Report Outline

1. 
   

2. The Transport Dilemma: An introduction to why transport funding matters and the common confusion surrounding it.

3. The Golden Rule: Explaining the "public transport test" and the core criteria for transport funding.

4. The Transport Allowance (Recurring Supports): A deep dive into the three standard levels of funding, exceptional circumstances, and how the money hits your bank account.

5. What You Can and Cannot Buy: A clear guide to permissible expenses like taxis and strict exclusions like paying family members.

6. Activity-Based Transport (Paying Support Workers to Drive): The core answer to the headline. How to pay a worker, understanding labour versus non-labour costs, and the 2026 kilometre rates.

7. Provider Travel (When the Provider Comes to You): Explaining the difference between driving you and driving to you. Detail the Modified Monash Model (MMM) zones and the massive 50% therapy cap rule.

8. Group Transport and Splitting Costs: The strict rules around apportioning travel costs for multiple participants.

9. The NDIS PACE System: How the new IT system changes transport budgets, the 21 support categories, and the process of endorsing providers.

10. Stacking Funding with State Taxi Subsidies: A strategic guide to doubling purchasing power using state-based schemes.

11. Compliance and Invoicing for Providers: Best practices for digital logbooks, service agreements, and avoiding audit failures.

12. Marketing Transport Services Online: SEO strategies for NDIS providers to reach participants needing transport.

13. Future Changes in 2026: A look ahead at the new framework planning and the I-CAN v6 assessment tool.

The Transport Dilemma

Getting around your community is a basic human need. For many people with a disability, transport is the biggest barrier to living an independent life. You need reliable transport to get to work. You need it to study. You need it to see your doctor and hang out with friends. The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) understands this.

However, NDIS transport funding is famous for being confusing. The rules are strict. The categories overlap. Participants often look at their plans and wonder how they are supposed to pay for a simple ride to the shops.

A very common question is whether you can pay a support worker to drive you around. The short answer is yes. But you do not use your standard transport allowance to do it.

This report explains exactly how NDIS transport works in 2026. We will look at the new PACE computer system. We will look at the latest price guide limits. We will break down long sentences and use simple English. Whether you are a participant trying to manage your budget, or a service provider trying to invoice correctly, this guide gives you the facts.

The Golden Rule

Before the NDIS gives you a single dollar for transport, you must pass a specific test. The National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA) calls this the public transport test.

The rule is simple. The NDIS will only fund your transport if your disability makes it substantially difficult to safely or independently use public transport.

If you can catch a local bus or train just like anyone else in your community, the NDIS will not give you special transport funding. They view standard public transport as an everyday living cost. The NDIS does not pay for everyday living costs.

The NDIA also looks at your informal supports. They will ask what reasonable help your family, friends, or carers can provide. If your parents drive you to school every day, the NDIS might decide you do not need extra funding for that specific trip. The focus is always on the disability-related barriers. It is never about personal preference or convenience.

The Transport Allowance (Recurring Supports)

If you pass the public transport test, you get a transport allowance. This is your personal money to spend on getting around. Under the new NDIS computer system, called PACE, this money sits in a budget called "Recurring Supports".

The NDIS splits this allowance into three standard levels. Your level depends on how active you are in the community. It also depends on whether you work or study. The NDIA indexes these dollar amounts each year to keep up with the cost of living.

Here are the three standard levels for the 2025–2026 financial year.

Exceptional Circumstances

Sometimes, Level 3 is not enough. The NDIA can approve higher amounts, but this is rare. They call these "exceptional circumstances".

You might get higher funding if you work in a very remote area with zero public transport. You might get it if your disability is highly complex and you need an expensive, specialised vehicle every single day. The main rule here is employment. The NDIA will usually only give you more than Level 3 if standard funding prevents you from keeping a job or staying in school. You will need strong proof. You must keep a detailed logbook of your travel costs. You will need letters from your boss or your doctors.

How the Money Reaches You

This allowance is paid differently from other NDIS funds. The NDIA deposits it directly into your nominated bank account every fortnight.

This gives you total control. You can pay for a taxi the moment you need it. You do not need to submit an invoice to the NDIS every time you take a ride. However, you must keep your receipts. If the NDIS audits you, you must prove you spent the money on disability-related transport.

What You Can and Cannot Buy

You must spend your transport allowance correctly. The NDIS has strict rules about this.

Permitted Expenses

You can use your fortnightly cash for independent travel. This includes:

• Taxis and maxi-taxis.

• Rideshare apps like Uber, Didi, or Ola. These are often cheaper than taxis, making your budget stretch further.

• Specialised disability transport businesses.

• Community transport services run by local councils. These usually charge a small fee.

• Public transport tickets for your support worker. If you need a worker to ride the train with you, your allowance can pay for their ticket.

Strict Exclusions

The biggest rule involves family and friends. You cannot use NDIS money to pay an informal carer to drive you. You cannot give your mum petrol money from your NDIS plan. Doing this breaches the rules.

You also cannot use this allowance to buy a car. You cannot use it to pay for your car registration, your standard car insurance, or your parking tickets.

If you need hand controls fitted to your car, or a wheelchair ramp installed, that is a different story. The NDIS can fund those things. But they do not come from your transport allowance. They come from your "Capital Supports" budget. Capital supports are for large, one-off purchases like vehicle modifications.

Activity-Based Transport (Paying Support Workers to Drive)

We finally arrive at the main question. Can you pay a support worker to drive you? Yes. But you do not use your $69 fortnightly allowance to do it.

When a support worker drives you somewhere as part of a shift, it is called Activity-Based Transport (ABT). This money comes from your "Core Supports" budget. Specifically, it comes from the "Assistance with Social, Economic and Community Participation" category.

Let us say you want to go to the local shops. Your disability means you need a worker to help you get ready, drive you to the shops, help you buy groceries, and drive you home. The act of driving is considered active disability support.

When the provider sends you the invoice, they will charge you for two separate things.

1. Labour Costs (The Time)

The provider will charge for the time the worker spends driving. They bill this at the standard hourly support rate. For the 2025-2026 financial year, the standard weekday rate for a support worker is around $70.23 per hour. If the worker spends 30 minutes driving, that time is billed at the $70.23 hourly rate.

2. Non-Labour Costs (The Distance)

The provider also charges for the wear and tear on their car. They charge for fuel and insurance. The NDIS sets a maximum price limit per kilometre.

The provider can also claim the exact cost of any road tolls or parking tickets they get during the trip.

Example of an ABT Invoice

Imagine a worker drives you 20 kilometres to a museum. The museum visit takes two hours. The worker then drives you 20 kilometres home. The total driving time is one hour.

• Time (Labour): 3 hours total (1 hour driving + 2 hours at the museum). Billed at $70.23 per hour. Total = $210.69.

• Distance (Non-Labour): 40 kilometres total. Billed at $0.99 per kilometre. Total = $39.60.

• Total Invoice: $250.29. This comes straight out of your Core Supports budget.

You must agree to these charges before the trip happens. The provider must write these rates into your Service Agreement. If it is not in the agreement, they cannot charge you.

Provider Travel (When the Provider Comes to You)

Provider travel is completely different from Activity-Based Transport. ABT is when the worker drives you. Provider travel is when the worker drives to you.

If an Occupational Therapist drives from their clinic to your house, they can charge you for that travel time. They can also charge you per kilometre. Just like ABT, you must agree to this in writing first.

The NDIS places strict limits on Provider Travel. They do not want providers draining your budget just by sitting in traffic.

The Modified Monash Model (MMM) Zones

The NDIS uses a mapping system called the Modified Monash Model. This system decides how remote an area is. It caps the amount of travel time a provider can charge for a single trip.

If a provider lives 45 minutes away in a major city (MMM 1), they can only legally charge you for 30 minutes of travel time. The extra 15 minutes is a cost they must absorb themselves as a business overhead.

The Massive 2026 Change: The 50% Therapy Cap

In mid-2025, the NDIS introduced a huge change for the 2025–2026 financial year. They slashed the amount therapists can charge for travel.

Before this change, therapists could charge their full hourly rate for driving. If a speech pathologist charged $193.99 an hour for therapy, they charged $193.99 an hour for driving.

Now, therapy providers can only claim a maximum of 50% of their hourly rate for travel time.

• Old system: 30 minutes of travel = $96.99.

• New 2026 system: 30 minutes of travel = $48.50.

This rule only applies to therapists and capacity-building supports. It does not apply to standard disability support workers delivering core supports. Support workers can still charge 100% of their hourly rate for travel time.

Why did the NDIS do this? They wanted to protect participant budgets. Too much money was being spent on travel instead of actual clinical therapy. However, this change has caused issues in regional areas. Some therapists refuse to do home visits now because the travel pay is too low.

Group Transport and Splitting Costs

Sometimes a provider drives a group of participants at the same time. Perhaps they are taking three people in a minibus to a bowling alley.

The NDIS has strict rules against "double-dipping". A provider cannot charge all three participants the full travel cost. They must apportion the cost.

Let us look at the math. The minibus drives 15 kilometres. The modified vehicle rate is $2.76 per kilometre. The total non-labour cost is $41.40.

The provider cannot charge each person $41.40. They must divide the total cost by the number of passengers. Each of the three participants gets charged $13.80.

The same rule applies to travel time. If a therapist drives to a group home to treat three different people, they must split their travel time claim equally among the three plans. Every participant must agree to this cost-sharing arrangement before the trip begins.

The NDIS PACE System

If you have joined the NDIS recently, or had a plan review since 2024, you are on the new PACE system. PACE stands for Participant and Community Experience. It is a massive software upgrade built on Salesforce technology. It changed how transport budgets work.

21 Support Categories

The old system had 15 support categories. PACE has 21. The NDIA split up old categories to make budgets clearer.

Under PACE, there are now four main support types:

1. Core (Everyday help)

2. Capacity Building (Learning skills and therapy)

3. Capital (Big purchases like wheelchairs and car mods)

4. Recurring (Regular cash payments)

Transport got a major overhaul here. Your personal transport allowance (the $69 to $133 a fortnight) now sits entirely alone in the new Recurring budget.

Stated versus Flexible Budgets

You need to understand the difference between stated and flexible funds.

Your Core budget is flexible. You can move money around inside it. If you have $20,000 for daily life tasks and $10,000 for community participation, you can treat it as a single pool of $30,000. This is great for Activity-Based Transport. If you want to use a support worker to drive you more often, you just use more of your flexible core funding.

Your Recurring transport budget is stated. It is locked. You cannot move that money into your Core budget. You cannot move Core money into your Recurring budget to buy more taxi rides.

Endorsing Providers

Under the old system, providers would lock away pieces of your funding using "service bookings." PACE removed service bookings.

Now, you have to "endorse" your providers. You log into the my NDIS portal or smartphone app. You search for your provider's name or ABN. You click a button to endorse them. This tells the NDIA that this specific provider is allowed to claim money from your plan.

This gives you more power. You can see their travel claims in real-time on your app. If a provider charges you for 60 kilometres but you only went to the local park, you will spot the error immediately.

Stacking Funding with State Taxi Subsidies

Transport is expensive. Even with NDIS funding, you might run out of money. The smartest way to stretch your budget is to stack your NDIS allowance with a state government taxi scheme.

Every state and territory runs its own subsidised taxi scheme. These schemes exist outside the NDIS. They are completely separate.

You can use both schemes at the same time.

Imagine you take a taxi that costs $40. You hand the driver your state subsidy smartcard. The state government immediately pays $20. The meter now reads $20. You then pay that remaining $20 using the NDIS transport money in your bank account.

By stacking these schemes, you double the power of your NDIS allowance.

Compliance and Invoicing for Providers

If you are a service provider, getting transport billing right is critical. The NDIS Commission regularly audits travel claims. If you make a mistake, you have to pay the money back.

Get it in the Service Agreement

You cannot charge a participant for travel if they do not know about it first. You must write everything into your Service Agreement.

You must explicitly list the $0.99 per kilometre rate. You must state whether you charge for Provider Travel time. You must explain how you split costs for group transport. Clear agreements stop arguments and protect your cash flow.

Use Digital Logbooks

Paper logbooks hidden in gloveboxes are a bad idea. They get lost. They get ruined.

Providers need to use digital software with GPS tracking. Apps like ShiftCare or Sole automatically track the exact kilometres a worker drives. They automatically split the labour and non-labour costs into separate lines on the invoice.

When you submit a claim through the NDIS provider portal, you must claim the transport on a separate line item from the actual support work. If you bundle the petrol cost into the hourly rate, your invoice will fail.

Marketing Transport Services Online

Transport is a massive pain point for NDIS participants. Service providers who offer reliable transport have a huge business opportunity. But you need people to find you online. This means using Search Engine Optimisation (SEO).

Participants do not just search for "NDIS provider." They search for solutions to problems. They search Google for phrases like "how to use NDIS for transport" or "NDIS occupational therapy Brisbane".

To grow your business, you need to create a content hub on your website. Instead of writing boring company updates, write helpful articles. Write an article called "A simple guide to understanding NDIS funding categories." Write another called "How to Apply for NDIS Transport Funding".

Use simple, friendly English. Break up your text with bullet points. Do not try to sell your services in every sentence. If you answer a participant's question clearly, they will trust you. They will stay on your website. Google notices this and moves your website higher up the search results. Also, make sure your Google Business Profile is updated with your correct address and phone number so you show up in local map searches.

Future Changes in 2026

The NDIS is always changing. Mid-2026 brings the start of a massive shift called "new framework planning".

The NDIA is moving away from relying entirely on individual allied health reports to build plans. Instead, they will use internal NDIA support needs assessors. These assessors will use a new tool called the I-CAN v6.

This tool will map out a participant's support needs across all areas of life, including transport. Based on this single assessment, the NDIS will generate a flexible budget. The goal is to make plans last longer and give participants more flexibility.

The government is also looking at how transport impacts participants in regional areas. They know the 50% travel cap for therapists is causing problems. The NDIA is considering reclassifying some outer regional locations to fix this issue. Providers and participants need to watch these policy shifts closely.

Navigating NDIS transport funding is tough. But if you know the difference between your recurring cash allowance and paying a worker from your core budget, you gain total control over your travel. Plan your trips, endorse good providers on PACE, stack your state subsidies, and you will get exactly where you need to go.