What's lost and risked by taking your support off Hireup?
We sometimes hear stories of support workers choosing to 'go it alone', without the back-up and support of Hireup. These support workers – now calling themselves ‘independent support workers’ or ‘self-employed' - have suggested clients book them ‘off-platform’.
This is really concerning. When clients make bookings with workers directly they reduce the quality of services and support they receive and, often unknowingly, they can also become liable for serious obligations.
We believe that safe, successful disability support needs a professional team - and comprehensive insurance - behind it. In the chart below you can see that when you pay for support through Hireup, you receive numerous protections and benefits.
Going off-platform: what’s lost
These things are included in every Hireup support worker shift:
Safety and insurance
Organising shifts off-platform means not having access to Hireup teams who are on call to respond to incidents and can help with things like short-notice shift cover.
It also means losing the protection of three types of insurance Hireup has in place. These include cover for clients, workers compensation insurance to cover any injuries to support workers, and public liability insurance for members of the public. As employees, Hireup workers have protection at a much higher level than an independent support worker can buy - if they buy insurance at all. No one wants to use insurance. But if it’s needed, it’s vital it’s there.
Hireup support worker Jarrod Pitt says it’s crucial to have the right insurance in place, especially in the case of injury. “You have to go by the book because at the end of the day, you don’t want to be put out of work long term and be without an income. It’s common courtesy - and common sense - to be on the same page with your client about situations like that.”
Regulated award wages for support workers
Hireup support workers are employees. This means they are paid and protected by an award which ensures minimum wages, superannuation, good working conditions and various entitlements, including casual loading. Set wages also mean there’s no need for clients to negotiate rates in potentially awkward one-to-one conversations.*
As Hireup support worker, Gwyneth Todd, says: "[Off-Hireup] You’d have to set your own rates or negotiate with the client, which doesn’t suit me at all.”
Image: Gwyneth Todd with her client, Nicola.
We’ve heard of cases of independent support workers insisting on charging the maximum NDIS hourly support worker price cap, which is well above what you pay for an hour of support through the Hireup platform. In other cases, workers set an initial rate when going off-platform and then try to increase it later. These conversations are never easy.
Hireup guarantees that support workers are paid on a regular basis, which means they don’t have to chase payments or worry that they won't be paid at all.
A supportive community – and an employer doing the admin
At Hireup, the vast majority of the money you pay for a shift (70%) goes directly to your support worker as wages and superannuation - as you can see in the chart above.
The rest?
- About 10% of the money spent on a support shift goes toward protecting, upskilling and assisting our support workers through paid training, a dedicated central support team and an incident team. If things go wrong – including a breakdown in a relationship between a client and a worker - we have staff to help. Hireup clients are never on their own.
“We all get e-learning which is perfect - and we get paid to do it,” says Hireup support worker Jarrod Pitt. “It's appropriate to pay workers for any kind of training because it does take time out of your day and work hours.”
Image: Jarrod Pitt and his client, Tiffany.
- A small portion (1.5%) of what our clients pay covers our finance, payroll and administration teams - to make sure invoicing and payments are smooth and hassle-free.
“I feel very secure and have much more peace of mind [than I would if working off-platform]” says Hireup support worker Gwyneth Todd. “I also have a lot more time to devote to the clients. In effect, I am getting paid more by the hour because all the paperwork is taken care of.”
- About 5% of the money paid per shift goes towards the insurances mentioned above - and to Australia’s states’ payroll tax system, which contributes to public services.
- A further 5% pays for the teams running and constantly improving our online platforms - desktop and apps - and all the matching intelligence within them.
- Just over 3% is spent on marketing to increase our pool of quality workers and grow our community.
- Just under 7% of what we charge is spent on maintaining office costs in Sydney and Melbourne and paying for our other teams, including those advocating for the disability community.
Going off-platform: new risks
Here are some of the dangers you could face by engaging with your support worker outside of Hireup:
New liabilities and obligations for clients
Even if a worker describes themselves as ‘independent’, if their hours are worked with regular clients or at regular times, it’s likely the law would consider them as an employee. But an employee of whom? If not Hireup, then a client – you – may be deemed their legal employer, as a ‘person conducting a business or undertaking (PCBU)’.
A PCBU is responsible for a safe working environment. Whether in a home, a car, an office, a shop or in the community, they are liable for a worker’s occupational health and safety. They are also responsible for understanding and complying with often complex award-wage, entitlement and tax obligations. There are serious legal consequences, and potentially big financial costs for 'employers' in breach.
With Hireup, there’s never any question. Hireup is the employer. Off-platform, that’s not the case.
Stress
Far more administration, negotiation of rates, new insurances, new obligations and liabilities and no support when things go wrong are a stressful combination. You avoid all of this when you stick with Hireup.