R3 — NDIS Pricing & Labour Cost Research

Prepared: 2026-08-20 | Class: STANDARD | REQ-SYS-05, REQ-SYS-01, REQ-CON-01

METHOD NOTE — READ THIS FIRST

• Primary sources attempted: ndis.gov.au (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27) and fairwork.gov.au / fwc.gov.au (SCHADS award MA000100, Annual Wage Review 2026).

• ndis.gov.au/media/8703/download?attachment= (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 PDF) fetched successfully via WebFetch.

• Multiple fairwork.gov.au pages returned ROBOTS_DISALLOWED / robots.txt timeout errors when fetched directly (the crawler is blocked from those paths). Where this happened, figures were cross-corroborated across two independent secondary calculators (RosterElf, CrossVault) that both cite "FWO Pay Guide MA000100" as their source and both independently produced the same dollar figures — this materially raises confidence but these are NOT first-party fetches, so wage-table rows are marked "Medium" not "High" confidence.

• The 4.75% Annual Wage Review 2026 increase (which underpins the SCHADS wage table) WAS confirmed from a first-party document: fwc.gov.au/documents/resources/annual-wage-review-2026-decision-announcement.pdf.

• IMPORTANT CAVEAT: WebFetch summarises large PDFs using a smaller/faster model. There is a residual risk of extraction error on any single figure, particularly the NDIS item-level table (a 65+ page PDF). Where a figure could not be cross-checked against a second independent source, this is flagged explicitly in the Confidence column.

• All NDIS "Pricing Schedule 2026-27" prices below are labelled National rates by the source document itself — the fetched extract stated Victoria is not price-differentiated from the national rate in the 2026-27 schedule (this is a change from earlier price guides which had separate remote/very-remote loadings but a single national/standard rate for non-remote areas including VIC). This is flagged as UNVERIFIED-DIRECT — see Unverified section.

A. PRICE TABLE — NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27

SIL pricing narrative (item 5)

SIL / "Assistance With Daily Life Tasks in a Shared Living Arrangement" is not sold as a flat published $/hr rate the way core supports are. The NDIS Pricing Schedule lists SIL under Registration Group 0115 with item codes such as 01_821_0115_1_1 (Assistance in SIL – Weekly) plus related codes for host-family, individual living for complex needs, and residential aged care variants. Every SIL item in the schedule the secondary tool displayed showed "Quote" rather than a dollar figure — consistent with the well-established NDIS methodology of SIL being individually quoted by the provider against a person-centred roster of care, using the standard hourly self-care rates (e.g. 01_011_0107_1_1 series above) as the building blocks, then dividing the rostered staff cost across the co-residents sharing that shift (1:1, 1:2, 1:3, etc.) to produce a per-participant weekly SIL price. I could not find a primary-source table publishing a specific $/hr figure broken out by 1:1 / 1:2 / 1:3 ratio — this is UNVERIFIED and should not be quoted as a fixed rate; it is a quoting methodology, not a price list.

Temporary Transformation Payment (TTP) — item 7

TTP no longer exists as at August 2026. It was a temporary 7.5% loading on personal-care and community-access supports introduced July 2019 to help providers transition to NDIS pricing; the NDIA phased it out, with most services ending in 2023 and the remaining TTP-eligible services ending 1 July 2024. Source: https://support.lumary.com/hc/en-us/articles/9701824173967-Temporary-Transformation-Payment-TTP-services-ending-on-1-July-2024 (secondary, but consistent with general NDIA policy history; Confidence: Medium — could not locate a primary ndis.gov.au page confirming the exact end date in the time available). Implication for the model: do NOT add any TTP loading to 2026-27 price limits.

Provider travel / non-face-to-face / cancellation (item 8)

From the fetched extract of the NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27 (Confidence: Medium, single-source PDF extraction):

• Provider travel (_PT suffix items): claimable at 50% of the direct service hourly rate, intended to cover a worker's travel time between participants, subject to the standard NDIS travel policy caps (typically limited to a maximum number of minutes/dollars per participant per day, not fully reproduced in the extract fetched).

• Non-face-to-face supports (_NF suffix): covers report writing, preparation and documentation directly related to delivering the support, claimable at the direct service rate, subject to prior agreement with the participant and typically capped as a proportion of the total support.

• Cancellation (_CA / _CA2 suffix): a short-notice cancellation (or no-show) can be claimed at the same rate as the direct service would have been, provided the provider meets the NDIS cancellation policy notice-period and attempted-rebooking conditions.

These are general rules described in the extract; exact minute/dollar caps and notice-period thresholds were not captured in the fetched excerpt — flagged UNVERIFIED for the precise numeric caps (see below).

B. WAGE TABLE — SCHADS Award MA000100, effective first full pay period on/after 1 July 2026

Classification used and why: Social and Community Services (SACS) employee stream, Level 2 (the classification most commonly used for a "Disability Support Worker" providing core/personal-care supports) and Level 3 (used for higher-responsibility DSW / senior support work, and as the benchmark classification NDIS pricing itself references when it calibrates support-worker cost inputs). Pay Point 1 shown as the base of each level's range.

On-cost multiplier guidance (item 12): No single published ATO/Fair Work "on-cost multiplier" figure was found. Industry practice (NOT a primary-source figure — treat as informed estimate only) commonly layers: Superannuation Guarantee 12% + annual/personal leave loading (~10–12% for a permanent employee; N/A for casuals, who instead get the 25% loading in lieu) + workers' compensation insurance (state-based, disability/community-services sector typically ~1.5–3% of wages in Victoria) + payroll tax (Victoria: 4.85% standard rate / 1.2125% regional, only above the tax-free threshold, and many NDIS charities are exempt) + WorkCover. No authoritative single blended multiplier was located; this must be built up on-cost-by-on-cost per the model's own assumptions, not taken from a source. This whole item is UNVERIFIED as a single citable figure.

C. DERIVED — CALCULATION, NOT A SOURCED FACT

All figures in this section are arithmetic performed by this researcher from the rows in Tables A and B above. They are NOT independently sourced facts and must not be cited as such elsewhere.

Assumptions carried into the calculation (stated explicitly)

• Casual support worker used for direct service delivery (typical of the small/medium provider model this study is examining) — casual SACS Level 2 base rate used ($45.28/hr, already includes the 25% casual loading in lieu of leave).

• On top of the casual hourly rate, superannuation guarantee of 12% is added (casuals are still owed SG on ordinary time earnings under the SG Act).

• No annual/personal leave loading is added for casuals (the 25% casual loading already substitutes for this).

• Workers' compensation and payroll tax are NOT included in this specific derived figure because no sourced multiplier exists (Item 12 above is UNVERIFIED) — so the "fully-loaded" cost below is a partial load (wages + casual loading + super only). This is flagged explicitly so the model does not silently understate true cost.

• Weekday-daytime NDIS price used: Assistance With Self-Care Activities – Standard – Weekday Daytime, $73.58/hr (item 01_011_0107_1_1).

• Weekend NDIS prices used: Saturday $103.54/hr (01_013_0107_1_1); Sunday $133.50/hr (01_014_0107_1_1).

• Weekend wage cost: SACS Level 2 casual Saturday $54.33 × 1.25 casual-loading-already-in-base logic — note: the casual penalty rates were not separately published by the secondary sources (they showed permanent Saturday/Sunday/PH rates only for the penalty columns). For this calculation, the casual weekend rate is derived by applying the same 150%/200%/250% penalty multiplier to the casual base rate ($45.28), consistent with standard SCHADS practice of penalties applying on top of the loaded casual rate. This substitution is my own extrapolation, not a sourced casual-weekend figure — flagged as an assumption.

13. Weekday-daytime core support — gross margin per billable hour (VIC)

NDIS price limit (weekday daytime, item 01_011_0107_1_1)          = $73.58/hr   [Table A, row 1]
Casual SACS Level 2 base wage (incl. 25% casual loading)          = $45.28/hr   [Table B, row 1]
+ Superannuation Guarantee @ 12% of casual wage                   = $45.28 × 0.12 = $5.43/hr
                                                                     ---------
= Partial fully-loaded labour cost (wages + super only)            = $45.28 + $5.43 = $50.71/hr

Gross margin per billable hour = NDIS price − partial loaded cost
                                = $73.58 − $50.71
                                = $22.87/hr  (≈31.1% margin on price)

Caveat: this margin is OVERSTATED because workers' compensation, payroll tax, and any rostering/travel/no-show inefficiency are not netted off (Item 12 is unsourced). Treat $22.87/hr as an upper bound on weekday gross margin per billable hour, not a final figure.

14. Saturday and Sunday — gross margin per billable hour (VIC)

Saturday

NDIS price limit (Saturday, item 01_013_0107_1_1)                  = $103.54/hr  [Table A, row 3]
Casual base wage × 150% Saturday penalty (my extrapolation)        = $45.28 × 1.50 = $67.92/hr
+ Superannuation Guarantee @ 12% of that wage                      = $67.92 × 0.12 = $8.15/hr
                                                                      ---------
= Partial fully-loaded labour cost                                 = $67.92 + $8.15 = $76.07/hr

Gross margin per billable hour (Saturday) = $103.54 − $76.07 = $27.47/hr (≈26.5% margin on price)

Sunday

NDIS price limit (Sunday, item 01_014_0107_1_1)                    = $133.50/hr  [Table A, row 4]
Casual base wage × 200% Sunday penalty (my extrapolation)          = $45.28 × 2.00 = $90.56/hr
+ Superannuation Guarantee @ 12% of that wage                      = $90.56 × 0.12 = $10.87/hr
                                                                      ---------
= Partial fully-loaded labour cost                                 = $90.56 + $10.87 = $101.43/hr

Gross margin per billable hour (Sunday) = $133.50 − $101.43 = $32.07/hr (≈24.0% margin on price)

Conclusion on weekend margin-positivity: On this partial-load basis, both Saturday and Sunday remain margin-positive per billable hour, and in absolute-dollar terms the margin is larger on weekends ($27.47 Sat, $32.07 Sun) than on a weekday ($22.87) because the NDIS price escalates faster (150%/200%) than the modelled wage penalty in this calc (which used the same 150%/200% multiplier on the casual base — see assumption above, since a sourced casual weekend rate could not be confirmed). As a percentage of price, weekday margin (31.1%) is actually the highest, sunday the lowest (24.0%) — so weekend work is margin-positive but proportionally thinner. Because on-costs beyond super are not netted off, and because the casual-weekend wage figure is an extrapolation rather than a directly sourced rate, these derived numbers should be treated as indicative only until (a) a sourced casual penalty rate table is obtained and (b) a full on-cost multiplier (workers' comp + payroll tax) is added.

SOURCES TABLE

UNVERIFIED / COULD NOT CONFIRM

1. Victoria-specific NDIS price limit vs. National rate. The fetched extract of the Pricing Schedule 2026-27 stated it provides "National" rates only and did not surface a separately-listed Victoria line. Older price guides had a single national/standard rate applying to VIC (non-remote) with separate remote/very-remote loadings, so this is probably still correct, but I could not directly confirm a VIC-labelled row in the source table. Do not assume National = VIC without a follow-up check of the raw PDF/XLSX support catalogue.

1. SIL per-ratio (1:1/1:2/1:3) $/hr breakdown. No source located publishes a fixed $/hr by ratio; SIL appears to be quoted individually per participant roster. Tried: carevo.com.au SIL tool, thrive365.com.au SIL/MTA article — neither gave a numeric ratio table.

1. Plan management establishment fee — item code and dollar limit not found in any source fetched (tried ndis.gov.au pricing schedule extract and mycarespace.com.au). Only the monthly fee ($104.45) was found, and only via a secondary source.

1. Exact numeric caps for provider travel (minutes/day, $ cap) and cancellation notice-period rules — the pricing schedule extract described the mechanism (PT=50% of direct rate, CA=same as direct rate) but not the specific cap/notice-period thresholds.

1. Casual weekend/public-holiday penalty rates for SACS Level 2/3, specifically — secondary sources only published permanent employee Saturday/Sunday/PH rates; the casual-loaded weekend rate used in the DERIVED section (item 14) is my own extrapolation (casual base × penalty multiplier), not a sourced figure.

1. A single published "on-cost multiplier" (super + leave + workers' comp + payroll tax combined) — no authoritative source found; Item 12 of the charter could not be answered with a citable figure.

1. Direct fairwork.gov.au / fwc.gov.au page-level confirmation of SCHADS dollar rates — every direct WebFetch attempt at fairwork.gov.au wage-rate pages returned ROBOTS_DISALLOWED or a robots.txt timeout. Only the FWC decision PDF (percentage increase, not per-classification dollar table) and the ATO super page were fetched first-party successfully.