Pay participants
Always aim to pay people with disability for their participation, particularly if your activity is defined as involve, collaborate or empower on the IAP2 Spectrum.
Importance of paying participants
It is important to acknowledge the value of your participant’s time and expertise by paying them.
It is particularly important to remunerate people with disability who are not participating in the engagement or project as part of their regular professional duties.
Paying or reimbursing participants with disability will also increase access to participation in your activity. Often people with disability require longer travel time to attend, and may experience more inconvenience and risk during their participation than other members of the community.
Example
It can take longer for a person with disability to travel to a location because of inaccessible transport options. It can also cost that person more to secure the support they need at the time of the session. It is important to recognise and renumerate people with disability appropriately.
Relevant pages
Context: Define the level of participation
Design: Make participant experiences positive
Payment of participants in research (National Health and Medical Research Council)
Paying support workers
Disability support workers assist people with disability in their daily lives. The role of a support worker is varied and depends on their relationship with and the needs of the person with disability. Support workers may participate in your activity as part of their role. For example, they may help a participant with communication, manage their support tools, or attend the activity alongside the participant.
The support that people with disability receive can be:
- Formal: where a support worker is paid as a service provider. Attendance at an activity forms part of their normal work. Support workers can be funded through schemes such as the National Disability Insurance Scheme, the National Injury Insurance Scheme, or through those run by the Department of Veterans’ Affairs or the Department of Health and Aged Care.
- Informal: where a support worker provides care freely based on their relationship, such as a family member or friend. Support workers are usually not paid for this, but there are exceptions.
Formal support workers’ time would normally already be paid for. However, if a participant chooses not to use their funding package to pay for their support worker’s time during the activity, consider paying for the support worker’s time to support the participant.
Informal support workers should be paid the same as other participants.
If you are reimbursing participants’ expenses, you should also reimburse support workers’ expenses.
Relevant pages
Paying organisations
You may pay for a participant’s time through an agreement with the organisation they work for. This may be relevant if their job aligns with the nature of the activity and you are engaging them in an activity once, contracting their services, or partnering with them.
Disability representative organisations and advocacy providers are funded by the government for certain activities. Check if participation in your activity is included under those government funding agreements.
You should discuss payment arrangements with your participants, service providers, and partners. For example, they may offer you their service rates or give you a quote.
Relevant pages
Design: Partner with disability specialists
National disability advocacy providers (Department of Social Services)
Types of payment
You can pay participants in several ways. Each payment type has legal, administrative, financial, and other considerations. You should:
- Research whether your payment type has tax or financial support implications. This may affect whether or in what form participants can accept it.
- Invite participants to discuss payment arrangements with you if they have concerns about the types of payment they can receive or that you can offer.
- Discuss whether participants have support workers whom you should also pay. This differs based on the circumstances of the person with disability.
- Follow your organisation’s procedures when paying participants through the method that works for you and for them.
Some participants in your engagement may inform you they receive a disability support pension and wish to discuss the ramifications of payment with you. They may request documentation that indicates the payment is a one-off so it does not impact their pension.
Relevant pages
Disability support pension (DSP) (Services Australia)
Other payments if you can’t get DSP (Services Australia)
Remuneration
Remuneration is payment for services rendered. Many people engaged as subject matter experts, including people with disability, prefer to be remunerated. You can remunerate a participant with physical currency, including banknotes, money transfers, and cheques. You can also remunerate people by a wage, particularly for longer projects or those where people with disability are fulfilling duties and obligations. This is especially relevant when the level of participation on the IAP2 Spectrum is involve and beyond.
When participants are from your own organisation, make arrangements so they can participate without adding additional load to their everyday work.
Relevant pages
Context: Define the level of participation – Involve
Incentive payments
Incentive payments are often framed as a thank-you gift for participation rather than payment for services rendered. These can be physical gifts or gift cards. It is important to:
- Always follow your organisation’s gifting guidelines in relation to what, when, and how much can be given and received.
- Try to provide options for gift card providers and explain the different ways to use them so participants receive a gift card they can use.
Be aware that framing the payment as a gift may have negative connotations, especially if the labour and expertise of participants is deemed not to have been appropriately recognised. Similarly, incentive payments do not carry connotations of income and may therefore not need to be reported for tax purposes.
Relevant pages
Income from gifts, legacies, royalties & native title claims (Social Security Guide)
Expense reimbursement
Expense reimbursement payments cover the expenses of participants during their involvement in your activity, such as travel, food, and accommodation. Committing to reimbursing expenses may help recruit a diverse cohort of participants.
To participate on an equal basis with others, people with disability may incur additional costs. These may be related to different or additional accessibility needs, such as transport or accommodation.
If you are reimbursing participants’ expenses, you should also reimburse support workers’ expenses.
Relevant pages
Design: Start by thinking about accessible design
Income received to cover specific expenses (DSS Social Security Guide)