If someone has told you the NDIS might pay for cleaning, the number you’re after is $60.10 an hour. That’s the national price limit for 2026-27, set under support item 01_020_0120_1_1, effective 1 July 2026. In remote areas it rises to $84.14, and in very remote areas to $90.15.
That figure is a ceiling, not a set fee. It’s the most a registered provider may charge for an hour of house cleaning. Plenty charge less, and you’re entitled to ask what a provider actually charges before you agree to anything.
What the NDIS actually calls house cleaning
Half the confusion comes from the words. You search for cleaning, providers advertise domestic assistance, and your plan uses a different phrase again. They’re mostly the same work.
| What you might call it | What appears in your plan | Where it sits |
| House cleaning, NDIS cleaners | House Cleaning and Other Household Activities | Core Supports |
| Domestic assistance | Same item, older language | Core Supports |
| Home help | Not an official term | Varies by provider |
The item sits in registration group 0120, inside Core Supports under Assistance with Daily Life. In practice that means cleaning is funded as household tasks in your plan rather than something you apply for separately.
The 2026-27 price limit, and what a cap really means
| Area | Limit per hour | Item code | Effective |
| National | $60.10 | 01_020_0120_1_1 | 1 July 2026 |
| Remote | $84.14 | 01_020_0120_1_1 | 1 July 2026 |
| Very remote | $90.15 | 01_020_0120_1_1 | 1 July 2026 |
A price limit works differently from a price list. The NDIA sets the maximum; providers compete underneath it. Two providers can both be doing the right thing and still quote you different amounts for the same clean.
The document has also been renamed. What people still call the Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits is now published as the NDIS Pricing Schedule, so an old bookmark may be showing you a superseded version. Check the figures yourself on the pricing arrangements published by the NDIS. Limits reset each July.
What a cleaning shift covers, and what it does not
Cleaning funding covers the inside of your home:
- Vacuuming, mopping, bathrooms and toilets
- Kitchen surfaces, stovetop, inside the fridge
- Laundry, from washing through to folding
- Changing bed linen, dusting, taking the bins out
It doesn’t cover anything structural, outdoors, or needing a trade. Mowing, gutters, a leaking tap, a broken fly screen. Those sit under a different item, because yard work and home repairs are funded separately. Carpet cleaning is a periodic specialist job rather than regular shift work.
One more catch. A cleaning shift isn’t a bond clean or a decluttering service. If the house has got well beyond a normal weekly clean, say so before anyone quotes.
Why cleaning is funded for some people and not others
The question a planner answers isn’t whether your house needs cleaning. Everyone’s does. It’s whether your disability is the reason you can’t do it safely or reliably.
Reasoning that tends to succeed:
- Bending or standing causes pain, or risks a fall
- Fatigue means an hour in the bathroom costs you the rest of the day
- Sensory or cognitive factors make finishing a task alone difficult
Reasoning that tends to fail is anything that would apply to someone without a disability. Being busy, working long hours, disliking housework. Fair reasons, just not NDIS ones.
Cleaning is not the same as help with personal care
Cleaning is help with your house. Personal care is help with your body, and it’s charged against a different item at a higher rate.
So a two-hour shift can’t be forty minutes of showering assistance and eighty minutes of vacuuming billed entirely as cleaning. The time gets split and each part claimed separately. That’s not a problem, just something to build into the roster, and in-home support covers a wider set of tasks than cleaning alone.
Getting cleaning written into your plan
If cleaning isn’t funded yet, you’re looking at a review or your next planning meeting. Evidence does the work:
- A short letter from your GP or OT linking the task to the limitation. “Cannot kneel to clean a shower base without risk of falling” beats “would benefit from domestic assistance”
- A recent functional assessment, if you’ve had one
- What happens now, including unpaid hours a family member is covering
Bring it all together rather than splitting it up, because if you also need help with showering and dressing, the hours are worked out side by side. Raise it earlier than feels necessary, since reviews take time to schedule.
What to ask before you agree to a cleaning provider
| Question | Why it matters |
| What’s your hourly rate, at or under the cap? | Decides how many hours your funding buys |
| What’s the minimum shift? | A two hour minimum on a one hour job wastes money |
| Will I get the same worker? | Consistency matters more than people expect |
| What happens if a shift is missed? | Made up, credited or lost |
| How are invoices itemised? | You should see the code, date, hours and rate |
Ask us what a fortnightly clean would cost, and we’ll go through it with you.
