The new NDIS Pricing Schedule is effective 1 July 2026.
This is the document that sets the maximum rates for every support you deliver under the NDIS. It determines what you can claim, what you can bill, and what you can legitimately put in a service agreement. If your agreements, your billing system, and your rostering do not reflect these rates before 1 July, you are either leaving money on the table or putting yourself at risk of non-compliance. Neither is acceptable.
Here is what changed. Here is what stayed the same. And here are the three things you need to do before the financial year turns over.
Support Worker Rates Have Moved
The most significant change for most providers is in Schedule 1.
The standard weekday daytime rate for a Level 1 support worker has moved from $70.23 to $73.58 per hour nationally. That is an increase of approximately 4.77%. It is the largest single year movement in several years, and it flows through every shift category.
Weekday evenings are now $81.07. Saturdays sit at $103.54. Sundays move to $133.50. Public holidays are $163.46. Weekday nights land at $82.57.
The sleepover rate has moved to $311.79 nationally.
High intensity supports under Level 2 have also shifted. Weekday daytime for high intensity now sits at $79.60, with weeknight rates at $89.32 and Sunday rates reaching $144.42. If you are delivering intensive and complex behaviour supports, those rates move in parallel.
Level 3 items, which include capacity building, tenancy assistance, and life transition planning, now sit at $83.87 per hour nationally.
Psychosocial Recovery Coaching under Level 4 has moved to $110.44 for weekday daytime, with Sunday rates reaching $200.39.
These are not minor adjustments. A provider running 20 support workers across a standard five day roster is looking at a meaningful shift in both revenue ceiling and wage cost. Run the numbers for your specific roster before 1 July. Do not assume the increase covers your cost uplift without modelling it properly.
Psychologist and Behaviour Support Rates Have Had a Significant Jump
This one deserves its own section because the movement is larger than standard indexation.
Both psychologist and specialist behaviour support rates have increased by $20 per hour. They now sit at $252.99 per hour nationally for direct service delivery, with remote rates at $354.19 and very remote at $379.49.
This is a deliberate pricing adjustment. The NDIA has signalled clearly that these disciplines carry a different cost structure and skill requirement than standard allied health. If you are a psychology or behaviour support practice, or if you engage these professionals as part of your delivery model, your agreements and claims need to reflect these new limits from 1 July.
Therapy Rates Are Largely Unchanged
Most allied health disciplines have held steady from 2025-26.
Occupational therapy, speech pathology, physiotherapy, social work, and developmental education remain at $193.99 per hour nationally for direct service.
Physiotherapy sits at $183.99. Podiatry at $188.99. Dietitian services at $178.99. Exercise physiology at $161.99.
Art therapy and music therapy remain at $156.16 per hour. Those rates reflect the adjustment that was implemented in November 2025 and have not moved from that point.
If you are in an allied health practice delivering multiple disciplines, the stability in rates means your agreements may not need widespread revision. But any changes to support worker rates in a mixed delivery model still need to be addressed.
Support Coordination Is Frozen. Again.
The 2026-27 Pricing Schedule is the NDIA’s guidance on what it considers appropriate and reasonable maximum prices for all NDIS supports. For support coordination, that guidance continues to fail the people delivering it.
Level 2 Support Coordination remains at $100.14 per hour nationally. Level 3 Specialist Support Coordination holds at $190.54.
That is six consecutive years with no movement at Level 2.
Six years.
In the same period, SCHADS Award wage rates have increased materially. Insurance costs have gone up. Administrative overheads have grown. The complexity of cases and the documentation burden have increased. And the ceiling has not moved.
If you are running a support coordination practice, you are not imagining the squeeze. The margin compression is real and it is structural. The pricing freeze does not mean your cost base has stayed flat. It means the gap between what you can claim and what it actually costs to deliver a quality service has widened every single year since 2020.
Plan management also remains at $104.45 per month. No change.
What the Sleepover Rate Means for Your Payroll Right Now
The sleepover rate has moved to $311.79 nationally. For SIL and STA providers, this is the number that needs to be in your service agreements from 1 July.
But the claim rate is only one side of the equation.
What you can claim and what you are required to pay your worker are two different numbers. The SCHADS Award minimum obligations for sleepover shifts have their own structure, and the gap between your wage cost and your claim ceiling is what determines whether this support is financially viable in your model.
The 2026-27 SCHADS Award decision has not yet been published as at the date of this post. When it is, you need to model it immediately against the new $311.79 claim rate.
If you run SIL, if you run STA, or if you have any arrangement where a worker sleeps at a participant’s home overnight, do not wait for payroll to tell you there is a problem. Build the model before 1 July. Know your numbers before the shift is rostered.
The risk is not that you do not know the claim rate went up. The risk is assuming the increase covers your actual wage cost without running the calculation yourself.
Three Things You Need to Do Before 1 July
These are not suggestions. They are compliance requirements.
First: Update your service agreements.
You can’t claim at the new rates until the participant has agreed to the change in writing. Verbal agreement is not enough. The NDIA is explicit about this. Providers must discuss proposed changes to existing service agreements with participants, and participants must agree to the changes.
That means reviewing every current service agreement where rates are changing, preparing a written variation, and getting participant consent before you bill at the new rate.
If you have a large participant caseload, start this process now. Do not wait until the last week of June. You will not get through them all in time, and the administrative scramble is avoidable.
Second: Update your billing system.
Every line item that has moved needs to reflect the new maximum from 1 July. Every one.
Running old rates past that date means underclaiming. Running above the new limits means non-compliance.
Your billing system provider should release an updated support catalogue aligned to the new schedule. As at 23 June 2026, the 2026-27 Support Catalogue, which is the Excel file used by most billing and practice management systems, had not yet been published. Check the NDIA pricing and payments page regularly over the coming days. When it drops, update your software immediately and confirm that the line items your practice uses most frequently have updated correctly.
Do not assume the update happened automatically. Check it yourself.
Third: Check your rosters against your margins.
A rate increase is not automatically a margin improvement. Your wage costs will also move once the 2026-27 SCHADS Award decision is published.
That decision has not been released as at the date of this post. When it is, you need to know immediately, because any change to minimum pay obligations under the Award applies independently of what the NDIS Pricing Schedule says you can claim.
Before you get to 1 July, sit down with your actual roster. What are your most common shift types? What can you now claim at the new rates? What is your current wage cost for each of those shifts?
If the 2026-27 Award decision increases minimum pay obligations, the gap between your wage floor and your claim ceiling may be narrower than you expect. Know your numbers before payroll tells you.
Structure protects you here. A simple spreadsheet model of your top ten shift types, comparing updated claim rates against your current wage costs, will tell you where the pressure points are. Do that work now.
The Broader Picture
This Pricing Schedule has been published following the release of the Annual Pricing Review and the Fair Work Commission’s Annual Wage Review decision. That means the movements you are seeing in support worker rates are not arbitrary. They are a direct response to what the Fair Work Commission determined workers should be paid.
The NDIA does not set your workers’ wages. But it sets the ceiling on what you can claim to fund those wages. When those two numbers move at different rates, or on different timelines, you feel it in your margins.
The 2026-27 SCHADS Award decision is still pending as at the date of this post. That decision will determine your minimum wage obligations for the new financial year. Watch for it. When it is published, read it alongside this Pricing Schedule and model the impact on your specific roster.
Understanding the relationship between the NDIS Pricing Schedule and the SCHADS Award is not optional for a viable disability business. It is the foundation of knowing whether your services are financially sustainable.
Both documents matter. Neither can be read in isolation.
One Action Before You Close This Page
Pull up your three highest volume support items. Find them in the new schedule. Note the updated rate. Then check whether your service agreements for those items are already signed and at what rate.
That single action will tell you how much work you have before 1 July and how urgent it is.
Everything else flows from knowing that.
The 2026-27 NDIS Pricing Schedule is effective 1 July 2026. The Support Catalogue will be published by the NDIA at ndis.gov.au/providers/pricing-and-payments/pricing/pricing-arrangements
Check that page for updates and notify your software vendor as soon as the catalogue is available.