Get ready for funding periods
And yes, it’s giving admin overload...
Dearly Beloved,
We gather here today to farewell yet another layer of choice and control sacrificed at the altar of NDIS reform as we usher in amendments to Section 33 of the NDIS Act.
Welcome to Funding Periods: a "protective mechanism" for some, a bureaucratic straitjacket for others, and a looming Excel nightmare for all. The short version? They limit how and when you can spend your NDIS budget — and for many, that means losing a big chunk of hard-won flexibility.
These new controls aren’t just harmless admin tweaks, but mark a fundamental shift in how participants access supports — bringing with them tighter restrictions, more oversight, and yes, even more paperwork.
So are we haemorrhaging common sense — or just cracking down on crooks?
The answer probably depends on your level of vulnerability as a service user, and where you sit on the dignity of risk spectrum. Oh yes and also where the NDIA may have quietly ranked you in terms of overspend risk.
These new controls and buzzwords have been floating around the NDIS space for a while now — and slowly, bit by bit, they’re being switched on. So let’s break down what they actually mean and, more importantly, how they’re going to impact you. Because spoiler alert: they absolutely will.
As you can see its very clear and simple how this will work:
And if you don’t want to make sense of the above word salad, then just read on…
What Are Funding Periods? (The TLDR)
As part of the rollout of reforms under Section 33 of the NDIS Act, the NDIA is now breaking down how your funding is structured into three parts:
🔹 Funding amounts – This is the total dollar value of your NDIS plan. Think of it as the big number on the front page — the full budget allocated to support your child’s needs.
🔹 Funding components – These are the categories that make up your plan, like Core Supports, Capacity Building, and Capital (assistive technology, home modifications, etc.). This part isn’t new — it’s how your funding has always been grouped. Right now we still use category names like ‘Core and Capacity Building’ but once the new Framework is finalised it might look more like ‘Flexible Supports’ and a ‘Stated Supports’ categories instead.
🔹 Funding periods – This is the new twist. Funding periods control how much of your plan budget you can access at one time. So even if you’re approved for a 2 year plan, you might only be able to use 3 months’ worth of that funding at a time. This restricts when you can spend, not just what you can spend on.
You can read the NDIA’s official explanation of this new structure here.
📅 We are hearing that most plans issued after 19 May 2025 will have funding periods automatically switched on, with the default set to 3-month blocks.
And yes, that means some of your flexibility just quietly vanished behind a system setting — so let’s unpack how this might affect real-life planning, spending, and service bookings.
How Funding Periods Will Work
Once your next new plan is issued (if it’s built after 19 May), it’s likely to come with funding periods automatically enabled. The default setting in PACE (the new NDIS computer system) for funding periods is 3 months - so unless the planner changes that default setting before they approve your plan - that is what you will get.
Let’s say you’re given a 12-month plan. You won’t be able to access the full year’s funding upfront. Instead, only one quarter of your total budget will be unlocked at a time. After each 3-month period ends, any unused funds will roll over into the next period — but you can’t access future funding early, even if you’ve used your current period’s funding completely.
For example:
If your child’s therapy intensives happen at the start of each term, or you book support workers in blocks during school holidays, you may suddenly find those bookings can’t be funded the way they used to be — at least not in the first few months of your plan.