Fact sheet 4: Having your time and work recognised

When people with disability take part in an evaluation, they should expect recognition for their time, insights and expert knowledge. Their lived experience of disability should be valued, as well as other experiences they might bring. For example, their experience with positions in governance, leadership, and co-researcher roles.

Show you value people’s work

Recognition can happen in multiple ways. It can include payment (often known as ‘remuneration’) and acknowledgement of a person’s contribution. Ideally, all participants will be paid fairly based on their role in the evaluation. 

The type and amount of recognition will depend on the type and level of participation. For example, a person filling out a simple online survey might not be paid and may instead be recognised with a thank you or acknowledgement.

It is okay for a person to ask about remuneration if they are contributing to the evaluation. The amount they will be remunerated depends on their role. The more involved a person is, the more recognition they should receive.   

Although remuneration is dependent on the engagement activities as well as individual circumstances, it’s important that evaluators take a consistent approach.

What you need to do

The Good Practice Guidelines for Engaging with People with Disability provides advice on remuneration that evaluation funders or planners can refer to. This includes guidelines around types of remuneration and things that should be considered when determining remuneration.

Payment guidelines and examples

It is important for evaluation commissioners to think about and budget for how they will pay people for their contributions. The more involved people are, the more recognition they should get. Below we mention some examples of existing policies to follow. 

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Participant Engagement Payment Guidelines

The National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) Participant Engagement Payment Guidelines is an easy guide on payments. It’s a good starting point for evaluation commissioners. It sets out payment rates as:

• $50 per hour for up to 4 hours (pro-rata)
• $250 per day up to 8 hours.

New South Wales Health Guidelines on Paying Community Members

The New South Wales Health Guidelines on Paying Community Members includes:

• payment rates
• examples of good practice.

The rates offer examples of how payments increase based on how much participants take part in an evaluation:

• Inform: No payment
• Consult: $42 per hour
• Partner: $52 per hour
• Control: $62 per hour.

National Mental Health Commission's Paid Participation Policy

The National Mental Health Commission's Paid Participation Policy sets out a daily fee. This fee is based on the ‘Offices not specified’ fee from the Remuneration Tribunal (Remuneration and Allowances for Holders of Part-time Public Office) Determination.

The current fee is $464 per day. The Mental Health Commission states it will pay participants 20% of the daily fee per hour. The most it might pay a participant for is 5 hours per day.

Note for Australian Government evaluations

Remuneration rates for people with lived experience in Australian Government evaluations in ongoing roles for appointed ‘other office holders’ could be guided by the Remuneration Tribunal (Remuneration and Allowances for Holders of Part-time Public Office) Determination 2024. This lists the sitting fee for ‘other office holders’ (ongoing work) members at $464 per day.

Examples of payment types

Participants should be able to choose how they receive remuneration. Many organisations have procedures in place to make payments to people for contributing to their work. These payments can take different forms, for example:

• bank transfers
• store gift cards or visa gift cards
• out-of-pocket costs such as cab vouchers or bus passes.

Other ways to encourage people to take part

Some evaluation commissioners provide incentives for engaging, which is not a direct payment for contribution but a chance at remuneration. 

This method can be used by businesses, companies and evaluators to gain feedback in a cost-effective way that applies to the same chance at receiving remuneration to everyone taking part.

An example could be completing survey questions and then going into the draw to win a gift voucher. This is a cost-effective way of getting many people to engage in a small amount of time. It can be useful to encourage a large number of responses and diverse points of view.

Incentives are different to remuneration. It is important for evaluators and participants to know the difference.