NDIS Price Update 23/24 – The 4 things you need to know!

Navigating the NDIA’s updates and changes can be taxing on your team. Anthony O’Reilly, Lumary’s NDIA Product Manager delves into the 4 key points that influence the NDIS price update 23/24 and provides a tell all on what you need to know about Lumary updates that came into effect 1 July 2023.

By leveraging Lumary’s care management software, disability providers using the Lumary CM platform seamlessly automate these price updates so that you can confidently ensure compliance and focus on delivering exceptional care that genuinely creates a positive impact.

Starting from 1 July 2023 the price limits for 559 services were auto-updated in Lumary care management software to align with the NDIA’s pricing arrangements and pricing limits updates for the latest price guide.

The NDIA has increased the price limits for specific supports and made updates to their Disability Support Worker Cost Model, which helps to estimate the cost of delivering a billable hour of support.

There are four key factors at play – so let’s dive into what’s driving these changes!

1. Minimum Wages Set To Increase

“The Fair Work Commission’s increase to minimum award wages of 5.75%”

On 2 June 2023, the Fair Work Commission announced that they will be bumping up the minimum wage by 5.75%. This change kicked in from 1 July 2023 and affects those working in the disability sector under the Social, Community, Home Care, and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS award). This means that workers under the SCHADS award will see their wages go up thanks to this minimum wage increase. The NDIS pricing update 23/24 aims to support NDIS providers with the increased cost of disability worker wages by passing on an increase of 5.3% to those services delivered by disability support workers.

Some examples include:

• Core Supports / Assistance With Daily Life (Includes SIL)
• Support name: Assistance With Self-Care Activities – Standard – Weekday Daytime
• Support Description: Assisting with, and/or supervising, personal tasks of daily life to develop skills of the participant to live as autonomously as possible
• Support Item Code: 01_011_0107_1_1
• MMM current price: $62.17 p/h, from July 1st: $65.47 p/h
• Remote current price: $87.04 p/h, from July 1st: $91.66 p/h

2. Extended Temporary Loading Support

“An NDIS extension (by way of a 1% increase) to temporary loading for disability support worker (DSW)-related supports”

A price increase on temporary loading was introduced giving providers some relief dealing with the unpredictable costs caused by COVID as well as the adjustments they had to make under the SCHADS Industry Award. The temporary loading for Disability Support Workers and related supports started on 1 July 2022, at a 2% rate. This new price update will carry on as an extension of this loading but at a lower rate of 1%. Don’t get too attached to it though, as it’s scheduled to end from 1 July 2024. However, the NDIS has factored a temporary loading of 1% into their modelling (disability support worker cost model).

3. Price Adjustment for Family and Domestic Violence Leave

“An increase of 0.1% in price limits has been factored to reflect changes to National Employment Standards entitlements for workers accessing paid family and domestic violence leave”

The National Employment Standards in Australia encompass a set of 11 fundamental employment entitlements that must be provided to all employees, and these are actively promoted by the Fair Work Ombudsman. As of February 2023, the right to family and domestic violence leave is now extended to all employees, irrespective of their employment status—be it full-time, part-time, or casual. It’s important to note that the NDIS has incorporated this cost consideration into their disability support worker cost model.

4. Superannuation Guarantee Gets a 0.5% Boost!

“An increase of 0.5% has been factored in to reflect an increase in the Superannuation Guarantee (SG) of 0.5%.”

The Superannuation Guarantee (SG) is a percentage of your regular earnings that your employer puts into your super fund on top of your wages. Currently, in Australia, the SG rate sits at 10.5% per year, with this percentage set to increase by an additional 0.5% in the upcoming financial year. 

A summary of information on the NDIA’s Price Update 2023/24 is available via the NDIS website. 

Stay updated… there’s more to come 

Overall, the Package of Annual Pricing and Limits (PAPL) may not be filled with massive changes, but the ones that were rolled out will definitely make a notable impact on how numerous providers operate. Despite all of these price adjustments and alterations, you can say goodbye to the frustration of manually updating your rates each year! 

Lumary’s all-in-one care management software, Lumary CM is now fully compliant with the NDIA requirements. With industry best-practice workflows and high level data security, Lumary CM is designed to streamline your entire workforce management with a single, user-friendly interface. By leveraging Lumary’s care management software, providers can confidently navigate the NDIS price update 23/24 to maintain compliance and deliver exceptional care that truly makes a difference. 

Lumary CM’s direct integration to the NDIA’s PRODA portal is a game changer. Enabling providers with a two-way line of communication to the portal sets you apart with a powerful extension, allowing you to optimise your organisation.

Co-designed by leading NDIS providers and specialist Lumary healthcare consultants, the NDIA Integration Module is an extension developed to save providers time and money, removing the repetition of double data-handling and syncing your participant information using one platform. Better still, this affordable, intelligent tool will keep you fully informed about your clients, and supports your organisation to deliver even more value-based care.

For more information on how Lumary’s care management software can help your organisation to optimise and differentiate in the market, reach out to the Lumary team for a free healthcare consultation.