NDIS Changes on 1 October 2026: The Deadlines That Bite

Key Takeaways

• 1 October 2026 is the application cut-off for SIL and NDIS digital platform providers. Mandatory registration commenced 1 July 2026. A provider still unregistered who has not lodged an application by 1 October 2026 must stop providing those supports.
• Delivering supported independent living without registration on or after 1 July 2026 is a serious offence: the maximum penalty is 2 years' imprisonment, 120 penalty units, or both.
• 30 September 2026 is a separate, harder cliff. The myID and RAM transition ends and PRODA is removed from the NDIS Commission portal. Providers who have not completed setup lose access to registration management, incident reporting, complaints and audit documentation.
• The budget resets still need an instrument. Cutting social, civic and community participation budgets by 50 per cent and capacity-building daily activities by 10 per cent requires the Minister to make a "support determination", and no support determination has been made.
• The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill is now law. It passed the House on 2 July 2026, passed the Senate on 18 August 2026 with 32 government amendments, and the House agreed those amendments on 19 August 2026. It received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026 as Act No. 66 of 2026. Under the Act, the support determination power commences 1 October 2026, so the instrument cannot even be made before that day.
• If the resets proceed, they apply progressively as each plan is renewed or reassessed over a 12-month period, not to every participant on day one, and they do not touch critical supports (supports in employment, in-home daily living, home and vehicle modifications, mobility equipment, continence consumables, and Specialist Disability Accommodation).
• Thriving Kids state-delivered services also begin rolling out from 1 October 2026, reaching full scale by 1 January 2028.

Three things land on or around 1 October 2026 for NDIS providers, and only two of them are certain. The SIL and platform registration application deadline (1 October) and the myID and RAM portal lockout (30 September) are in force now. The 50 per cent budget reset no longer depends on a Bill, because the Bill received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026, but it does depend on a support determination the Minister has not yet made and cannot make before 1 October.

What is the 1 October 2026 SIL registration deadline?

This is the deadline most likely to shut a business down, and it is the least discussed.

Mandatory registration for supported independent living (SIL) and NDIS digital platform providers commenced on 1 July 2026. Two new classes of support were added to the Provider Registration Rules to make it work: 0138 (assistance with supported independent living) and 0137 (providing an NDIS digital platform service).

The part that catches people is the transitional arrangement. Providers were not required to be fully registered on 1 July. They were required to be in the system. The NDIS Commission's transitional pathways set a hard cut-off: a provider who has not applied for registration by 1 October 2026 must stop providing supported independent living supports. The same cut-off applies to platform providers.

And the exposure is criminal, not just commercial. The Commission states plainly that providing supported independent living without registration on or after 1 July 2026 may breach the NDIS Act, with a maximum penalty of 2 years' imprisonment, a fine of 120 penalty units, or both.

If you deliver SIL and have not lodged an application, that is the single most urgent item in your compliance register right now. Our SIL mandatory registration checklist covers who is captured by the definition and what a certification audit involves.

Am I actually a SIL or platform provider?

Worth checking rather than assuming, because both definitions are narrower than people expect.

SIL is a package of home and living support for people with higher support needs. The Commission's test is that the person requires support at all times of the day or for most of the day, and that the assistance helps them live in their home as autonomously as possible by assisting with or supervising daily life tasks, with the provider managing and delivering the package.

It is not SIL if a person only receives a few hours of support a day or a week, or if the person chooses and manages their own support workers, including directing, planning and rostering them.

An NDIS digital platform is an online application, website or system that acts as an intermediary between participants seeking supports and the people providing them, where payments are processed through the platform using funds from participants' plans. It only counts if its main purpose is connecting participants with supports from their plan.

Note also that mandatory registration for support coordination has been paused while the Commission considers further reform. If you were preparing for that, it is not coming on this timetable.

What happens on 30 September 2026 with myID and RAM?

The day before the SIL deadline, a different door closes.

PRODA is being retired as the login method for NDIS systems in favour of the Australian Government Digital ID, using the myID app and Relationship Authorisation Manager (RAM). The myplace provider portal already moved: PRODA stopped working there on 10 November 2025. The NDIS Commission portal is the remaining piece, and its transition period ends on 30 September 2026.

After that, a provider without myID and RAM set up loses portal access to registration management, incident reporting, complaints handling and audit documentation. For a registered provider these are not optional functions. Reportable incidents have statutory deadlines, and missing one because nobody could log in is not a defence anyone wants to run.

The setup has a trap worth planning around: the principal authority who links the business in RAM needs Strong identity strength, while staff need at least Standard. Strong identity verification takes longer than people expect, so this is not a task to start on 29 September. Our guide on how to set up myID and RAM for the NDIS walks the procedure.

Are the NDIS budget cuts actually happening on 1 October 2026?

This is the question providers are asking, and the honest answer is: the law is now in place, but the instrument that would do the cutting is not.

The Government's stated intention, published on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's Securing the NDIS page, is that from 1 October 2026 participant budgets will be reset so that spending returns on average to 2023 levels. Allocations for social, civic and community participation supports would be reduced by 50 per cent, and capacity-building daily activity allocations by 10 per cent.

The mechanism matters. The Department explains that the reduction would be delivered through a "support determination", a power that lets the Minister reduce funding for particular types of supports in plans. That power is created by the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, Act No. 66 of 2026, and Schedule 1 Part 4 of that Act commences on 1 October 2026, so the power does not exist before that day. Even then it does nothing on its own: a support determination is a legislative instrument that has to be made and registered, and none has been. The Department is explicit that the Government "plans to use" the power, which is the language of intention, not of an instrument in force.

Two further limits are easy to miss. The support determination can only apply to old framework plans, which is what participants have now; everyone transitions to new framework plans progressively between 1 April 2027 and 31 December 2030. And the reset would apply progressively, as each plan comes up for renewal or reassessment across a 12-month period, so it does not hit every participant on 1 October.

Critical supports are excluded. The Department lists supports in employment, in-home daily living supports (help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry, cleaning, community nursing, medication), home and vehicle modifications, personal mobility equipment and transport, continence and menstruation consumables, and Specialist Disability Accommodation.

For the full 2026 to 2030 reform roadmap and what each stage means commercially, see our Securing the NDIS Bill provider timeline. This post does not re-tell it.

Where is the Bill up to right now?

It is finished. Track the instrument instead, because that is what the budget resets now hang off.

According to the Parliament of Australia bill record, the Bill was introduced and read a first time on 14 May 2026, and the third reading was agreed to in the House of Representatives on 2 July 2026. It was introduced to the Senate on 12 August 2026, and the third reading was agreed to there on 18 August 2026, after 32 government amendments were made in the Committee of the Whole.

It was referred to the Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee on 14 May 2026. That committee delivered an interim report on 23 June 2026 and tabled its final report on 14 August 2026, with a single recommendation: that the Bill be passed. The House of Representatives agreed to the Senate amendments on 19 August 2026, which is the day the bill page records as finally passed both Houses, and Royal Assent followed on 20 August 2026. It is now Act No. 66 of 2026, registered on the Federal Register of Legislation as C2026A00066, status In force, and the department confirmed passage in its news item the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill 2026 has passed Parliament.

Assent does not, on its own, reset a single budget. The support determination power in Schedule 1 Part 4 commences 1 October 2026, and a determination then has to be made and registered as a legislative instrument before any plan changes. That is the thing to watch on the Register.

Some other changes in the Act were pegged to assent rather than to a calendar date, and those dates are now published in column 3 of the clause 2 commencement table. Tighter criteria for unscheduled plan reassessments, and a duty on providers to keep records relating to a claim for seven years from the day the claim is made (participants and plan managers keep theirs for three years), carrying a civil penalty of 120 penalty units, both commence on 27 August 2026, the seventh day after assent.

The dates at a glance

What should a provider do between now and October?

Sequence the certain things first. The contingent ones do not need action yet, they need watching.

1. If you deliver SIL or run a platform, lodge your registration application immediately. Not by 1 October, now. A certification audit takes time to arrange, and the deadline is for lodging the application, not for finishing the process. Use our NDIS audit cost calculator to scope what the audit will involve.
2. Complete myID and RAM setup before 30 September, starting with the principal authority, who needs Strong identity strength. Do not leave this to the last fortnight.
3. Model your exposure to the budget reset without acting on it yet. Work out what share of your revenue comes from social and community participation and from capacity-building daily activities. If a material share of your book sits there, you need a plan, and the window to make it is now shorter: the Act is in force and the power switches on 1 October 2026.
4. Review your service agreements so that scope can be reset when a participant's plan is reassessed, without that being a breach. This is the practical protection against a mid-agreement budget change. Our service agreement requirements checklist covers what must be in there.
5. Watch the Federal Register of Legislation for a support determination. Assent has happened, so the bill page for r7487 has nothing left to tell you. The instrument made under s 34A is the next real signal, and it cannot appear before 1 October 2026.
6. Do not tell participants their budgets are being cut on 1 October. They are not, yet. The Act being in force is not a determination. Communicate what is confirmed, flag what is proposed, and revisit when an instrument is registered.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the NDIS deadline on 1 October 2026?

It is the application cut-off for mandatory registration of supported independent living (SIL) and NDIS digital platform providers. Mandatory registration commenced on 1 July 2026, and a provider who has not lodged a registration application by 1 October 2026 must stop providing those supports. Delivering SIL unregistered risks up to 2 years' imprisonment, 120 penalty units, or both.

Are NDIS budgets really being cut by 50 per cent in October 2026?

That is the Government's stated plan, and the law behind it is now in place, but the cut itself has not been made. The 50 per cent reduction to social, civic and community participation budgets (and 10 per cent to capacity-building daily activities) requires the Minister to make a "support determination" under new s 34A. The Securing the NDIS for Future Generations Bill received Royal Assent on 20 August 2026 as Act No. 66 of 2026, and the s 34A power commences 1 October 2026. No support determination has been made, so no participant budget has changed.

When will I know whether the budget resets are going ahead?

When a support determination is registered on the Federal Register of Legislation. The parliamentary steps are done: the House agreed the Senate amendments on 19 August 2026 and Royal Assent followed on 20 August 2026. The remaining step is the instrument, which cannot be made before the s 34A power commences on 1 October 2026, so keep describing the reset as proposed rather than scheduled until one appears.

What happens if I miss the 30 September 2026 myID deadline?

You lose access to the NDIS Commission portal, which means losing access to registration management, incident reporting, complaints and audit documentation. Reportable incidents carry statutory deadlines that do not pause because you cannot log in. Start with the principal authority, who requires Strong identity strength in myID, as that verification takes the longest.

Does the budget reset affect every participant on 1 October?

No. Even if a support determination is made, the reset applies progressively as each participant's plan comes up for renewal or reassessment across a 12-month period. It also applies only to old framework plans, and it excludes critical supports such as in-home daily living assistance, supports in employment, home and vehicle modifications, mobility equipment and Specialist Disability Accommodation.

Is support coordination still becoming a registered-only support?

No, that reform is paused. The NDIS Commission identified support coordination as an area for mandatory registration but has paused it while considering further reform. The 1 July 2026 commencement and the 1 October 2026 application deadline apply to supported independent living and NDIS digital platforms only.