The Real Cost of NDIS Cleaning in Perth

We're going to be honest with you. And we think you deserve that honesty.

There's a perception out there — and we hear it more than we'd like — that NDIS providers are doing very nicely, thank you. That the government rates are generous, the work is easy, and the money just rolls in. We get it. From the outside, it can look that way. But we'd like to open the books a little. Not to complain — we genuinely love what we do — but because transparency is one of our core values, and this conversation is long overdue.

The Rate Is Fixed. We Can't Change It.

Here's something most people don't realise. When a regular cleaning company quotes you a job, they can charge whatever the market will bear — and in Perth, company rates typically start from $60–$70 per hour for standard residential cleaning. In competitive sectors like hospitality or mining, commercial cleaning rates in Western Australia routinely reach $90–$120 per hour. A self-employed person cleaning on their own might charge around $45/h with minimal overheads, but a company running with employed staff, insurance and full compliance obligations works from a fundamentally different cost base.

We can't do any of that. As a registered NDIS provider, our rate is set by the NDIS Price Guide. It doesn't move. It doesn't flex. Whether we're in Joondalup or Butler, whether it's a straightforward visit or a complex one — the rate is the rate. That's actually great for participants — no surprises, no inflated quotes. But it means every cost we carry comes out of a number we simply cannot control.

The 2-Hour Minimum — And It's Not the NDIS That Requires It

A lot of people assume our 2-hour minimum booking is an NDIS rule. It isn't. It comes from the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services (SCHADS) Award — a Fair Work Australia instrument that governs pay and conditions across our entire industry.

Under the SCHADS Award, when we send a worker to your home, we must pay them a minimum of 2 hours — regardless of how long the actual job takes. This isn't us being difficult or trying to squeeze more out of your plan. This is Australian employment law, designed to protect workers from being called in for 45 minutes and sent home with nothing. We follow it because it's the right thing to do — and because Fair Work requires it.

So before we've even started calculating costs, we're already committed to 2 hours of labour, every single visit.

So What Does That Fixed Rate Actually Have to Cover?

Let's take one standard NDIS cleaning visit and look at what comes out before we see anything left over:

• Worker wages — at the SCHADS Award rate, including any applicable penalty rates for early mornings, evenings, weekends or public holidays
• Superannuation — 11.5% on top of every dollar of wages. Required by law, every single pay cycle
• Travel time and kilometres — more on this below, but it's significant across a city as spread out as Perth
• Public liability and workers compensation insurance — non-negotiable for a registered provider. Not cheap.
• Cleaning materials — gloves, cloths, chemical-free products, mop heads, replacement equipment. Every visit consumes supplies
• NDIS registration and compliance — audits, quality management systems, mandatory training, incident reporting, policy maintenance. Being registered is a serious, ongoing financial commitment
• Operational software — compliance-grade platforms for clock-in/clock-out, automatic kilometre tracking, participant records and scheduling carry a real monthly cost — charged per worker and per participant. This isn't optional for a provider committed to transparency and accuracy; it's the only way to ensure every timesheet and every kilometre is recorded correctly
• Administration — scheduling, invoicing, plan manager liaison, progress notes, payroll. Real hours, real costs
• General overheads — phone, accounting, office costs. The invisible expenses that never stop

Add all of that up — honestly and carefully — and the margin that remains is genuinely thin. Much thinner than people assume when they hear the word "NDIS."

Travel Costs — The One That Catches People Off Guard

This is worth its own section, because it's caused us real pain. We've had participants — good people, people we genuinely cared about — who saw travel time and kilometres on their invoice and felt we were overcharging them. In one case, it ended the relationship entirely. That was hard. Because we weren't doing anything wrong. We were doing exactly what two separate bodies of Australian law require.

Here's how it works. Under the NDIS Pricing Arrangements, registered providers are entitled to charge for worker travel time and kilometres. At the same time, under the SCHADS Award enforced by Fair Work Australia, we are legally required to pay our workers for their travel time between clients. We cannot ask a trained, screened, insured worker to drive across Perth and pay them nothing for that time. Fair Work does not allow it — and rightly so.

So the travel charge on your invoice is not padding. It's not profit. It's a cost that two separate pieces of Australian legislation place on us simultaneously — one from the NDIS side, one from the employment side.

And here's what we do about it at OCD Brilliance: we use purpose-built software that automatically records every kilometre travelled. No manual entry. No estimation. No rounding up. The distance on your invoice is the exact distance driven — verified by our system, not guessed by a person. We built our operations this way precisely because we never want a participant to feel overcharged. Transparency isn't just something we talk about. It's built into our systems.

We now explain all of this to every new participant before their first visit — clearly, in plain language, as part of our service agreement. Because we'd rather have that conversation upfront than lose trust over something that was never hidden to begin with.

"But Don't NDIS Providers Just Pocket the Government Money?"

We need to be direct here. Yes — there have been providers who abused the NDIS system. It has happened. It is completely indefensible. Every dollar misused comes directly from a participant who genuinely needs it, and it damages the reputation of every honest provider working hard to do things right. That behaviour deserves to be condemned, investigated and prosecuted. Full stop.

But the vast majority of registered NDIS providers are doing exactly what they should be doing. They're running lean, absorbing rising costs, navigating complex compliance requirements, and genuinely trying to make a difference in people's lives. Registration is not a licence to print money. It is a serious, ongoing responsibility — with audits, standards, reporting obligations and real consequences for falling short.

We ask that people hold that distinction in mind. Scrutiny is healthy. Accountability is important. But painting every NDIS provider with the same brush as the rare bad actor is unfair — and it makes it harder for good providers to have honest conversations like this one.

So Why Do We Do It?

If the margins are tight, the compliance burden is real, and some people will always be suspicious — why not just run a regular cleaning business with flexible pricing and no regulation?

Because this work matters in a way that's genuinely hard to explain until you've done it. Walking into someone's home and knowing that what your team member is doing today is making a real difference to that person's comfort, dignity and quality of life — that's not something you walk away from easily. We got into this because we wanted to serve our community. Not because we thought it would make us rich. And we believe most of the good providers in this industry feel exactly the same way.

What We'd Ask of You

If you're a participant or a family member — thank you for trusting us. We take that seriously every single day.

If you've ever been surprised by a travel charge or a minimum booking — we hope this article helps. Ask questions. Ask providers to explain every line of every invoice. That's your right, and any good provider will do it without hesitation.

And if you ever feel something isn't right — report it. The NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission exists for exactly that reason. But please, don't let the actions of a few bad actors stop you from trusting the many honest people working hard in this industry every day.

Working in the NDIS is tough. It is also, without question, worth it.