How the NDIS pricing arrangements affect your SIL and support budgets

Every hour of support claimed from an NDIS plan has a maximum price attached to it. Those maximums used to be published by the NDIA each July as the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, and before that as the NDIS Price Guide.

Understanding the structure matters more than memorising numbers. Once you know why a Sunday hour costs more than a Tuesday hour, why a sleepover is priced per night, and why a plan-managed budget behaves differently from a self-managed one, you can read a SIL quote or an invoice and see whether it is right. All dollar figures below were read from the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27, effective 24 September 2026, on 23 October 2026.

What the pricing arrangements are, and what changed in 2026

The NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026 moved price setting from NDIA guidance to a legal instrument. The Minister for Disability and the NDIS now makes a pricing determination on the NDIA's advice, and the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 is incorporated into that determination. The first determination took effect on 24 September 2026 and, according to the NDIA, its prices match the recommended prices the NDIA had already published in June 2026, so participants and providers did not need to do anything.

The schedule lists support item numbers and names, the unit of measure (hour, each, month), and national, remote and very remote maximum amounts. Prices include GST. The NDIA states that it cannot pay a claim above the maximum, participants are not entitled to a payment above it, and providers cannot charge more than it. Below the maximum, you and the provider negotiate the price; the limit is a ceiling, not a set fee.

Two further changes are pending. The Fair Work Commission's 11 September 2026 decision on the SCHADS award takes effect on 1 December 2026, and the NDIA says the schedule will be updated later this year to reflect it. The government is also consulting on differentiated pricing, where registered and unregistered providers would have different limits; the 2026-27 Annual Pricing Review recommended starting this on 1 January 2027. Consultation on 2027-28 prices closes on 1 November 2026.

Time of day and day of week: the SIL hourly limits

Disability support worker prices are set from a cost model built on the SCHADS award, so they follow award penalty rates. The schedule defines weekday daytime as support starting at or after 6:00 am and finishing by 8:00 pm, weekday evening as 8:00 pm to midnight, and weekday night as support that crosses midnight or starts before 6:00 am. Saturday, Sunday and public holiday supports each have their own rate. If one worker's shift crosses two bands, the higher rate applies to the whole shift.

For standard SIL (support item group 0138, and the older 0115 items) the 2026-27 national maximums per hour are $73.58 weekday daytime, $81.07 weekday evening, $82.57 weekday night, $103.54 Saturday, $133.50 Sunday and $163.46 public holiday. A night-time sleepover, defined as a continuous period of at least eight hours crossing midnight where the worker may sleep when not needed, is $311.79 per night; if more than two hours of active support is needed, the third and later hours can be claimed at Saturday rates on weekdays.

High intensity SIL, for people who need workers with additional skills, sits higher: $79.60 weekday daytime, $87.70 weekday evening, $89.32 weekday night, $112.01 Saturday, $144.42 Sunday and $176.84 public holiday per hour. Since October 2024 providers have also been able to claim Intensive and Complex Behaviour Supports at high intensity prices where they are registered for the relevant module. For SIL, these hourly rates are then shared between housemates: the schedule says the amount claimed from each participant is the maximum divided by the number of people in the group. A 1:3 shared daytime hour therefore costs each person's plan roughly a third of $73.58.

Regional and remote loadings, and what they mean in South Australia

The schedule prices supports by where they are delivered, not where you usually live, using the Modified Monash Model (MMM), the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's seven-step classification of remoteness. Supports delivered in MM 1 to MM 5 are paid at the national amount; MM 6 (remote) attracts the remote amount and MM 7 (very remote) the very remote amount. For SIL standard weekday daytime, that is $73.58 national, $103.01 remote and $110.37 very remote, which works out at loadings of about 40 and 50 per cent.

The NDIA also keeps a list, called the Isolated Towns Modification, of towns it reclassifies as remote or very remote for pricing even though the MMM does not. In the 2026-27 schedule that list contains towns in New South Wales, Queensland, Western Australia and the Northern Territory; no South Australian location appears on it.

For South Australia the practical result is that Adelaide and the larger regional towns are paid at the national rate. The Department's own MMM fact sheet gives Port Augusta as an example of MM 4 (medium rural town) and Renmark as an example of MM 5, both inside the national band, and Coober Pedy as an example of MM 7. We could not confirm Whyalla's exact MMM category from an official page during our check, so look it up on the Health Workforce Locator at health.gov.au; unless a town is MM 6 or MM 7 the national price applies.

The Temporary Transformation Payment is gone

Older quotes and invoices sometimes show support item numbers ending in "_T". That was the Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP), a conditional loading introduced in 2019 to help providers adjust to NDIS pricing. In the 2023-24 Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits the TTP items were priced 1.5 per cent above the standard item, and providers could only use them if they published their prices, listed themselves in the provider finder and met other conditions.

The TTP does not appear in the 2024-25 Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (version 1.3, effective 1 October 2024) or in the 2026-27 Pricing Schedule. If a provider quotes a TTP item today, ask them to correct it; there is no current TTP price limit to claim against.

Plan management versus agency management: which prices apply

There are three ways a plan can be managed, and the pricing rules differ. If your funding is NDIA-managed (also called agency-managed), the NDIA pays providers directly, providers must be registered, and the maximum prices apply to every claim. If it is plan-managed, a registered plan manager pays your providers from your plan; you can use registered or unregistered providers for most supports (SIL providers must now be registered regardless), and the maximum prices still apply. The plan manager's own fee is a separate budget in your plan; in 2026-27 the monthly fee is capped at $104.45 nationally.

If your funding is self-managed, the maximum prices do not legally bind you. The schedule states that the maximum amounts apply where funding is managed by the NDIA or a registered plan manager. Self-managers can agree other prices, but can only spend on NDIS supports in line with their plan and must still be able to show value for money if the NDIA asks.

Support coordination is priced the same way whichever management type you use: level 2 coordination of supports is capped at $100.14 an hour nationally in 2026-27, and specialist support coordination at $190.54. You can change management type during a plan by asking the NDIA; you do not need to wait for a new plan.

What to do next: how to check an invoice or SIL claim

You do not need to audit every line, but checking the first invoice from a new provider and spot-checking afterwards catches most errors. The NDIA says to raise mistakes with the provider or plan manager first, and to call it on 1800 800 110 if the issue is not resolved. Concerns about overcharging can also go to the NDIS Commission, whose Code of Conduct prohibits charging higher prices without reasonable justification.

• Find the support item number on the invoice and look it up in the current schedule; check the name matches what you received
• Check the date and time band: a 7:00 pm to 10:00 pm weekday shift by one worker may be claimed at the evening rate for all three hours, but a 9:00 am shift cannot
• Multiply hours by the unit price and confirm the price is at or below the national maximum (or remote maximum only if the house is MM 6 or MM 7)
• For SIL, compare claimed hours with the roster of care that was actually delivered, and check the sharing ratio used
• Confirm there are no "_T" items and no items for supports you did not receive, such as cancelled shifts outside the cancellation rules
• If plan-managed, ask your plan manager for a monthly statement; if NDIA-managed, review claims in the my NDIS app or participant portal

Questions people ask