Business loans for NDIS providers: what lenders check now that the scheme is under scrutiny

The short answer

Yes, NDIS businesses can still get finance, and a well-run provider with clean statements is still a good borrower. What has changed is how much checking a lender does before it says so.

Two years ago an NDIS provider was assessed like any other services business: turnover, bank statements, trading history. Today the same lender will also search the business and its directors on the internet, ask whether the business is registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission, ask what its practitioners are licensed to do, and, above about $500,000, ask for full financials where it might once have settled for statements. None of that is a barrier to a provider doing the right thing. It is a list, and this page is the list.

Why the scrutiny has gone up

The short version is that the scheme got expensive and the politics followed. As at September 2026, this is what has actually changed:

• Growth is being reined in. The government has said it wants the scheme’s growth held to around 5% to 6% a year and is looking for savings measured in billions, and provider registration has been named as one of the levers.
• Mandatory registration is spreading. From 1 July 2026, supported independent living providers and NDIS digital platform providers must be registered with the Commission, and more categories are expected to follow. Roughly nine in ten providers are unregistered today, which is exactly why the government is moving on it.
• The regulator is far more active. The Commission issued a record number of banning orders in the June quarter of 2026 and its running total is well ahead of last year. Parliament passed new integrity laws this year with much larger penalties behind them.
• Selling a provider is no longer a paperwork exercise. Since 1 July 2026 a provider must tell the Commission when a sale is likely, and a change of ownership that changes how the business runs can trigger a fresh audit. The trade in pre-registered shell companies was the target.
• Pricing moves without asking you. Price limits for several therapy supports were cut in July 2025, travel claiming was capped at half the hourly rate, and the 2026-27 arrangements moved rates again: up for some disciplines, down for others.
• Bad stories travel. Fraud, overcharging and neglect cases make the news most weeks, and a lender’s credit team reads the same news you do.

Put that together and a lender sees a sector where the income comes from one funder, the price of every hour is set by government, the rules can change mid-year, and a provider can be removed from the scheme outright. That is not a reason to decline. It is a reason to check, and the checks are predictable.

What a lender is actually worried about

Three things, in this order.

Concentration. A provider that is 100% NDIS has one customer in the way that matters: one funder, one price list, one set of rules. A price cut or an eligibility change lands on the whole revenue line at once. Lenders price concentration the way they price it in any industry, which means a provider with a mix of NDIS, private, Medicare and insurer work reads better than one with none of those, even at the same turnover.

The scheme can switch you off. A banning order or a revoked registration ends the income overnight, and with it the loan. So lenders look for the things that predict a provider staying in the scheme: registration, an audit history, licensed practitioners, insurance, and no trail of complaints.

Reputation. No lender wants its name in the same paragraph as a provider under investigation. A negative search result creates a risk for the lender that has nothing to do with whether you can repay, and some lenders will walk away from it rather than price it. That is why the internet search now comes first.

Before you apply: the basics

Three things every NDIS or allied health owner should do before a lender does them for you. They cost nothing, and they decide which lenders are available to you.

1. Search yourself

Type the business name, any trading name and each director’s name into Google and read the first two pages the way a credit analyst would. Read the Google reviews. Check the Commission’s public list of compliance actions, the ASIC register and the court lists. What a lender does not want to find: a compliance notice, a banning order against anyone connected to the business, a news story with the word investigation in it, a run of one-star reviews describing missed shifts or overcharging, or a director whose previous company failed owing money.

If something is there:

• A false or defamatory review or article can be challenged. Google removes reviews that breach its policies if you ask, and a solicitor’s letter removes some articles. Start now, because it takes weeks.
• A true story needs an explanation, in writing, before the lender asks. What happened, what changed, and evidence that it changed. A lender will accept a resolved complaint from two years ago. It will not accept discovering it.
• Fresh, genuine reviews from participants and families push old results down. Ask for them as part of how you finish a plan period.

2. Be registered, and be licensed for what you do

• NDIS registration. A registered provider has been audited against the NDIS Practice Standards, and a lender reads the certificate as an independent check on how the business runs. Unregistered providers can still borrow, but they answer more questions, and with registration widening every year it is worth being ahead of the requirement rather than behind it. Have the certificate, the registration groups and the audit date to hand.
• Professional registration. For allied health, every practitioner holds a current registration with AHPRA where the profession requires it (physiotherapy, occupational therapy, psychology, podiatry) or with the professional body where it does not (speech pathology, dietetics, exercise physiology). A lender will ask for the list of practitioners and check a few names.
• Worker screening. Every worker in a risk-assessed role holds an NDIS Worker Screening clearance. Registered providers must have this in place, unregistered providers should, and a lender takes it as a sign of how the business is run.
• Insurance. Professional indemnity and public liability, current, at limits that fit the supports you deliver.
• Company housekeeping. ABN and GST registration current, ASIC details up to date, directors’ names matching across every document, and the entity that holds the NDIS registration being the entity that borrows. A mismatch between the registered provider and the borrowing company is one of the most common reasons an NDIS application stalls.

3. Clean statements

Twelve months of business bank statements are what most lenders read first, and on an NDIS file they read them for a particular rhythm: claims paid by the agency for agency-managed participants, usually within days; payments from plan managers, slower and more variable; and invoices paid by self-managed participants, slowest of all. A lender wants to see that money arriving regularly, wages going out on time, no dishonours, and the ATO paid. An ATO balance is not fatal, but it needs to be on a payment plan that is being met, and it needs to be disclosed before the lender finds it in the statements.

Under $500,000 and over $500,000

The document list changes sharply at around half a million dollars, and it pays to know which side of that line you are on before you apply.

Up to about $500,000. Most lenders assess on trading: twelve months of bank statements, the ABN and director ID, the registration certificate and practitioner list, and the internet search. Decisions in a day or two, funds within the week. Terms run from three months to five years, rates across our panel sit roughly between 9.5% and 25% a year depending on trading history, conduct and security, and a director’s guarantee is standard. The ranges on our unsecured business loans page apply, and they are indicative, not an offer.

Above $500,000. Lenders will ask for financials, and for an NDIS business they ask for more of them than they would for a comparable services business. Expect to provide:

• Two years of accountant-prepared financial statements and tax returns for the business, plus the directors’ own returns.
• Interim profit and loss and balance sheet for the current year, and the last four BAS.
• An aged receivables report showing what is owed by the agency, by plan managers and by self-managed participants, and how old each part is.
• Revenue split by funding type (agency-managed, plan-managed, self-managed) and by support category, so the lender can see how exposed you are to any one price limit.
• Participant numbers, and the share of revenue that comes from the largest few participants or the largest plan manager.
• Staff numbers and the wage bill, because payroll is the cost that decides whether an NDIS business makes money.
• On the larger facilities, a conversation about security. A general security agreement over the business is standard, and property security opens up the bank tier and the cheapest pricing in the market.

Turnaround is weeks rather than days, and the lender tier changes too: this is where the banks and the lenders priced closest to them come into play, with the price advantage that goes with them. We explain how that tiering works in why brokers push non-bank lenders, and when the bank is still the answer.

What NDIS businesses borrow for

• The gap between delivering supports and being paid, especially where plan-managed and self-managed participants are a large share of the book.
• Payroll ahead of revenue, when a provider takes on participants and staff faster than the claims come through.
• Fit-out and equipment for a new clinic or a second site.
• Buying another provider. Mind the new rules: the Commission must be told when a sale is likely, and a change in how the business runs can mean a fresh audit, so the registration does not simply come with the purchase any more. Budget time for it, and expect the lender to ask about it.
• An ATO balance that built up while the business was growing.
• Refinancing short-term debt taken on in a hurry, usually at a daily debit that no longer fits the way the business is paid. See refinancing expensive business debt.

Allied health: a note on mix

An allied health practice with NDIS, private, Medicare and insurer revenue is read differently from a provider that is entirely NDIS, and better. Diversified income means a price cut in one channel does not decide the year. If you are an allied health owner whose NDIS share has crept up over the last few years, the split by funding source belongs on the first page of the application rather than the last. A practice where NDIS is most of the revenue is still fundable. The lender simply prices the concentration, and it prices it lower when it can see the rest of the book.

Common questions