the Act requires next

Making the determination switched on duties that run past 24 September.

From section 45C and section 34B of the NDIS Act as inserted by Act No. 66 of 2026, the explanatory statement to F2026L01268, the Register’s title data and ParlInfo, each checked on 7 October 2026.

The tabled advice is the part a reader can use. The explanatory statement says the advice the Minister considered included the Annual Pricing Review (APR) for the 2026-27 prices report and advice on Specialist Disability Accommodation prices, that The Agency made 19 recommendations as part of the APR for 2026-27, and that the review’s consultation received 3,243 responses. A tabled summary would show what the Agency advised the Minister directly. We will look for it and report what it says.

On section 34B, a special rule applies this once. Item 9 of Schedule 3 to the amending Act says that where the first section 34B determination relates to the first section 45C determination, the Minister sets the indexation factor by reference to what the Minister, on the advice of the Agency, considers appropriate in all the circumstances, instead of by whether the maximum went up.

Our view

This is opinion, built on the documents above. For providers who bill Agency-managed or plan-managed participants, the determination did not set new numbers on 24 September; the explanatory statement says the determination gives legislative effect to the price limits applying from 1 July 2026. What moved is the footing: a duty on providers in the Act itself, and an excess that the Act’s note calls a debt. The same numbers now carry consequences written into the Act, and that clarity is a gain for participants and providers alike.

The trade is in the incorporation. Because the schedules are adopted as in force or existing from time to time and are not legislative instruments, the figures can change without a new determination. The Act ties the tabling of the Agency’s advice to the Minister making a determination, and disallowance attaches to the determination too. The Act does not say whether an update to the schedules, with no new determination, brings either into play. The explanatory statement’s reason, moving quickly on wage decisions, is a good one. But the Parliament’s view of NDIS prices may then come once a year, when the determination is remade, rather than each time the numbers change. That is worth watching from the first mid-year update.

What we could and could not check

The two schedules sit on the NDIA’s website, which returns a bot verification page to automated requests, a constraint we have recorded since August 2026 and do not try to get around. So we have not read the 2026-27 schedules for this story and quote no prices from them. Everything above is from the instruments, their explanatory statements, the Act and the Department’s pages.

We have not yet found the tabled summary of the Agency’s advice. A search of the Parliament’s ParlInfo database on 7 October for the determination’s name returned no results. That is not proof it has not been tabled: the database can lag, and we have not established how many sitting days have passed since 16 September.

Our earlier piece on the Pricing Schedule replacing the PAPL described this power while it was still in the Bill. The full commencement timetable is in every date the Act changes.