2024 NDIS Changes – A Tumultuous Year in Review and What’s in Store for 2025?
When it comes to describing 2024, you might choose words like turbulent, unsettled and surprising. You might also use these words to describe the NDIS, with everything from shocking revelations about corrupt, greedy providers to a host of changes – some more expected than others.
With some of the most significant transformations in its history, 2024 proved a pivotal year for the NDIS. Driven by a comprehensive review, legislative amendments, and policy shifts, these changes aim to address systemic challenges, improve participant experiences, and ensure the scheme’s sustainability.
Here, we cover nine key things that shaped the NDIS in 2024 and explore what participants and providers can expect in 2025.
Change 1: The NDIS Review and its recommendations
The NDIS Review was the most extensive evaluation of the scheme since it was first legislated in 2013. Conducted to address rising costs and issues with the scheme people with disability were experiencing, the Review Report delivered 26 recommendations and 139 supporting actions. These included:
- a goal to develop a unified system of supports for people with disability, incorporating mainstream and foundational supports as well as NDIS supports.
- a greater focus on individualised planning processes to ensure participants receive supports tailored to their specific needs and goals.
- the introduction of ‘Navigators’, who will replace the existing support coordinator and local area coordinator roles and have a wide range of functions.
- a range of cost control measures designed to make the scheme financially sustainable.
- measures to strengthen provider oversight to improve service quality and reduce fraud.
These recommendations have set the foundation for many changes, influencing how the scheme operates and how participants engage with their supports.
Change 2: The new NDIS Act (effective October 3)
A landmark development in 2024 was the enactment of the new NDIS Act on October 3. This legislation updated the framework governing the scheme. The new Act includes a host of new NDIS Rules controlling how the scheme operates. They are designed to help restore the NDIS’s original purpose and improve the participant experience.
The Act includes numerous changes to the way participants access and use the scheme. It also gives the NDIA broader powers to request information and assessments, and to change the way plans are managed under some circumstances (e.g. if they believe you are not likely to spend your funds properly).
Change 3: Transitional support lists (published October 3)
As part of the new Act’s rollout, the NDIA introduced transitional support lists, including “supports in” and “supports out” categories. These lists clarify which supports are covered under the scheme and which are not.
Supports In
This list covers supports you can spend NDIS funding on. Under the new NDIS legislation, these must be supports that are directly related to the impairments that enabled you to access the scheme.
Most things people spend their NDIS funding are included on this list.
Supports Out
This list covers services and supports the NDIA have decided are outside the scope of NDIS funding.
The government is working with states and territories to create a final list.
Learn more about the new NDIS supports lists at What does NDIS fund?
New lists govern what you can and cannot spend NDIS funding on
Change 4: New claims and payment framework
To address inefficiencies and reduce delays, the NDIA has launched a new claims and payment framework. It provides greater clarity around when claims must be made.
Starting on October 3, 2025, claims must be made within two years of the support or service being provided.
The NDIA will continue to honour claims made for supports provided before the law was enacted for 12 months from October 3, 2024.
Change 5: Provider Registration Taskforce and changes to registration status
In response to Recommendation 17 form the NDIS Review Final Report, the government established the NDIS Provider and Worker Registration Taskforce in February 2024. The Taskforce released their advice on 2 August 2024, making 11 recommendations.
Among others, these recommendations included:
- A four-level registration system based on risk.
- Advanced registration – for providers offering high-risk supports and services in high-risk settings (e.g. daily living supports in group homes).
- General registration – for providers offering medium-risk supports (e.g. those that require additional skills or training or involve significant one-to-one contact with people with disability).
- Self-Directed Support registration – for participants and their guardians or legal representatives who directly contract their supports (e.g. through direct employment or via independent contractors).
- Basic registration – for providers offering lower-risk supports (e.g. supports that involve minimal one-to-one contact with people with disability).
- Requiring platform providers to be registered.
- Enhancing and confirming the obligations placed on providers as part of registration – with a focus on things like worker screening, Code of Conduct, performance measures and complaints procedures.
- Processes to ensure providers follow their obligations, such as provider verification, audits, and worker screening and suitability assessments.
- Recognition of practitioners who already hold professional registration.
Change 6: Cessation of ‘Intra-Plan Inflation’
Intra-Plan inflation occurs when an NDIS participant is encouraged to use all their funding early, with a view to getting additional funding within their plan timeframe.
It is a key driver of NDIS cost blowouts.
To help address this issue, plans under the new scheme will include a flexible budget built around findings from a support needs assessment. This assessment will be arranged through the NDIS.
Plans will include specific ‘funding periods’ with start and end dates. They will also prescribe how much of your total budget you can use during each period. Funding periods may differ in length but will be no longer than 12 months.
Unspent funds will be rolled over from one funding period to the next within the same plan.
The NDIS may consider adding funding to a plan under certain circumstances, such as a crisis or emergency situation.
Change 7: Updates to “Reasonable and Necessary Supports”
The new NDIS legislation includes additional criteria defining “reasonable and necessary supports”.
Under the new criteria, supports must be necessary to meet needs directly related to the impairment that met the requirements enabling you to access the scheme.
There has also been a change of wording. Previously, the criteria stated that supports must be ‘most appropriately funded or provided through the NDIS’. This has been replaced with ‘the support is an NDIS support for the participant’ – a change related to the new definition of what counts as an NDIS Support.
Change 8: Changes to Art Therapy and Music Therapys
Art and music therapy underwent significant policy changes in 2024. Funding for these therapies will no longer be available under therapeutic support. Instead, it will be accessible from the Core support category. The available funding for individual sessions has also dropped dramatically, from $193.99 per hour to $67.56 per hour.
This change lines up with the NDIA’s broader efforts to optimise NDIS resource allocation by prioritising therapies with a high level of evidence for their effectiveness.
While music and art therapy can have significant benefits for participants, these benefits are harder to quantify in terms of functional gains, the NDIA has said. They have also stressed that NDIS participants with more complex or individual needs will still be able to access art and music therapy as a stated support if they are considered to be clinically appropriate.
Change 9: Removal of Disability-Related Health Supports from Core
The 2024-25 Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits include a plan to gradually remove therapeutic Disability-Related Health Supports line items from Core.
Disability-Related Health Supports are supports the NDIS funds to enable participants to manage health conditions related to their disability, such as issue with continence, swallowing, nutrition and pressure care.
For a number of years, these items have been included under both Core and Capacity Building categories. As of June 30, 2025, however, they will fall exclusively under Capacity Building.
2024 saw significant changes to NDIS funding for art and music therapy
- occupational therapists
- physiotherapists
- dietitians
- podiatrists
- psychologists
- speech pathologists
- other professionals.
Codes covering provision of nursing care for disability-related health needs will stay under the Core category.
What’s in store for 2025?
As 2025 approaches, several developments will build on the changes introduced in 2024.
New early intervention pathway
The NDIA will design an early intervention pathway to support children under 9 with developmental delay or disability. This will include early intervention packages and a “lead practitioner” model.
Impairment notices
All new NDIS participants will receive an impairment notice on January 1, 2025. This notice will include details about whether the participant meets the disability or early intervention pathways. Current NDIS participants will get an impairment notice when they move onto a new plan.
Review of pricing for music and art supports
The NDIA has commissioned an independent review of suitable NDIS pricing for art and music supports, to be completed by July 2025.
The review will look at:
- evidence for the effectiveness of art and music therapy for people with disability
- the qualifications and registration of music and art practitioners
- the pricing of art and music supports.
Approach to market
The NDIA will release an approach to market to identify tools to understand the needs of NDIS participants. This will happen in the first half of 2025.
Assessment and budgeting reforms
The NDIA will work with the disability community to design and implement reforms to assessment and budgeting.
Active Ability – supporting you through the changes
At Active Ability, we were supporting people with disability even before the NDIS got started. And we’ll continue to do so – regardless of what happens with the NDIS.
We are monitoring the changes and will keep you up to date with how they might affect the services we provide. In the meantime, feel free to contact our friendly team on (02) 8678 7874, hello@activeability.com.au or via our contact form.
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