In 2025 the NDIS spent almost $12 Billion (approximately 136 million hours of support) for NDIS participants to engage in community activities.
While experts agree on the benefits of providing this type of community support, they say:
- funding for the category is open to wide interpretation and has little oversight
- the government does not ask disability service providers to provide details about what activity was conducted or gather data on the benefit provided to the recipient.
The NDIS has now announced how it plans to bring this spending back in line with 2023 levels and more consistent with other systems.
50% reduction in Social and Community Participation funding
“Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation” appears in the CORE part of your NDIS plan and can be used for a Support Worker to help you access social or community activities. It does not cover the cost of these activities.
From 1 October 2026, all new NDIS plans and NDIS Plan Reassessments will have their Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation budgets reduced by 50%.
From 1 February 2026, all other participants will have their Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation budgets reduced by 50% when their NDIS Plans are renewed after this date.
How will my NDIS plan be affected?
Participants that have funding for Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation in the CORE part of their NDIS will see a 50% reduction in their funding levels if their plan is reassessed after 1 Oct 2026 or when their plan is renewed after 1 Feb 2026)
Changes may not affect your NDIS plan if you are not currently using all of your budget allocation.
What budgets are not affected by these changes to Social and Community Participation funding?
These changes will not impact budgets for critical supports, such as:
- supports in employment
- disability-related health supports
- supports in home, such as to help with eating, drinking, dressing, toileting, laundry, cleaning, community nursing care, help with medication
- home and vehicle modifications
- personal mobility equipment and transport
- consumable products to help with incontinence and menstruation
- Specialist Disability Accommodation (SDA).
High support needs participants requiring continuous 24-hour care will continue to receive it at all times.
The social, civic and community participation funding reduction will not impact these critical supports.
What can you do?
Speak to your NDIS Providers
You may need to negotiate lower prices and to get the most out of your supports within the limits of the NDIS Pricing Arrangements.
Consider Group Activities
You will also be supported to participate in group-based activities, where they are right for you.
These group-based activities may have lower prices as the cost of support is divided between the number of participants in the group.
Inclusive Communities Fund
To help with this, the Australian Government Department of Social Services will provide $200 million for an Inclusive Communities Fund.
This fund will help genuine social and community providers build their capabilities to host genuine participation activities to ensure genuinely inclusive activities are available for NDIS participants.
Public feedback on how to design this fund ran from 3 August 2026 to 31 August 2026. At publishing this resource, we will wait for the NDIS and DSS to announce how they will manage the allocation of this fund.
How is Plan Hero helping Participants?
The Plan Hero team have deep NDIS knowledge and experience. They will help connect you with platforms that will help you find social activities, like MyCareSpace.
