The Consultation Window Is Open

How participants can shape the 2028 assessment criteria — and what else is happening in the post-bill landscape

Disclaimer: This article reflects publicly available information as at 6 September 2026. This article is for general information only and does not constitute disability support, legal, or financial advice. For personalised advice, contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110, your Support Coordinator, or a disability advocacy organisation.

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The NDIS reform bill became law on 20 August. Since then, two things have been true simultaneously: the broad legislative framework is now settled, and a significant amount of crucial detail — including the specific criteria that will determine who qualifies for the NDIS from 2028 — remains to be decided.

This week brought the most actionable development since the bill passed: public consultation on the 2028 eligibility criteria is now open. And three parallel conversations are revealing what the post-bill landscape actually looks like for specific groups — children aged 9 to 17, people with psychosocial disability, and families who will navigate the October cuts before any alternative supports exist.

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The TAG Consultation: The Most Important Window You Will Have

On 31 August 2026, the government opened public consultation on the proposed NDIS access changes. The consultation closes on 2 October 2026 — thirty-two days from when it opened.

What the consultation covers:

• How a person's functional capacity should be assessed
• What evidence should be used to support access decisions
• How future access decision-making processes could be designed

This is directly relevant to the I-CAN v6 framework. The Technical Advisory Group will use feedback from this consultation — alongside clinical and academic evidence — to develop the specific criteria and thresholds that will apply from January 2028.

The questions the TAG is working through include:

• What specific activities should be assessed (dressing, washing, preparing meals, working)?
• What thresholds should define "substantially reduced functional capacity"?
• How should assessments handle fluctuating conditions where daily capacity varies significantly?
• How should assessments handle rare diseases or conditions where specialist evidence is limited or hard to access?
• What types of evidence should carry the most weight?

These are consequential questions. The answers will determine whether the new system is fairer and more consistent than the previous one — or whether it replicates the same inconsistencies under a different framework.

How to participate:

Submissions can be made through the government's consultation portal: consultations.health.gov.au

The consultation is open to people with disability, families, carers, advocates, disability service providers, and health professionals.

PWDA is running a parallel survey to gather disability community views to inform its own submission. If you are an NDIS participant or person with disability, your experiences and concerns can be contributed through PWDA's survey at pwd.org.au. PWDA has committed to representing the community's perspective in its formal submission.

A separate consultation on New Framework Planning and NDIS Rules is also open for submissions — also through consultations.health.gov.au. PWDA is collecting views on this process too.

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The Age Gap: Children 9 to 17 With No Clear Pathway

One of the sharpest unresolved questions in the post-bill landscape is what happens to children and young people aged 9 to 17 who will no longer qualify for the NDIS under the new eligibility criteria — and who are also too old for the Thriving Kids program.

The situation as it stands:

• Thriving Kids covers children aged 0–8 with developmental delay or autism and low-to-moderate support needs. It launches in October 2026.
• New NDIS eligibility criteria take effect from January 2028. Health department documents estimated that approximately 151,000 children and young people aged 18 and under will no longer qualify.
• Of those, a significant proportion will be aged 9 and over — outside the Thriving Kids age range, with no equivalent program yet in existence.

Minister Butler has spoken about a potential "Thriving Teens" concept — a program for older children equivalent to Thriving Kids. No such program has been formally announced, funded, or designed. Butler acknowledged in August that there is "a lot of work to do between now and the end of 2027."

Researchers from UNSW noted this week that there is already concern Thriving Kids will struggle to meet demand even for children under 8, and that supports delivered through group programs rather than individual NDIS plans will be less tailored to individual needs.

For families of children aged 9 to 17 currently on the NDIS, this is the clearest statement of where things stand: there is currently no announced program to replace individual NDIS supports for this age group when eligibility changes take effect in 2028.

The consultation on foundational supports for this group — and what form those supports will take, where they will be available, and how they will be funded — is part of the broader work the government has committed to completing by the end of 2027.

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Psychosocial Disability: The October Cuts Will Hit Hardest Here

October 2026 is approaching — the date when community participation funding (up to 50% reduction) and capacity building reductions (10%) begin applying to new and renewed plans.

The Mental Health Coordinating Council (MHCC) this week highlighted a specific concern about psychosocial disability participants that deserves attention.

Government's own impact analysis shows that approximately 30 per cent of total plan budgets for NDIS participants with psychosocial disability as their primary disability is committed to social and community participation supports.

But MHCC's observation goes further: for many people with psychosocial disability, social and community participation funding has been used to cover fundamental daily living needs, not just discretionary social activities. This is because plans for people with psychosocial disability have already been significantly reduced over the past five years — leaving community participation as one of the few remaining budget categories with meaningful flexibility.

A 50 per cent reduction in this funding therefore has consequences that extend well beyond participation in community activities. For some participants, it affects their ability to get out of the house, attend medical appointments, and maintain the daily structure that supports mental health recovery.

MHCC has called on Health and Mental Health Ministers to urgently progress psychosocial foundational supports — making clear that reform in the NDIS cannot succeed if the support systems outside the scheme do not keep pace.

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The Inclusive Communities Fund: $200 Million, But Not a Replacement

A separate consultation — on the design of the $200 million Inclusive Communities Fund — closed this week.

The Fund is designed to make community organisations (local clubs, groups, services) more disability-inclusive through grants. Children and Young People with Disability Australia (CYDA) welcomed the Fund's existence while making a critical point in its submission: a more accessible sporting club offers nothing to a young person who cannot get there, communicate, or participate without a support worker they can no longer afford. The Fund improves the destination — but not the ability to get there.

CYDA identified a critical timing gap: the first funding round for community organisations is only expected to start in June 2027, while NDIS cuts begin affecting new plans from 1 October 2026. Families cannot wait months for communities to become more accessible while their current individual supports are already being reduced.

CYDA's submission recommended that:

• Children and young people be central to fund design through co-design
• Disability-led organisations play a lead role in partnering with community groups
• Disability inclusion be built into local government through practical mechanisms
• Rights-based evaluation be embedded from the outset to assess whether the Fund actually improves inclusion

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What This Week Means for Participants

If you are on the NDIS, make a submission. The TAG consultation is open until 2 October. The criteria it recommends will shape whether the 2028 eligibility system is fair, consistent, and designed around the real functional experience of disability — or whether it produces the same kind of inconsistent outcomes the current system has. Your experience matters. Visit consultations.health.gov.au.

If you have psychosocial disability and significant community participation funding, prepare now for the October review. Speak with your Support Coordinator about your plan review timing and what the reductions will mean. For guidance on how to describe psychosocial disability support needs for an assessment, see our guide: I-CAN v6 and Psychosocial Disability.

If you have a child aged 9 to 17 on the NDIS, the age gap question is not resolved. Watch the government's consultation processes for foundational supports over the coming months — and ensure your child's I-CAN v6 preparation documentation is as thorough as possible before their next review.

Prepare your I-CAN v6 documentation. The I-CAN v6 new planning framework begins its rollout in April 2027 — seven months from now. Building a domain-by-domain preparation document that accurately describes your daily support needs is the most practical thing you can do right now to be ready.

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Sources: health.gov.au TAG consultation announcement (31 August 2026), CYDA Inclusive Communities Fund submission (September 2026), Mental Health Coordinating Council media release (31 August 2026), PWDA New Framework Planning survey (September 2026), Hellocare / UNSW research (September 2026).