The short answer
If a participant cancels a shift at short notice, or does not show up, you can claim up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee for that support. Two things have to be true: the terms are written into your service agreement, and you were not able to find other paid work for that time. For the personal care and community participation supports most independent workers deliver, short notice means less than 7 days notice. For most other supports it is less than 2 clear business days.
A cancelled shift is the part of independent support work nobody warns you about. You have held the time, you may have already driven halfway there, and the money simply is not in your week. The NDIS rules do allow you to charge for it. What they also do, and this is the part that catches people, is make that right conditional on something you had to set up earlier: a cancellation term in your service agreement.
What counts as a short notice cancellation?
The rules split supports into two groups, with a different notice period each. The distinction is not about who you are, it is about which support you were booked to deliver.
| Which support | Short notice means | What you may claim |
|---|---|---|
| Supports covered by the disability support worker cost model. In practice this is most personal care, daily living and community participation work. | Less than 7 days notice | Up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee |
| Most other supports, including many capacity building and therapy supports. | Less than 2 clear business days notice | Up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee |
If you are an independent support worker delivering shifts, the 7 day row is almost certainly the one that applies to you. If you deliver a mix, check the support item you are booked against rather than assuming one rule covers everything you do.
Clear days. The word "clear" is doing work here. A clear day is a whole day that sits between the day you are told and the day of the shift, so neither of those two days counts. Read that way, a Friday support cancelled on the Tuesday has Wednesday and Thursday as its two clear business days, and is not a short notice cancellation. Cancelled on the Wednesday, it is.
A worked example on the 7 day rule. You have a regular Saturday community access shift. The participant lets you know on the Thursday that they will be away. That is well under 7 days, so it is a short notice cancellation, and if your service agreement covers it and you cannot fill the time, you can claim for that shift.
How much can you claim?
Up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee for the support that was booked. Not more, and not a separate cancellation fee of your own invention on top. The number you claim is the number you would have invoiced had the shift gone ahead, which is why the rate and the support item on your booking matter as much for a cancellation as for a delivered shift.
The word "up to" is deliberate. Charging the full fee every time is permitted, not compulsory. See waiving the fee below.
The conditions you have to meet, and the one that matters most for a sole trader
A short notice cancellation is not automatically claimable. The rules set conditions, and there are two worth reading closely if you work for yourself.
- You were not able to find alternative billable work for that time. This is the real test for a sole trader. If you filled the gap with another paid shift, you have been paid for the time, and the cancellation claim is not available for it.
- Where the provider is not a sole trader or partnership, they are required to pay the worker for the time. Read that carefully: the pricing rules word this limb so it applies to providers who are not sole traders or partnerships. If you are a sole trader, there is no separate employee to pay, so the condition that actually governs your claim is the first one.
- The terms are documented. The rules say providers should document the terms of their short notice cancellation policy in participant service agreements.
Practically, that first condition is also your record-keeping job. If a claim is ever queried, the useful thing to have is a note of the shift that was booked, when the cancellation came through, and that the time went unfilled.
What about a no show?
A no show is handled the same way as a short notice cancellation. The rules cover both the participant not showing up for a scheduled support within a reasonable time, and the participant not being at the agreed place within a reasonable time when you are travelling to deliver the support. So the shift you drove to and could not deliver is not automatically unpaid work.
What "a reasonable time" means is not a number, and it will not be the same for a person who is often ten minutes behind as for a person who has never missed a shift. Deciding your own waiting time in advance, and writing it into the agreement, turns an awkward judgement call in a driveway into something you have already agreed.
How many cancellations can you claim?
There is no hard limit in the pricing rules on the number of short notice cancellations or no shows a provider can claim for one participant. The rules pair that with a reminder that providers have a duty of care, and that an unusual number of cancellations for a participant is a signal to look into rather than a billing opportunity.
That is a fair reading of the job. A run of cancelled shifts is often the first visible sign that something has changed for the person: health, a new medication, a support that is no longer the right fit, or a family under strain. Charging for every one of them and asking no questions is compliant and still the wrong call.
How does it go on the invoice?
A cancellation is claimed against the same support item that you would have used had the support been delivered, rather than some separate cancellation code. Where a provider claims through the NDIA myplace portal, the rules point to the "Cancellation" option there.
If you invoice a plan manager or a self managing participant instead, the same principle carries: the line shows the support item and rate that was booked, with the date of the cancelled shift, and it is clearly marked as a short notice cancellation rather than as support delivered. Sending it through as though the shift happened is the version that comes back to you.
When these rules do not apply: programs of support
One genuine exception is worth knowing, because it changes the answer completely. Supports delivered as part of a program of support, which is a specific arrangement for certain group based supports agreed in advance with the participant, are not subject to the short notice cancellation rules at all. Under that arrangement the provider claims for participants who agreed to attend whether they attended or not, as long as the provider had the capacity to deliver the support.
Most independent workers delivering one to one shifts are not running a program of support, so the ordinary cancellation rules are the ones to work to.
The cancellation clause to put in your service agreement
This is the part you control, and the part that decides whether the rest of this page is any use to you. A cancellation term that a participant has read and agreed to is what you point at later. Cover these points:
- The notice period you ask for, and that it matches the rule for the supports you deliver.
- What happens inside that notice period: that you may charge up to the full agreed fee for the shift, and that you will not if you can fill the time.
- How the participant tells you: a call, a text, a message in one place, so "I did tell you" never becomes the argument.
- No shows: how long you will wait at the agreed place before it is treated as a cancellation.
- Cancellations by you: what you do when you are the one who has to cancel, including how much notice you will give and what happens if you are unwell. An agreement that binds only one side reads exactly like what it is.
- That your policy can be more generous than the minimum, and how you will use that discretion.
If you do not have an agreement in place yet, start from our NDIS service agreement template for sole traders, which has a cancellations section you can adapt to the notice period that applies to your supports. Sparks Scribe generates a service agreement from your client and rate details on the Vault plan, so the terms live with the client record rather than in a document you have to find later.
Can you waive the fee?
Yes. The rules expressly allow a provider to waive a short notice cancellation fee at their discretion, and to offer better notice terms than the minimum. A participant in hospital, a funeral, a bad week: those are the moments where the discretion exists.
The trap is deciding it fresh every single time, because then it stops being discretion and becomes whoever asks most persistently. Pick your own rule, write it in the agreement, and apply it the same way for everyone.
What gets a cancellation claim queried
- Nothing in the service agreement. The most common one. No agreed term, no basis to charge.
- Billed as delivered support. A cancelled shift invoiced as though it happened is the version that gets found, and it is a much worse conversation than a correctly marked cancellation.
- The wrong notice period. Applying a 7 day rule to a support that sits on the 2 clear business day rule, or the reverse.
- Claimed after filling the time. Charging the cancellation and also billing the replacement shift is being paid twice for one slot.
- No record of when the cancellation came in. If you cannot show when you were told, the notice period is unarguable in the other direction.
- A flat "cancellation fee" invented separately from the agreed fee for the support.
The records that make this easy
Everything above rests on being able to show three plain facts about a shift that never happened: it was booked, you were told at a particular time, and the time went unfilled. Workers who keep their bookings in their head and their invoices in a spreadsheet are the ones who end up choosing between an awkward claim and writing the shift off.
Keeping the roster and the invoicing in one place is what makes the claim ordinary rather than a research project. In Sparks Scribe the shifts you book sit in the Calendar and feed the invoice builder, and each line carries the NDIS support item code and the rate for the day and time, so the cancelled shift is invoiced from the same booking rather than reconstructed from memory. You set your own rates, and Scribe does not apply NDIS price limits on your behalf, so the rate on the line is the one you agreed.
Keep the booking, the note and the invoice together
Sparks Scribe is built for one person, not a team. Roster your own shifts, write notes in about 60 seconds, and invoice with the NDIS code and rate already on the line. 14 day free trial, no card needed.
Start your free trialFrequently asked questions
Can a support worker charge for a cancelled shift?
Yes, in the circumstances the NDIS pricing rules describe as a short notice cancellation. You can claim up to 100 per cent of the agreed fee for the support, subject to those rules and to the terms of your service agreement with the participant. You can only claim if you were not able to find other paid work for that time.
How much notice does a participant have to give to cancel an NDIS shift?
For supports covered by the disability support worker cost model, which is most personal care and community participation work, short notice means less than 7 days notice. For most other supports it is less than 2 clear business days. Those are the points at which a provider is permitted to claim, not a rule that stops a participant cancelling.
Do I have to put a cancellation policy in my service agreement?
The NDIS pricing rules say providers should document the terms of their short notice cancellation policy in participant service agreements. If your agreement is silent on cancellations, you have no agreed term to point to when you charge for one.
What if the participant simply does not show up?
A no show is treated the same way as a short notice cancellation, including where the person is not at the agreed place within a reasonable time when you have travelled to deliver the support.
Is there a limit on how many cancellations I can claim?
The pricing rules set no hard limit on the number of short notice cancellations a provider can claim for a participant. They do point out that providers have a duty of care, and that an unusual number of cancellations is something to look into rather than simply keep billing.
Can I choose not to charge for a cancellation?
Yes. The rules say providers may waive the fee at their discretion, or offer better notice terms than the minimum in their own policy. Plenty of workers do, and it is worth deciding where your line is before it happens rather than in the moment.