01/05/2026
Everybody accessing or working within the NDIS space will be aware of Minister Butler’s recent announcement on proposed cuts to the NDIS. We understand that this can be a very nervous time for participants and their families, not knowing what the future holds.
Something that has flown under the radar in the aftermath of the announcement is the misinformation that MP Butler put out into community and has had a flow on effect to various media outlets in relation to Plan Management services.
Mr Butler stated that one in five plans are currently subject to an unscheduled reassessment every year, often at the request of plan managers who can stand to gain, not the participants themselves.
This is an outrageous and incorrect statement made by the Minister who should know how the program under his own portfolio actually works.
Plan Managers have nothing to do with assisting a participant to implement a plan review assessment. It’s obvious that the Minister is mistaking plan management for support coordination. Plan Managers have nothing to gain from a participant receiving a new plan. The fee for a plan manager is consistently $104.45 per month regardless of how many new plans a participant may receive.
Media outlets are now demonising plan managers as the bad guys in many reports on the proposed changes. We are at the coal face of processing invoices for hundreds of providers and get to see first-hand any unscrupulous behaviour that may occur and promptly report any suspected fraudulent behaviour to the NDIS Commission.
There may very well be some bad seeds in the plan management sector and we welcome calling these providers out and banning them from practicing if they are doing the wrong thing.
Whatever the future holds for the many small to medium plan managers in the sector, the majority of us are doing the right thing and should not be subject to ongoing false reports about what our role is and casting us as the villain of the NDIS.
