For years, one document did the job: the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits, universally shortened to PAPL. For 2026-27, it is gone. Not delayed, not renamed in place: retired, and split into three separate publications. If you have been searching for "the 2026-27 PAPL" and coming up empty, that is why.
Who this is for
Any SIL provider who sets prices, reconciles claims, or budgets around NDIS price limits. The headline number providers care about most, the support worker rate, moved this year. It did not hold flat.
PAPL is retired. Three documents replaced it
The single combined PAPL document is gone for 2026-27. In its place, the NDIA now publishes:
- The Annual Pricing Review (APR): the report explaining how and why prices were reviewed and what changed.
- The NDIS Pricing Schedule: the actual price limits by support item, the direct replacement for the old PAPL price tables.
- The NDIS Support Catalogue: the reference list of support items and categories.
If your bookkeeping, invoicing or claims process still references "the PAPL", update the reference. The document your accountant or plan manager needs now is the Pricing Schedule.
Support worker prices rose. They did not hold flat
This is the fact worth getting right, because a flat assumption here understates your costs. Price limits tied to the Disability Support Worker cost model were lifted for 2026-27, to reflect the Fair Work Commission's annual wage decision, which increases minimum and award wages for support workers.
The superannuation guarantee is also part of that cost model, but it is not this year's driver: the guarantee reached its final legislated rate of 12% on 1 July 2025, so it was already priced into 2025-26. The 2026-27 rise comes from the wage decision alone.
The exact new rate for your specific support item, time of day and state depends on the published Pricing Schedule: check it directly rather than relying on a remembered figure, since providers we talk to are still working from last year's flat PAPL number out of habit.
What did not change
Not everything moved. The NDIA explicitly maintained existing pricing arrangements and price limits for:
- Therapy supports, other than psychology.
- All three levels of support coordination. Level 1: Support Connection held at $80.06 an hour, the same as 2025-26, alongside levels 2 and 3, which were also maintained at their existing price limits. This is different to supports priced under the wage-linked model above, where prices rose.
Psychology and some other wage-linked supports received new recommended prices, reflecting current market rates rather than the wage-model adjustment above. One other operational change: the short-notice cancellation period for supports that are not Disability Support Worker-related was adjusted to 2 business days, to better match how those markets actually work.
Why the naming even matters
A renamed document sounds cosmetic. It is not, for two reasons. First, a genuine reform is behind it: the National Disability Insurance Scheme Amendment (Securing the NDIS for Future Generations) Bill, introduced into Parliament in 2026, would give the Minister formal power to make pricing determinations directly, rather than pricing sitting purely inside NDIA guidance. That Bill has not passed as at writing; it is a direction of travel, not yet law. Second, and more immediately: if your claiming software, spreadsheets or plan-manager instructions still say "check the PAPL", they are pointing at a document that no longer exists for 2026-27. Update the reference, and check the Pricing Schedule and Support Catalogue instead.
Common questions
Is the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits (PAPL) document still current?
No. For 2026-27 the NDIA retired the single combined PAPL document. Pricing guidance now comes as three separate publications: the Annual Pricing Review, the NDIS Pricing Schedule, and the NDIS Support Catalogue.
Did support worker prices go up or stay flat for 2026-27?
They went up. Price limits tied to the Disability Support Worker cost model rose to reflect the Fair Work Commission's annual wage decision. They did not hold flat.
Did every support category get a price increase?
No. Existing pricing arrangements and price limits were maintained for therapy (other than psychology) and for all three levels of support coordination. Psychology and other wage-linked supports received new recommended prices.
Where Clearline fits: honestly
Aura OS by Clearline Health does not set your prices. The Commission and the NDIA do that, and reading the Pricing Schedule for your own line items stays your job. What Aura OS does is keep the other side honest once a price limit changes: Funding Integrity reconciles what you have actually delivered against what you have claimed, so a price update that gets missed in one place shows up as a gap rather than staying invisible. Claims export as PACE CSV or plan-manager invoice PDFs, so a rate change is reflected the next time you export, not buried in a spreadsheet formula someone forgot to update.
Aura OS is free for your first two participants: the full app, no time limit, every audit-ready feature included. Beyond two, simple bands grow with you from A$290/month (all prices AUD, ex GST), priced by participant, never by worker. Compass and Scrive are free, always. Pilot is free for solo coordinators, forever. Migration is free. Australian-owned and Sydney-hosted.
Honest about the limit: Aura OS reconciles what you claim against what you deliver. It does not tell you what to charge. For the actual dollar figures, the NDIA's Pricing Schedule is the source, not this post.
Reconcile claims against evidence, automatically.
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This is general information drawn from the NDIA's published Annual Pricing Review and Pricing Schedule guidance, not financial or legal advice. Price limits, categories and transitional arrangements can change and vary by support item, location and time of day: check the current NDIS Pricing Schedule for the exact figures that apply to you before you set prices or reconcile claims.