NDIS Changes in 2025: What You Need to Know and Why It Matters
What is going on with the NDIS?
We are seeing many changes from the NDIS this year and it has been quite confusing for participants. This includes:
• Participant plan funding is being “chunked” into 3-month blocks which is causing headaches for all participants and particularly those living in the regions.
• Pricing cuts to a range of services which will result in less services in rural towns.
• New section 10 support lists have reduced the supports participants can claim against.
• Plans are being indiscriminately cut, often without any consultation.
3 Month Funding Blocks
Instead of all funding being available upfront, it is being released every 3 months across a participant’s plan.
• This applies to new and reassessed plans implemented from 19 May 2025 onwards.
• Unused funds may roll over to the next period (within the same plan).
• Participants will not be able to access future funding periods early, even in cases where they overspend.
• There is an assumption that all participants know exactly what is in their 3 month budget.
Provider Pricing has been Cut
On June 11 the NDIS announced price changes for the next financial year. The new pricing fails to recognise the increasing financial pressures on regional and rural service providers. This is going to have a negative impact on service delivery in rural areas, with providers already cutting back on services. We desperately need an independent pricing mechanism.
While prices for supports delivered by disability support workers have increased by 3.95 per cent, this does not account for the entirety of increases providers are having to pay to keep staff. Other changes include cuts to prices for physiotherapy, psychology, dietetics and podiatry. In addition, therapists will now only be able to claim 50 per cent of the relevant hourly rate for travel time.
With regional and rural areas already suffering from a lack of Allied Health professionals, these cuts are a slap in the face to the most vulnerable and marginalised people living with disability in WA.
New Section 10 Support List
The new list aims to standardise and clarify entitlements. However, its rigidity and lack of flexibility undermines choice and control, and reasonable and necessary, two principles that the NDIS was supposed to follow.
The new list excludes supports tailored to individual needs, restricting participants' ability to access necessary services. We fear this may lead to adverse outcomes including hospitalisation. While we constantly hear about ‘codesign’ with people living with disability, the creation of these lists cannot have been the result of consultation with participants. It is time for the NDIS to include people living with disability in decision making!
Plans are Being Cut
Despite the NDIS assuring Advocacy WA that there is no policy or directive to cut plans at reassessment, our clients are saying otherwise. Advocacy WA has been surveying participants, and the results are conclusive:
If you have not yet completed our 10 second survey, please click on this link: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/8TJG8XS
We have experienced some success with requesting internal reviews when plans have been cut.
Let us know if you need help with this.
Stu Schonell
CEO Advocacy WA
