NDIA, NDIS and NDIS Commission: what is the difference?
The three names are easy to mix up, but each one is a different thing:
- NDIS: the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the scheme itself, created by the National Disability Insurance Scheme Act 2013
- NDIA: the National Disability Insurance Agency, the agency that runs the scheme day to day
- NDIS Commission: the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, the regulator of providers and workers
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing: leads NDIS policy and law for the Australian Government
What the NDIA does
Under the NDIS Act, the NDIA's main function is to deliver the NDIS in a way that supports the independence and social and economic participation of people with disability, enables choice and control, and balances safety with people's right to take risks. In practice that means it:
- Decides access requests, meaning who can become a participant
- Makes, varies, reassesses and renews participants' plans
- Decides what supports are reasonable and necessary to fund
- Pays registered providers for NDIA managed supports, and processes claims from plan managers and self managed participants
- Manages the scheme's financial sustainability and works to prevent and detect fraud
- Funds partners in the community, such as local area coordinators and early childhood partners
What the NDIA does not do
- Register or audit providers, investigate complaints about providers, or oversee restrictive practices: that is the NDIS Commission
- Set NDIS price limits: since 27 August 2026 the Minister for the NDIS makes that decision, with advice from the NDIA
- Provide supports directly: providers you choose deliver the supports
- Fund things other systems are responsible for, such as health treatment, school education or ordinary living costs
How the NDIA is run
The NDIA is a Commonwealth body corporate. A Board sets its objectives, strategies and policies and makes sure it performs its functions properly, and a Chief Executive Officer manages it day to day. An Independent Advisory Council, which represents people with disability and carers, advises the Board.
Most day to day contact happens through NDIA planners and through partners in the community: local area coordinators for people aged 9 to 64 and early childhood partners for children younger than 9.
The NDIA and the 2026 to 2030 changes
The NDIA is putting a large set of reforms into practice. The ones you are most likely to notice are:
- From 1 October 2026, applying the funding reset to social, economic and community participation and improved daily living skills budgets as plans are created, reassessed or renewed
- Since 27 August 2026, tighter rules for unscheduled reassessments, with up to 90 days to decide
- From 1 December 2026, claims must be made within 90 days of the support
- From 1 April 2027, moving participants to new framework planning with a support needs assessment
- From 1 October 2027, a panel of approved plan managers
- From 1 January 2028, new access rules based on functional capacity
- From 1 July 2028, a new support coordination and connection service
Contacting the NDIA and challenging decisions
You can call the NDIA on 1800 800 110, use webchat on the NDIS website, or visit an NDIA office. Your local area coordinator or early childhood partner can also help with many questions.
If you disagree with an NDIA decision, such as an access decision or what is in your plan, you can ask for an internal review, and then apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal if you are still unhappy. Complaints about how the NDIA treated you go to the NDIA itself, and you can take unresolved complaints to the Commonwealth Ombudsman.