Is There a Two Hour Minimum for NDIS Supports?

Published by SESI Care Services · Updated September 2026 · 4-minute summary

Quick answer: No. The NDIA does not set a minimum shift length, and nothing in the NDIS pricing arrangements requires you to book two hours. The two hour figure comes from the SCHADS award, which requires employers to pay part-time and casual staff doing disability services or home care work for at least two hours per shift, or per period of work in a broken shift. That obligation runs between a provider and its own staff, not between you and your provider: the NDIA has said plainly that participants are not required to engage support workers for minimum periods, and that a provider cannot charge for more time than the support actually delivered. So the two hour minimum is real because most providers apply it, but it is a rostering decision, which makes it negotiable in a way most people assume it is not. Expect a yes more often on a regular booking near where a provider already has workers, and a no on a one off request across town.

Key takeaways

• There is no NDIA rule setting a minimum shift length. The pricing arrangements set maximum prices per hour, not a minimum number of hours to buy.
• The two hours comes from the SCHADS award, which requires part-time and casual staff doing disability or home care work to be paid at least two hours per shift.
• It binds the employer, not you. The NDIA’s guidance is explicit that participants are not required to engage workers for minimum periods.
• A provider cannot bill you for time it did not deliver. A two hour minimum should mean two hours of support, not a two hour charge for forty minutes.
• Minimums differ between providers because travel, roster density and how staff are employed differ. Full-time employees are not covered by the rule.
• Travel is the hidden cost, and your service agreement should name the figure before you sign.
• Ask about regular bookings. A standing Tuesday and Thursday morning is far easier to roster than an ad hoc request, and far likelier to get a yes.

Where the two hour figure actually comes from

Support workers are employed under the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010, usually shortened to SCHADS. Since 1 July 2022, clause 10.5 has required part-time and casual employees to be paid for a minimum number of hours “for each shift or period of work in a broken shift”: three hours for social and community services employees, except when they are undertaking disability services work, and two hours for everyone else. Disability support work and home care work sit in that second group. That is the whole origin of the number you keep hearing.

Who the worker is	Minimum payment per shift, part-time and casual
Support worker doing disability services work	2 hours
Home care worker, including aged care in the home	2 hours
Social and community services employee not doing disability services work	3 hours
Full-time employee	No minimum payment period under clause 10.5

Two details are usually left out. First, the minimum applies to each period of work in a broken shift, not to the day: a worker doing a 45 minute morning visit and a 45 minute evening visit is paid two hours for each, plus a broken shift allowance of $21.81, or $28.87 where the worker agrees to two unpaid breaks. That is why split short visits are the hardest of all to get agreed.

Second, the rule covers part-time and casual employees only. Full-time employees have no minimum payment period, so a provider with a core of full-time staff on a fixed roster has more room to fit a short visit into a day it is already paying for. The Fair Work Ombudsman sets these rules out plainly on its page about hours of work in the SCHADS award.

What the NDIA actually says about it

The NDIA’s guidance on what the award changes mean for NDIS supports makes three statements worth knowing by heart:

• “Participants are not required to engage support workers for minimum periods.”
• “The minimum shift requirement applies to the employer of the support worker, not the recipient of the support.”
• “A provider cannot charge a participant for more time than the actual amount of support delivered.”

The NDIA also noted that a worker can be rostered to more than one participant in a shift. The award expects a two hour minimum to be met by the provider filling the worker’s two hours, not by one participant buying all of it.

The current NDIS pricing arrangements back this up. They set maximum prices, and say that where a provider delivers less than a full unit of support they should claim according to the time spent, working through a ten minute claim as an example. There is no minimum billable period in them. (From 1 July 2026 the rates sit in a separate NDIS pricing schedule, with the claiming rules still in the Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits document on the same page.)

So a provider telling you the NDIS requires two hours is wrong about the source, even where its own minimum is reasonable. Said calmly, that moves the conversation from “that is the rule” to “that is our policy”, and policies can be discussed.

Why the minimum varies so much between providers

Because it is a business decision, it differs. Some providers set two hours across the board, some set one, and some will do a shorter shift for a standing booking while holding a longer minimum for one off requests. What drives the difference is geography and roster density: a provider whose workers live in the same suburbs as their participants can chain three short visits into one paid block, while a provider covering a whole metropolitan region cannot, because the gaps between visits are travel, and travel is paid time.

The NDIA’s own disability support worker cost model for 2026-27 shows how tight the arithmetic is: it builds the standard weekday price of $73.58 an hour from a base SCHADS wage of $38.50, then adds leave and on-costs, supervision, overhead and a 2% margin. That leaves little slack for an hour and a quarter of paid time producing 45 minutes of billable support, which is why a provider that says yes to short shifts everywhere tends to be the one that later cancels them.

Travel and non-labour costs, which is a separate charge

Travel is a separate charge from shift length, and worth understanding before you negotiate, because a shorter shift raises the share of your budget spent getting a worker to your door. A provider can claim up to 30 minutes of the worker’s travel to and from each participant in metropolitan and regional centre areas (MMM1 to MMM3), and up to 60 minutes in MMM4 and MMM5 areas. Separately it can claim non-labour costs: up to $0.99 a kilometre for a standard vehicle, up to $2.76 a kilometre for a modified or accessible vehicle, plus tolls, parking and fares.

Travel comes out of the same budget as your supports, and can only be claimed where you have agreed to it, which is why the pricing arrangements say the agreement between participant and provider should specify the travel costs claimable. If yours does not name a figure, ask for one in writing before you sign. The NDIS page on what a service agreement is lists travel among the things an agreement should cover.

What a two hour minimum actually costs your plan

If you need 45 minutes of morning personal care and book two hours daily because that is the minimum offered, you are buying more than twice the support you asked for. At the 2026-27 weekday rate of $73.58 an hour, the difference over a year is not a rounding error.

Morning shift, every day	Cost per shift	Per week	Per year
45 minutes	$55.19	$386.30	about $20,090
1 hour	$73.58	$515.06	about $26,780
1.5 hours	$110.37	$772.59	about $40,175
2 hours	$147.16	$1,030.12	about $53,570

These are weekday daytime figures, and weekend, evening and public holiday rates are higher. Our breakdown of personal care hours in an NDIS plan covers mapping a real morning routine instead of guessing a number, and what the 2026-27 prices mean explains where the hourly rate comes from.

The honest flip side: a rushed 30 minute shift, with a worker who leaves the moment the timer goes, is not always better value than a longer one where nothing is hurried. The question is whether the length matches the task, not whether it is small.

The sentence to say, and when a no is fair

This is the version that tends to work, because it is accurate and gives the provider something to act on:

“I understand the two hour minimum is an award requirement between you and your staff, rather than an NDIS rule. I need about 45 minutes each weekday morning. Can you offer a shorter shift if I book the same time every day, or roster me alongside another participant nearby?”

Then ask these four:

1. What is your minimum shift length, and does it differ for regular bookings and one off requests?
2. Do you have workers based near me, and are any full-time?
3. What will travel add, and is that figure in the service agreement?
4. Can two short supports on the same day be combined?

A no is fair when the request is a one off, when it falls on an evening or weekend where penalty rates apply, when no other participant is within a sensible distance at that hour, or when the support needs a handover or a two person transfer that cannot be done properly in the time. A provider that agrees to a shift it cannot staff is not doing you a favour: that shows up later as cancellations and a rotating cast of workers, the problem covered in the same support worker or a roster and in what happens when your support worker is away. If you are told no, ask what would make yes possible. Often it is a fixed day and time.

Making short supports work in practice

Three things do more than negotiating hard.

Cluster the tasks. Combining assistance with personal activities and household tasks in one visit turns two awkward fragments into one useful shift, and both come from the same flexible Core budget. A shower and dressing, then the dishes and a load of washing, is a sensible ninety minutes.

Book regularly, not ad hoc. A standing weekly pattern is the easiest thing to roster, and the thing most providers will flex a minimum for.

Choose a provider with workers near you. SESI delivers in-person supports across Victoria, and shift length is easier to flex where our workers are concentrated, including around Narre Warren. Ask any provider, including us, where its workers actually live before you accept a minimum as fixed. If you want help comparing minimums against your plan, that is what support coordination is for, and we provide it by phone and video Australia-wide.

Frequently asked questions

Talk to SESI

If you want to know what shift lengths we can actually offer where you live, tell us the times you need and we will give you a straight answer before you commit to anything.

Tell us what’s going on: sesi.com.au/referral · Call: 1800 017 374

This guide is general information based on National Disability Insurance Agency and Fair Work Ombudsman guidance current at September 2026, including the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (MA000100) as varied to 1 July 2026. It is not advice about your individual plan, service agreement or employment situation. For questions about your NDIS plan, contact the NDIA on 1800 800 110.