Cancellations are a daily reality for NDIS providers. Without a clear, documented process for billing short notice cancellations, providers absorb these costs directly, and over time, they become a significant financial drain.
Whether you can bill a short notice cancellation to a participant's plan is decided by the NDIS pricing arrangements and by your service agreement. The notice period, how much can be claimed and the conditions attached are set by the NDIS, are updated from time to time, and differ by type of support, so this guide does not state them. This page covers the parts that do not move with the NDIS rules: what to record, what your service agreement should say, and what you owe your own worker.
| Question | Where the answer comes from |
|---|---|
| How much notice counts as "short"? | The current NDIS pricing arrangements, for the support item you are claiming |
| How much can be claimed? | The current NDIS pricing arrangements and the terms of your service agreement |
| What conditions must be met? | The current NDIS pricing arrangements (they have included a condition about whether you could have found other billable work for the worker) |
| How is it claimed? | By the current NDIS claiming guidance for your support item, which is updated from time to time |
| What do I owe the worker? | The Award or the worker's contract, whether or not you can bill the participant (clause 25.5(f) of the SCHADS Award is covered below) |
A claim is limited by the terms of your service agreement, so the agreement is where a cancellation policy lives. Before a cancellation happens, the agreement should state the notice period you apply, the fee, and how a no-show is treated. You can offer better terms than the NDIS allows; you cannot rely on terms the participant never agreed to. See service agreements: best practice for NDIS providers.
Whether a cancellation can be billed to the participant's plan and what you owe your employee are two separate questions. The NDIS claim depends on the NDIS rules. The employee's pay depends on the Award and their contract. For employees covered by the SCHADS Award, clause 25.5(f) deals with a client cancelling a home care or disability service close to the scheduled time:
"Clause 25.5(f) applies where a client cancels a scheduled home care or disability service, within 7 days of the scheduled service, which a full-time or part-time employee was rostered to provide. For the purposes of clause 25.5(f), a client cancellation includes where a client reschedules a scheduled home care or disability service."
"Where a service is cancelled by a client under clause 25.5(f)(i), the employer may either: (A) direct the employee to perform other work during those hours in which they were rostered; or (B) cancel the rostered shift or the affected part of the shift."
If the employer cancels the shift, it must do one of two things:
"Where clause 25.5(f)(ii)(B) applies, the employer must either: (A) pay the employee the amount they would have received had the shift or part of the shift not been cancelled; or (B) subject to clause 25.5(f)(v), provide the employee with make-up time in accordance with clause 25.5(f)(vi)."
"The make-up time arrangement can only be used where the employee was notified of the cancelled shift (or part thereof) at least 12 hours prior to the scheduled commencement of the cancelled service. If less than 12 hours' notice is provided, clause 25.5(f)(iv)(A) applies."
In practice, a late cancellation of a rostered shift often means you owe the worker the pay (or make-up time) whatever the participant is charged, which is why the claim and the pay need to be recorded together. Quotations are from the Fair Work Commission's consolidated Award MA000100. Casual employees are not covered by clause 25.5(f)(i) as quoted, so how a casual's cancelled shift is treated depends on their engagement terms. Your organisation is responsible for applying the Award to its own staff.
If one participant cancels often, find out why and record what you did. It may point to a roster, worker or support problem that is worth fixing whether or not the cancellations are billable.
It depends on the type of support and is set by the NDIS pricing arrangements, which change from time to time. Check the current figure for the support item you are claiming.
A claim is subject to the terms of your service agreement, so the agreement should state your cancellation terms before a cancellation happens.
The pricing arrangements have included a condition about whether the provider could have found other billable work for the worker. Check the current conditions before you claim.
Follow the current NDIS claiming guidance for your support item. The claiming method is set out in NDIS documents that are updated from time to time, so confirm it on the NDIS pricing arrangements page before you lodge a claim.
Under clause 25.5(f) of the SCHADS Award, if a client cancels close to the scheduled service and the employer cancels the shift, the employer must pay the employee the amount they would have received, or provide make-up time where the employee had at least 12 hours' notice.
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