C2026A00066NDIS Checker

Schedule 2, Part 8

Gifts, benefits and the pricing exception

From 20 November 2026 an NDIS provider must not give or offer a gift or benefit that is reasonably likely to induce a person to engage it, increase its supports or keep managing the funding, with narrow exceptions for legitimate pricing, merchandise and prescribed conduct.

What does the provision require?

New section 73VA prohibits an NDIS provider from giving, agreeing to give or offering a gift, advantage or other item to a person where the item is not itself the delivery of a support or service, and is reasonably likely to lead the person to engage or keep the provider, to add a support, to raise the volume or intensity of a support, or to keep the provider managing the plan funding. Whether the person is the participant makes no difference.

The exceptions are legitimate pricing practices, merchandise of the provider, and conduct in a class the rules prescribe as permitted. The rules may set conditions for each. The rules may not prescribe as permitted conduct alcohol, pharmaceuticals or drugs whose possession is a contravention of a Commonwealth, State or Territory law, tobacco and vaping products and accessories, cash or cash like products, or electronic devices. Cash like products are defined to include gift cards, store cards, vouchers, money orders, postal orders and digital currency. The offence is 2 years or 120 penalty units. The civil penalty is 10,000 penalty units for a serious contravention by an NDIS provider and 250 penalty units otherwise.

Why does it matter to an insurer or a provider?

Referral incentives are common in provider marketing and in plan management acquisition. The prohibition is wide enough to catch a gift to a support coordinator, a voucher to a family and a device given to a participant, and the serious contravention multiple is large. For an insurer, the practical question is whether the insured's marketing spend and referral arrangements sit inside the legitimate pricing exception, and whether a claim for a regulatory investigation or a penalty defence is covered.

What did the amendment change?

There was no general prohibition on inducements in the Act. The Act creates one, defines cash like products, sets the exceptions and the excluded categories, and attaches both a criminal and a civil penalty with a serious contravention multiple.

Suggested evidence

These are the publisher's control suggestions, not statutory requirements. The provision's own requirement is above; an auditor or regulator decides what is sufficient.

  • The marketing and referral register, with each benefit, recipient and value
  • The legitimate pricing practice policy and how a discount is documented
  • The merchandise register and the value of items given
  • Any rules based permitted conduct relied on, and the conditions met
  • The board or management approval for each sponsorship or incentive arrangement

What should be done before the date?

  1. Review every referral, sponsorship and gift arrangement against the prohibition
  2. Document the pricing exception for each discount
  3. Remove gift cards, vouchers, devices and cash like items from marketing
  4. Check the regulatory investigation cover for a penalty defence

What the text does not say

The text does not define merchandise of an NDIS provider beyond leaving it to the rules. It does not set the threshold for a serious contravention beyond the definition in the Act. It does not say whether a benefit given before 20 November 2026 but continued after that date is caught.

Where this sits

section 73VA, inserted by item 104 in Schedule 2, Part 8, Prohibition on inducements (items 103 and 104). Read the official text at https://www.legislation.gov.au/C2026A00066/latest/text. The record was read on 21 October 2026.

Not legal advice; does not certify. This page is a reading of the provision in our own words, not a reproduction of it, and not advice on your own facts.

Provisions that travel with this one