How independent support workers keep 100% of what they earn

Going independent is the biggest pay rise most support workers ever give themselves. When you work through an agency, a share of every hour you bill stays with the agency. When you work for yourself, that share is yours. But keeping 100 percent of what you earn takes a little more than just going solo - here is what actually protects your pay.

First, understand the rate. The NDIS Price Guide sets the maximum you can charge for each support item. As an independent worker you can bill up to that cap and keep all of it - there is no agency margin coming out. The catch is that you also carry the costs an agency used to absorb: your own insurance, your own admin time, your own no-shows. Keeping 100 percent of the rate only helps if your costs and unpaid hours stay low.

Second, watch what eats your time. The hidden cost of independence is not a commission - it is hours. Chasing bookings, writing notes, building invoices, following up on payment. Every unpaid hour spent on admin lowers what you really earn per hour worked. The workers who do best are the ones who make the admin fast, so more of their day is billable support.

Third, invoice properly and get paid on time. A compliant NDIS invoice has to reference the right support item, the correct date, the hours, and the mandatory statements. Get it wrong and a plan manager can bounce it, and you wait weeks longer to be paid. Getting it right the first time is the difference between cashflow that works and cashflow that does not.

This is where a platform built for solo workers earns its keep. Juste charges one flat membership - the entry-level Solo tier for a single operator - and takes no commission on any hour. You bill the NDIS rate and keep all of it. The invoicing is built from the current support-item catalogue with price-cap warnings and PRODA export, so invoices are right the first time. And your notes are append-only, which protects your record if a claim is ever questioned.

The maths is simple. An agency taking a share of every hour costs you a percentage forever. A flat membership costs the same whether you bill ten hours or a hundred - so the more you work, the less it costs you as a share of what you earn. For a busy independent worker, that is the cheapest overhead in the business.