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If you thought the October changes were enough to keep up with, the NDIS is now adding a new twist: funding periods.
From May 19th, 2025, all new PACE plans will have funding periods — meaning your budget will be split into smaller chunks instead of being available all at once.
What’s changing?
- Plans can be longer than 12 months (finally!)
- Budgets will arrive in smaller instalments (usually 3-month chunks)
- Only applies to new plans approved from May 19th onwards
- If your plan started between Nov 2023 and May 18th 2025, you’ll stay on a 12-month cycle until your next reassessment
How this looks in real life
Example 1:
Sarah’s plan says:
Funding Period: $6,000 for therapies (March–May), $6,000 (June–August), $6,000 (Sept–Nov), $6,000 (Dec–Feb).
This means: She can only claim therapy sessions in each time block with the funds allocated for that period. If she doesn’t use the March–May funds in time, she can’t roll them into June–August.
Example 2:
Tom’s plan says:
Funding Period: 3-month instalments for his core supports budget.
This means: His support coordinator will need to make sure service agreements line up with each instalment. If his provider tries to claim outside the right period, the claim could be rejected.
Example 3:
Leah’s plan says:
Annual budget for therapies: $24,000, split into four $6,000 instalments.
This means: Even though her plan technically covers a year’s worth of therapy, she can’t just front-load all her sessions early in the year — the money is drip-fed.
Why this matters
- Service agreements will need updating to match instalments
- Claims might be rejected if they don’t match the right funding period
- You’ll need to think about the best instalment length for your child’s services
⚠️ Important to know
While your plan manager helps manage payments and reporting, the participant or nominee is ultimately responsible for how funding is used within each funding period.
The NDIS will not pay claims that exceed a funding period — even if funding exists later in the plan.
What you can do
- Talk to your team: Let your support coordinator, therapist, or NDIS contact know about the change so they can adjust service agreements now.
- Ask about instalments: Decide whether quarterly chunks make sense, or if a longer instalment is better for your child’s needs.
Don’t panic — but don’t disengage either.
Your plan manager and providers can help track budgets and align claims, but funding periods still require active oversight from the participant or nominee.
This means keeping an eye on how quickly supports are being used and checking in before increasing services — not after a funding period has already been exceeded.
Think of this like the NDIS giving you a yearly cake, but cutting it into quarters. You still get the cake — you just have to eat it one slice at a time.
🤯 Funding periods got you feeling frazzled?
You’re not alone. The May 2025 changes have left a lot of parents wondering how they’ll actually work in real life.
That’s why we broke it down in our free Decoding the NDIS webinar series, co-hosted with Hayley from Alee Disability Support.
🎥 Watch a quick snippet here → https://youtu.be/9FcnkxHp5vs
💡 Need a plan manager who actually gets it? Book a free discovery call with Kindship and let’s make your child’s plan actually work for your family.
