NDIS inducement ban: a guide for support coordinators

From late November 2026, it becomes an offence for an NDIS provider to offer a gift, benefit or other thing that is reasonably likely to persuade someone to start, keep or expand their supports with that provider. The new section 73VA of the NDIS Act commences on 20 November 2026, and the government’s reform timeline lists 27 November 2026 as the day the ban on kickbacks and inducements begins.

For support coordinators this matters twice over. You are an NDIS provider yourself, so the ban applies to how you win and keep participants. And you sit in the middle of a lot of provider marketing, so you are often the first person to notice when an offer crosses the line. This guide explains what the law says, what is still allowed, and how to handle the grey areas in day-to-day referral work.

Where the ban comes from

The ban is part of the NDIS Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Act 2026, which passed Parliament on 19 August 2026 and received Royal Assent the next day. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing describes it as one of several changes to tackle fraud and non-compliance, alongside provider enrolment, tighter claiming rules and new offences for false or misleading information.

The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission has also flagged that its compliance work will support the new offences for providers who offer or give kickbacks and inducements. In other words, this is not a quiet change on paper. Expect it to be checked.

What counts as an inducement

Under section 73VA, an NDIS provider breaks the rule when three things are true at once:

• Something is given or offered. The provider gives, agrees or offers to give, or arranges for someone else to give, a gift, benefit or other thing to a person.
• It is not the support itself. The thing is extra to the support or service being delivered under the plan.
• It is likely to sway a decision. It is reasonably likely to induce the person to engage the provider to start or continue a support, add a new support, increase the amount or intensity of a support, or manage plan funding.

That last point is wide. It covers winning a new participant, keeping an existing one, upselling hours, and plan management. A benefit does not need to be expensive to be caught. The test is whether it is reasonably likely to influence the decision.

What is banned in every case

The Act lets future NDIS rules permit some kinds of conduct, but it also lists things the rules can never permit. These are:

• alcohol
• illegal drugs and pharmaceuticals that are unlawful to possess
• cigarettes, cigars, tobacco products, e-cigarettes and their accessories
• cash or cash-like products
• electronic devices

In practice, “cash-like” is where coordinators should be most alert. Gift cards, vouchers and prepaid cards offered to a participant or family for signing up are the obvious example. “Electronic devices” catches the offer of a free tablet, phone, smart TV or gaming console for moving into a home or switching provider.

What is still allowed

The ban is not meant to stop ordinary business. Section 73VA carves out three things:

• Legitimate pricing practices. A genuine discount or fee reduction that forms part of a provider’s real pricing is not an inducement. NDIS rules may set out which practices do and do not count, and any conditions that apply.
• Provider merchandise. Branded items such as a pen, notebook or water bottle are allowed. Rules may say what does and does not count as merchandise.
• Permitted conduct. Anything the NDIS rules specifically permit, as long as any conditions in those rules are met.

At the time of writing, the detail of those rules is still to come. Until it is published, treat the exceptions narrowly. A provider calling something a “discount” does not make it a legitimate pricing practice, particularly if it only appears when a participant agrees to sign or stay.

The penalties

The Act creates both a criminal offence and a civil penalty. The offence carries imprisonment for up to 2 years, 120 penalty units, or both. The civil penalty is up to 10,000 penalty units for a serious contravention and 250 penalty units in other cases. Those numbers are a clear signal of how seriously the government views inducements in the NDIS market.

How the ban applies to you as a coordinator

Support coordination is a funded NDIS support, so a coordination business is an NDIS provider for the purposes of the ban. That means the same rules apply to how you attract and keep participants. A few practical examples to think about:

• Offering a family a voucher to choose your organisation, or a gift card to stay when their plan is renewed, falls squarely inside the banned list.
• Offering free extra hours of coordination “off the books” in return for signing on may be a benefit outside the support being funded, and is worth avoiding.
• Branded welcome packs with merchandise are likely to be fine, as long as nothing inside them is cash-like or an electronic device.

This also sits alongside the longer reform path for coordination. From 1 July 2028 the NDIA plans to fund a new support coordination and connection service directly rather than through individual plans. The inducement ban applies well before then, so it should already be part of your intake and marketing practice now.

Offers made to you, not the participant

The harder question for many coordinators is what happens when a provider offers something to you: a referral fee, a dinner, a hamper at Christmas, or a “thank you” card after a placement. The offence is written around a benefit that is reasonably likely to induce a person to engage the provider. Whether a particular benefit given to a coordinator, rather than to a participant or their family, falls inside that wording will depend on the facts and on any rules made under the Act.

Even where the ban itself may not apply, the NDIS Code of Conduct still does. It applies to registered and unregistered providers and their workers, and it expects you to act with integrity, honesty and transparency. A payment tied to where you refer someone is hard to square with that. The practical approach for most coordinators is simple: decline anything linked to a referral, record that you declined it, and tell your manager.

The test that matters most is the participant’s choice. If a provider has offered you something and you then recommend them, could you show the participant and their family exactly why that provider was the right option for them? If not, the offer is a problem regardless of how the law is finally read.

Spotting red flags in provider marketing

You will see a lot of offers come across your desk. These are worth a second look after 27 November:

• “Move-in bonuses” that include vouchers, devices or cash for a participant or family.
• Referral fees, finder’s fees or commission paid to a coordinator, plan manager or anyone else in the referral chain.
• Gifts that only appear when a participant agrees to add services or increase hours.
• “Discounts” that are not part of a provider’s published or usual pricing.
• Pressure to sign a service agreement quickly to secure a perk.

If you see conduct that worries you, you can raise it with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Concerns about fraud involving NDIS funding can also be reported to the NDIA.

Keeping your referral decisions clean

Good record keeping protects you, and it also makes for better placements. For each referral, it helps to note:

• the participant’s stated goals and preferences, in their words where possible
• the providers you considered and why each was or was not suitable
• any offers, gifts or benefits a provider made, and what you did about them
• any conflicts of interest, such as a provider connected to your own organisation, and how they were disclosed

For supported accommodation, focus the comparison on things that matter to daily life: the home’s design and location, the housemate match, the roster of care, clinical capability and the provider’s registration status. Our checklist for choosing a SIL provider covers the questions to ask, and our guide to SIL vacancy referrals explains what a provider needs from you to assess fit.

A second deadline: 90-day claims from 1 December

One week after the inducement ban begins, another change from the same Act takes effect. From 1 December 2026, the time to make a claim for supports under a participant’s plan drops from 2 years to 90 days after the support is delivered. The NDIS website is tracking each change as it starts.

This affects coordinators indirectly. Self-managing families and plan managers on your caseload need to know that late invoices may not be paid once the new limit applies. A short reminder at your next check-in can save a difficult conversation later.

Where Vitality Community Care fits

We deliver Supported Independent Living, Specialist Disability Accommodation and high intensity supports across Victoria, New South Wales and Western Australia. When you refer a participant to us, we give you what you need to make a fair comparison: current vacancy details, the home’s design category, an indicative roster of care and our registration details.

You can browse current SIL and SDA vacancies by state, or send a referral through our referral form. Every placement is subject to availability and suitability, and is decided on the participant’s needs and choices.

This article is general information for support coordinators, participants and families, not legal, financial or clinical advice. NDIS rules on permitted conduct were still to be published at the time of writing, so check the current position on ndis.gov.au and with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission before acting.