NDIS Pricing & Award Wages
NDIS providers operate between two regulators. The NDIA sets price limits in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements (the Price Guide), and the Fair Work Commission sets minimum wages and entitlements under the SCHADS Award. The same hour of support has to fit inside both — billed at or below the NDIS cap, and paid at or above every applicable SCHADS clause. When those two numbers stop reconciling, providers either lose money on every shift or expose themselves to back-pay and audit risk.
Quick Facts
- NDIS Standard Rate
- ~$65.47/hr (Weekday Day)
- Worker Cost
- Wages + Super + WorkCover + Overheads
- TTP
- Temporary Transformation Payment (Extra loading)
- SIL registration deadline
- 1 July 2026 (all SIL providers)
- Fair Work record-keeping
- 7 years of time-and-wages records
- Serious contravention penalty
- Up to $939,000 per contravention (company)
Tools & Resources
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SCHADS AI Assistant
Get instant answers to award questions.
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Timesheet Validator
Check timesheets for compliance.
The Margin Squeeze
While the NDIS hourly rate seems high (~$65), the actual cost of a Level 2 casual worker (including super, training, software, and non-billable time) is significantly higher than just their hourly wage. Providers must ensure their rostering is efficient to remain solvent.
Billing Cancellations
The NDIS allows providers to claim for Short Notice Cancellations (less than 2 clear business days). This helps providers cover the cost of paying staff who (under SCHADS) must still be paid for the cancelled shift in many cases.
Where NDIS pricing and SCHADS entitlements collide
The NDIS price limit assumes a competently rostered, correctly classified workforce. The SCHADS Award is what determines whether that assumption holds. A handful of clauses do most of the damage to provider margins when they are mishandled: classification levels (a SACS Level 2 worker doing Level 3 duties is underpaid on every hour, every penalty rate, and every overtime hour, and the higher level applies regardless of what the contract says); the 2-hour minimum engagement for casuals (a 1-hour home care visit still costs the provider 2 hours of wages); the broken shift allowance (a morning shift and an evening shift with a large unpaid gap attracts an allowance on top of regular pay); sleepover call-to-duty (each disturbance during a sleepover must be paid at the applicable rate with a one-hour minimum, including weekend and overtime penalties); and the daily 10-hour overtime trigger (a 12-hour shift on Monday produces 2 hours of overtime even if the weekly total is only 12 hours). Travel between participant appointments during a shift is working time and must be paid at the ordinary hourly rate, separate from the SCHADS travel allowance for vehicle costs. Each of these is small per shift. Multiplied across dozens of staff and hundreds of pay runs, they are the difference between an NDIS service that is solvent and one that is quietly bleeding.
Timesheet-to-claim reconciliation under the 2026 compliance regime
The NDIS is in the middle of the largest integrity push in its history. The Fraud Fusion Taskforce has more than 660 active investigations, the NDIA reports roughly $86 million in blocked claims, the Quality and Safeguards Commission has banned around 200 individuals and providers, and 2,500+ providers with non-compliant claim patterns have been disrupted. From 1 July 2026, every Supported Independent Living provider must be registered with the Commission — including providers previously delivering SIL to self-managed or plan-managed participants without registration. Online platform providers are in scope too. New integrity legislation gives the Commission stronger banning powers, faster information-sharing across agencies, and tougher penalties for false or misleading claims. The single fastest way to fail a Commission or NDIA audit is timesheets that do not match the claim — where shift start and end times in the roster, the timesheet, and the NDIS claim do not reconcile. NDIS claims are funded on the assumption that workers were paid correctly. If your SCHADS calculations are wrong — sleepovers, broken shifts, classifications, penalty rates — your claim cost base is wrong too, and Fair Work and the NDIA increasingly share information. A clean SCHADS payroll is now part of NDIS compliance, not a separate problem.
What an audit actually costs
Fair Work has named the disability services sector as a strategic enforcement priority and recovered over $30 million in underpayments from the care sector in 2024-25. A Fair Work audit is not a casual review: inspectors request 12-24 months of payroll records and compare every line item against the SCHADS Award clause by clause, covering time and wages records, classification levels, penalty rate calculations, allowance payments, and leave accruals. The burden of proof is on the employer — if your records are incomplete, the worst-case interpretation applies. Back-pay is just the start. Standard penalties under the Fair Work Act reach $93,900 per contravention for a company and $18,780 for an individual; under the serious contravention provisions, penalties can reach $939,000 per contravention for a company and $187,800 for an individual when the employer knew or should have known about the issue. A single underpayment complaint can open a full payroll audit covering every employee, and Fair Work can audit records going back 7 years.
Common Questions
Frequently Asked Questions
- Does the NDIS price limits change when wages rise?
- Usually, the NDIA adjusts price limits on July 1st each year to account for the Fair Work Annual Wage Review.
- How does SCHADS Award compliance connect to NDIS compliance?
- NDIS claims are funded on the assumption that workers were paid correctly. If your SCHADS calculations are wrong — sleepovers, broken shifts, classifications, penalty rates — your claim cost base is wrong too, and Fair Work and the NDIA increasingly share information. A clean SCHADS payroll is now part of NDIS compliance, not a separate problem.
- Does the 1 July 2026 SIL registration rule apply if I only have plan-managed participants?
- Yes. The new rule captures all SIL providers, including those who have previously operated as unregistered providers delivering SIL supports to self-managed or plan-managed participants. If you deliver SIL in any form, you need to be registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission by 1 July 2026.
- What is the single most expensive SCHADS error against NDIS margin?
- Incorrect classification levels. A worker classified one level below the duties they actually perform is underpaid on every hour, every penalty rate, every overtime hour, and every allowance — and it compounds over years. Because Fair Work can audit 7 years of records, a classification error across a small team can produce a six-figure back-pay bill before penalties are added.
- Can I fix payroll errors retrospectively without triggering a Fair Work investigation?
- Yes, and you should. Voluntary back-payment — self-auditing and fixing errors before Fair Work asks — is viewed more favourably than errors discovered during an investigation, and it can reduce or eliminate penalties.
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