Most providers think a pricing change is something that happens to their invoicing software. Type in the new numbers, move on.
That is not what this one is.
From 1 July 2026 the way you build a Short Term Accommodation claim changes shape entirely. Providers who treat this as a number swap are going to be the ones rejecting claims in August and wondering what went wrong. Providers who understand the structure underneath the new rates are going to be the ones who roll through it without a flinch.
Here is what I need you to know.
The change in one line
The single bundled daily STA rate is gone.
From 1 July 2026 you no longer claim one figure for a 24 hour stay. You build the claim from parts. Support hours by day type and intensity. The sleepover. A separate accommodation day rate. Food and activities are no longer part of the item at all.
One line on the invoice becomes a stack of lines that reflects what actually happened on the roster.
What is confirmed and what is not
This is the part that catches people out, so I want to be precise about it.
The NDIA published the rates this year without the rulebook. The 2026 27 document is a Pricing Schedule. That means it is the rate tables only. There is no 2026 27 Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document in the old combined form, and the operational claiming rules that used to sit alongside the rates have been removed and not yet replaced.
Keep the two apart in your own advice and in your team’s understanding. Confirmed rates and confirmed structure is one thing. Operational process is another, and right now one of them has a gap in it.
Confirmed in the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule:
The bundled daily STA rate and the old staffing ratio items, 1:1 through 1:4, have been removed. STA support is now claimed hourly by day type, with a separate sleepover item and a separate accommodation day rate. There are Standard and High Intensity STA support items. The accommodation day rate sits at $162.85 nationally, the same rate as Medium Term Accommodation. Food and activities are no longer referenced in the STA item. STA stays in registration group 0115. It did not move to the new SIL group 0138. All of this is effective 1 July 2026.
Not in the schedule, and not yet confirmed:
The operational claiming rules. Non face to face time, provider travel, short notice cancellations, and NDIA requested reports for STA. How support is apportioned when one worker supports more than one participant in a shared respite setting. Whether any STA specific meal or food mechanism is intended to survive. Whether and when the NDIA releases a rules addendum to fill these gaps. There is no confirmed timeline on that.
Standing rules that have not changed:
The NDIS does not fund everyday food. That position sits in the reasonable and necessary framework and the support lists, not in the schedule, and it was never going to move. Changes to an existing service agreement must be discussed with the participant, and the participant must agree before the change applies. That has not shifted either.
The old model versus the new model
| Old STA model | New STA model from 1 July 2026 |
|---|---|
| One bundled daily rate covering accommodation, food, utilities and support. | Components claimed separately. Support hours, sleepover, and accommodation. |
| Priced on a staffing ratio, 1:1 through 1:4. | Support claimed hourly at the same rates as standard support work, by day type. |
| Food and activities built into the package price. | Food and activities no longer referenced. Food reverts to the participant. |
| One line on the invoice. | A stack of lines that reflects the actual roster and the nights involved. |
New STA line items and rates
All rates below are from the 2026 27 Pricing Schedule and apply from 1 July 2026. They are recommended maximum prices. The three columns are the National, Remote and Very Remote price limits.
Standard STA support, Schedule 1
| Item number | Support item | Unit | National | Remote | Very remote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01_200_0115_1_1 | Weekday daytime | Hour | $73.58 | $103.01 | $110.37 |
| 01_201_0115_1_1 | Weekday evening | Hour | $81.07 | $113.50 | $121.61 |
| 01_205_0115_1_1 | Weekday night | Hour | $82.57 | $115.60 | $123.86 |
| 01_202_0115_1_1 | Saturday | Hour | $103.54 | $144.96 | $155.31 |
| 01_203_0115_1_1 | Sunday | Hour | $133.50 | $186.90 | $200.25 |
| 01_204_0115_1_1 | Public holiday | Hour | $163.46 | $228.84 | $245.19 |
| 01_206_0115_1_1 | Sleepover | Each | $311.79 | $436.51 | $467.69 |
High Intensity STA support, Schedule 1
Use these where the participant meets the high intensity support criteria. There is no separate high intensity sleepover item. The sleepover above is the single sleepover item for STA, full stop.
| Item number | Support item | Unit | National | Remote | Very remote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01_252_0115_1_1 | Weekday daytime | Hour | $79.60 | $111.44 | $119.40 |
| 01_253_0115_1_1 | Weekday evening | Hour | $87.70 | $122.78 | $131.55 |
| 01_254_0115_1_1 | Weekday night | Hour | $89.32 | $125.05 | $133.98 |
| 01_255_0115_1_1 | Saturday | Hour | $112.01 | $156.81 | $168.02 |
| 01_256_0115_1_1 | Sunday | Hour | $144.42 | $202.19 | $216.63 |
| 01_257_0115_1_1 | Public holiday | Hour | $176.84 | $247.58 | $265.26 |
Accommodation, Schedule 2
Accommodation is now its own daily item, claimed once per day of the stay. The support worker accommodation item covers the worker’s overnight stay where that applies.
| Item number | Support item | Unit | National | Remote | Very remote |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 01_250_0115_1_1 | Participant accommodation | Day | $162.85 | $227.99 | $244.28 |
| 01_251_0115_1_1 | Support worker accommodation | Day | $162.85 | $227.99 | $244.28 |
How to read the new rates
Two things are worth pointing out so the numbers make sense to you and your team, not just to a spreadsheet.
The Standard STA support rates are the same as standard support work rates, dollar for dollar, by day type. Weekday daytime sits at $73.58, identical to standard assistance. STA support is now priced as support work. It is not a special bundle anymore, and your pricing logic should reflect that plainly.
The accommodation day rate of $162.85 is identical to Medium Term Accommodation. MTA has always been a roof only, never board or food. That tells you exactly what the STA accommodation component is for. Accommodation. Not meals.
Price breakdown. A worked example
This shows how a 24 hour weekday stay assembles under the new model. It is illustrative. The real figure depends on the actual roster, the support ratio, and whether the overnight is billed as a sleepover or as active night hours. Standard intensity, National prices, one participant, 1:1 support.
| Component | Calculation | Amount |
|---|---|---|
| Participant accommodation (01_250) | 1 day x $162.85 | $162.85 |
| Weekday daytime support (01_200), 6am to 8pm | 14 hr x $73.58 | $1,030.12 |
| Weekday evening support (01_201), 8pm to 10pm | 2 hr x $81.07 | $162.14 |
| Sleepover (01_206), 10pm to 6am | 1 x $311.79 | $311.79 |
| Illustrative total for the 24 hours | $1,666.90 |
Do not compare this straight against the old bundled rate of roughly $1,900. They are not the same thing. The old figure carried food and was priced on a staffing ratio. The new total reflects only the support delivered plus the accommodation, with food handled separately.
Food and everyday living costs
Food has come out of STA, and it does not get claimed back somewhere else. The NDIS does not fund everyday food. It never has.
The old bundle was the one place food slipped through, because it sat inside the package price where nobody had to itemise it. That package is gone. Food goes back to where it sits for everyone else in the scheme. The participant pays for it.
There are two clean ways to handle it. The participant covers their own food, and nothing gets invoiced or claimed. Or you provide the food and recover what it costs you as a private charge, not an NDIS claim. Put it in the service agreement, list it as a separate line, charge it at cost, and do not claim anything food related against the plan on top of that.
This is the one people don’t like to hear, and it’s true. The trap is double dipping. Charging the participant for food while also claiming a food component against the NDIS for the same stay. Don’t do it.
Shared and group respite
The old ratio items handled shared support, where one worker supports more than one participant. Those items have been removed and support is now hourly.
For a 1:1 stay this is simple. You claim the hours. For a shared arrangement, the method for splitting one worker’s hours across several participants is not set out in the schedule. That was an operational rule, and it sits in the part that has been stripped out for now.
Until the NDIA clarifies it, document a conservative apportionment method, keep your reasoning on file, and be ready to adjust when guidance lands. That is not a workaround. That is what a provider with a real system does while waiting on a regulator.
A note on the name
The NDIA briefly rebranded STA as Short Term Respite, or STR, during 2025 26. The 2026 27 schedule uses Short Term Accommodation, STA. Plans, service agreements and provider material may still carry either name. Treat them as the same support.
What to do now
Stop using the old bundled and ratio STA item numbers. They no longer exist in the schedule.
Rebuild your STA pricing as components. Support hours by day type and intensity, the sleepover, and the accommodation day rate.
Update your billing and practice software to the new item numbers before 1 July 2026, so claims do not reject.
Take food out of your STA pricing. Decide how food is handled, either participant self funded or a private at cost charge in the service agreement, and never claim it against the plan as well.
For shared or group respite, document a conservative apportionment method and note it is pending NDIA clarification.
Revise your STA service agreements and talk to current participants before their next booking. Agreed changes need participant agreement before they apply.
Watch the NDIA pricing page for any rules addendum, and act on the confirmed structure now. Don’t wait on a document that has no release date.
A pricing change like this is not a threat to providers who built their pricing on what was actually delivered. It is a correction for the providers who were leaning on a bundle to cover gaps in their own systems. If your STA pricing was always built around real support hours and real accommodation nights, this change confirms what you were already doing. If it was not, now is the moment to fix it, properly, before the claims start bouncing.
Sources
NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026 27, effective 1 July 2026 (NDIA). Published on the NDIS pricing updates page: ndis.gov.au/providers/pricing-and-payments/pricing/pricing-updates
NDIS reasonable and necessary framework and operational guidance on everyday living costs, for the position that the NDIS does not fund food. Confirm against the current operational guidelines on ndis.gov.au.