NDIS Trust Index Methodology
The NDIS Trust Index is a data-driven transparency score that helps participants identify providers with strong business foundations, public accountability, and clean regulatory records. Each of the 26,468 registered providers receives a score out of 100, calculated from five measurable dimensions and normalised from a raw 135-point scale.
Scoring Overview
The Trust Index combines five scoring components on a raw scale of 135 points, then normalises to a 0-100 display score:
Business Legitimacy (BL, 35 points)
Assesses the provider's foundational business status and legal standing through publicly available register data:
- Active ABN status (10 pts): Provider's Australian Business Number must be currently active on the ABR.
- ABN age and maturity (8 pts): Continuous scale from 0 to 8 based on years since ABN registration. Older ABNs earn more, reflecting established operations.
- GST registration (2 pts): Whether the business is registered for GST, indicating active trading.
- ASIC registration (7 pts): Corporate entities registered with ASIC receive full points. Sole traders are exempt from this requirement and receive equivalent credit automatically.
- Entity type (5 pts): Registered company structures receive full points. Sole traders are exempt and receive equivalent credit, as individual registration is a legitimate NDIS operating structure.
- Name stability (3 pts): Providers with a stable business name history score higher. Frequent name changes reduce this score.
Note on sole traders: Individual (IND) entity types receive automatic credit for the ASIC registration and entity type sub-components (12 points total). This ensures sole traders are not structurally penalised for operating as individuals rather than companies, which is a legitimate and common NDIS provider structure.
Public Transparency (PT, 30 points)
Measures whether a provider is publicly accountable and contactable through their online presence:
- Has a website (5 pts): Provider maintains a listed website.
- Website is live and accessible (5 pts): The website responds and loads correctly.
- HTTPS enabled (2 pts): Site uses secure HTTPS protocol.
- Disability/NDIS content (8 pts): Website clearly describes NDIS services or disability support offerings.
- Email contact listed (4 pts): Publicly available email address.
- Phone contact listed (4 pts): Publicly available phone number.
- Address published (2 pts): Physical or service address is publicly accessible.
Regulatory Standing (RS, 20 points)
Reflects the provider's compliance history with NDIS oversight bodies. This component is rescaled from a raw 25-point assessment:
- Active NDIS registration (8 pts): Provider is currently registered and active with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission.
- No compliance actions (5 pts): No enforcement action from the NDIS Commission on record.
- Clean address history (3 pts): Stable registered address, not frequently changed.
- Quarterly presence (4 pts): Evidence of continuous operation across recent quarters.
Market Signals (MS, 15 points)
Gauges provider visibility and standing in the broader market. This component is rescaled from a raw 20-point assessment:
- Not clustered (5 pts): Provider operates independently, not co-located with many other providers at the same address.
- Registration group proportionality (5 pts): Number of registration groups is proportionate to business age and size.
- Appropriate address type (3 pts): Business operates from a commercial or appropriate residential address.
- Unique contact details (2 pts): Provider uses their own phone/email, not shared across multiple ABNs.
Integrity Signals (IS, 35 points)
The newest component, Integrity Signals is deduction-based. Every provider starts at 35 and loses points for specific red flags linked directly to their ABN or business name history. Every signal listed below has been audited for direct attribution: the signal must trace to the individual provider, not to neighbours or proxies.
- Co-location density (up to -8): Multiple providers registered at the same physical address, weighted by address type. A shared residential address triggers earlier than a shared commercial office building. PO boxes get the lightest weighting.
- Shared contacts (up to -6): Two or more provider ABNs sharing the same phone number or email address. A single shared contact is treated as a non-event (legitimate corporate groups commonly share infrastructure). Five or more flagged ABNs sharing a contact applies the full penalty.
- Shell company indicators (up to -6): Composite of factual ABN-level signals: cancelled ABN, recent ABN registration, personal-email contact, no website, state mismatch between ABR and register, shared address, shared phone. Computed for all registered providers.
- Name change history (up to -5): Providers that have changed their registered business name multiple times. A single rename is normal; repeated changes may indicate deliberate obfuscation.
Signals removed after the May 2026 defensibility audit
Two former signals were removed because their attribution to the individual provider was indirect:
- Phoenix address match — penalised any provider sharing an address with other ABNs that had been cancelled, regardless of whether the provider in question had any phoenix-style ABN history themselves. Address co-occurrence is shown elsewhere on the page as informational, but no longer affects the score. Per-provider phoenix history (ABN cancelled-and-reinstated) is still surfaced through the dedicated phoenix-watch view.
- Registration group accumulation rate — penalised providers adding services faster than expected, but without provider-size data we could not distinguish a billing-mill from a legitimate large provider expanding services. Kept on the page as informational.
IS flags are shown on individual provider pages but are calculated independently from area-level statistics. Banned-person registers (ASIC banned directors, individual NDIS Commission banning orders without ABN), postcode-level risk indicators, and district payment data are displayed as area context only and do not affect individual provider scores.
Ghost Provider Penalties
Providers without a meaningful online presence receive graduated penalties based on their ghost classification. Rather than flat caps, the Trust Index uses continuous scoring within each ghost tier, differentiating providers by ABN age, entity structure, and registration group depth:
| Ghost Tier | Definition | BL Range | PT Cap |
|---|---|---|---|
| No website | No website listed on any register | 3 to 12 | 0 |
| Dead site | Website listed but not accessible (dead, 404, timeout) | 5 to 14 | 5 |
| Irrelevant site | Website works but contains no disability or NDIS content | 8 to 20 | 10 |
Within each tier, BL is calculated as: base + entity factor (0-2) + age factor (0-4, scaled over 20 years) + depth factor (0-3, based on registration group count). This means a ghost provider with a 15-year-old ABN and 9 registration groups scores higher than a newly registered ghost with one group, even though neither has a working website.
Other Hard Penalties
| Penalty | Trigger | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Cancelled ABN | ABN status is cancelled | BL forced to 0 |
| Phoenix provider | ABN cancelled then reinstated | BL capped at 15, flat -25 point penalty on raw score |
| Multi-cancellation | ABN cancelled more than once | BL capped at 5 |
| Compliance — severe | Banning Order, Revocation of registration, or Suspension of registration — currently in force or ended within the last 24 months | RS forced to 0, flat -10 point penalty on raw score |
| Compliance — moderate | Enforceable Undertaking currently in force or ended within the last 24 months | RS capped at 10, flat -5 point penalty on raw score |
| Compliance — minor | Compliance Notice or Refusal to re-register (administrative actions, typically late paperwork or insurance lapses) | RS reduced by 5, no flat penalty |
| Young ABN | Business registered less than 12 months | Score capped below Fair (max 57.9) |
Time decay on compliance actions. Compliance penalties scale with the Commission's published Date no longer in force. Actions in force, or ended within the last 24 months, apply at full weight. Actions ended 24-60 months ago apply at half weight (one severity tier lower). Actions ended more than 60 months ago are kept on the page as factual history but no longer affect the score.
Band Thresholds
Providers are classified into five bands based on their final normalised score (0-100):
Not Operating providers are classified into sub-labels: Banned, Suspended, Revoked, Deregistered, Cancelled ABN, or Voluntarily Withdrawn. They still receive a calculated score for ranking purposes but are excluded from active band distribution counts.
Current Distribution
As of the most recent data refresh, the registered provider distribution is:
- Excellent: 2,661 providers (10.1%) scoring 95 or above.
- Good: 3,213 providers (12.1%) scoring 85 to 94.9.
- Fair: 1,916 providers (7.2%) scoring 58 to 84.9.
- Poor: 3,175 providers (12.0%) scoring below 58.
Data Sources
The Trust Index draws data from authoritative Australian registers and public sources:
- NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission provider register
- Australian Business Register (ABR) for ABN status, entity type, registration dates, and cancellation history
- ASIC company register for corporate entity verification
- Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC)
- Automated web presence analysis (website status, HTTPS, keyword detection)
- Address type classification and co-location analysis
- NDIS Commission compliance action records
What we don't claim
Transparency about our gaps matters as much as the scoring itself. Three things the Trust Index does not measure:
- Billing activity. The Commission's published Provider Register has an Active flag, but it only records whether a provider is currently in the register, not whether they are billing. Per-provider NDIS payment data is not publicly available. We label providers as Registered rather than Active so we do not imply we know which providers are currently delivering services. Distinguishing Dormant (registered but not billing) from Active (registered and billing) would require per-provider payment data that the NDIA does not currently release.
- Service quality and participant outcomes. The index measures business transparency and regulatory standing, not service quality. A high score indicates a provider is legitimate and accountable, but does not guarantee excellent disability support outcomes. Conversely, a low score may reflect limited online presence rather than poor service quality. The index should be used alongside participant reviews, personal recommendations, and direct assessment of a provider's fit for individual needs.
- Individuals banned without an ABN. The Commission publishes banning orders against individuals (not just registered providers). 543 such individuals appear in the May 2026 register without an ABN. We cannot attribute these to current provider records, so they do not affect provider scores. If a banned individual re-emerges as a sole trader under a new ABN, the Trust Index has no way to flag that connection.
Data Updates
Provider scores are refreshed from the NDIS Commission register and ABR with each data release. Website and online presence data is updated as part of each scoring cycle. Compliance records are incorporated as new enforcement actions are published.
Last updated: May 2026. Methodology audit log available on request. For questions about methodology, contact the RefDat team.