NDIS Pricing Methodology and Price Freeze Raise Serious Concerns for Social Work Sector

NDIS Pricing Methodology and Price Freeze Raise Serious Concerns for Social Work Sector

30 June 2026

The National Disability Insurance Agency’s (NDIA) recommendation to continue freezing social work pricing in its Annual Pricing Review fails to reflect the increasing costs of delivering high-quality social work services and risks further destabilising a workforce already navigating substantial reform across the NDIS.

The NDIA released the 2026-27 Annual Pricing Review Report and NDIS Pricing Schedule on 22 June 2026. In addition to the price freeze across social work pricing and support coordination, the AASW is particularly concerned that the review and associated pricing decisions:

  • Continue to rely on incomplete datasets and benchmarking approaches that may not accurately reflect the cost of delivering services within the NDIS market.
  • Exclude relevant social work Medicare Benefits Schedule (MBS) data from benchmarking and pricing analyses, despite repeated representations from the AASW.
  • Contain significant data gaps that may result in inappropriate assumptions and comparisons between professions, service models and funding environments.
  • Continue to rely on broad “Other Professional” categories across several supports, limiting recognition of social workers’ expertise and scope of practice.
  • Do not explicitly recognise social workers as eligible providers for Employment Therapy supports, despite their established role in delivering these services.
  • Reduce the hourly rate for “Other Professionals” from $193.99 to $156.16 for Employment Therapy supports.

These concerns raise broader questions about the transparency and representativeness of the current pricing methodology and its ability to support participant access, workforce sustainability and long-term value for money within the NDIS.

Social workers play a critical role in achieving meaningful outcomes for NDIS participants. Social workers support people with disability to maintain and improve their quality of life by strengthening their ability to engage in relationships, social roles, and community life. Using a holistic approach, social workers consider both individual circumstances and social environments to deliver effective, person-centred, and rights-based support. These functions are essential to helping participants engage effectively with the NDIS and achieve sustainable, long-term outcomes.

Pricing settings directly shape participant access, continuity of care, and the capacity of providers to deliver safe, high-quality supports. The AASW has consistently advocated for pricing for social work that reflects the true cost of delivering complex, compliant and coordinated services, including recognition of non-billable work, cross-sector collaboration, and system navigation.

The AASW has called for:

  • Pricing that supports holistic, person-centred practice and workforce sustainability
  • Alignment of pricing with professional capability and expertise
  • A representative and transparent approach to pricing methodology, including sector-wide input
  • Pricing that enables the delivery of rights-based, person-centred supports consistent with the CRPD and the objectives of the NDIS. Without appropriate pricing, there is a real risk that social workers will be discouraged from working within the NDIS market or will withdraw from the scheme altogether, reducing participant choice and access to supports while undermining the availability of wraparound, preventative and systems-based interventions that help participants achieve long-term outcomes.

This is not only a pricing issue. The NDIS is undergoing substantial reform, creating uncertainty and market vulnerability across the sector. We must preserve a participant’s choice and control over which professions they access, ensuring they can receive the right support, from the right professional, at the right time.

The AASW remains actively engaged in ongoing advocacy across key reform areas, including the NDIS reforms and the Thriving Kids initiative. We are committed to ongoing engagement with our members, ensuring their expertise informs future policy and pricing settings, and to continued collaboration with Allied Health Professions Australia (AHPA) and allied health stakeholders to advocate for participants and the sector.