Our client is an independent NDIS support worker.
She worked through an agency. It billed the participant’s plan manager for her work, kept a third of each invoice, and paid her the rest.
When one participant’s funding ran out, the agency said it hadn’t been paid. It blamed our client, and sent her a string of invoices demanding back money it had already paid her. ezylegal stepped in. She didn’t have to pay any of it.
At a glance
- Problem: An NDIS agency invoiced a support worker to claw back payments, saying a participant’s funding had run out and she should have warned it.
- Claim against: A demand made against our client by the agency she worked through.
- Legal basis: The terms of the agreement between them. It was really a bookkeeping arrangement, and it didn’t give the agency the right to bill her for its own unpaid invoices.
- Result: Our client didn’t pay the money the agency demanded.
Blamed for someone else’s funding
The agency’s email said it only had to pay subcontractors once the plan manager paid it. It said it had “advanced” payments to our client in good faith, and that she should have told it the participant’s funding was running out. Then it sent her invoices to get the money back.
Our client had done the work. She had been paid for it. Now she was being asked to hand the money back.
Reading the agreement properly
ezylegal reviewed the agreement our client had signed. Despite being called a subcontract, it was really a bookkeeping service. The agency raised invoices to the plan manager on her behalf, kept a third of each invoice, and passed the rest on.
That changed the picture. Under its own agreement, the agency was responsible for collecting what it had invoiced. It wasn’t entitled to send her new invoices to recover payments it had chosen to make.
ezylegal wrote to the agency, told it to deal with us and not contact our client directly, and set out why the demand didn’t stand up. We also asked it to produce the unpaid invoices and its correspondence with the plan manager, before anything could be resolved.
The outcome
The agency’s demand went nowhere. Our client kept the money she had earned, and didn’t pay any of the invoices.
Do I have to pay back money an agency or employer says it overpaid me?
Not always. It depends on what your agreement actually says, not what the business claims after the fact.
Agencies, labour hire firms and platforms sometimes try to push their own losses onto workers. If you were paid for work you did, the business usually needs a clear contractual right to take that money back. A lawyer can read your agreement, test the business’s claim and make it prove what it says. Often that’s enough to make the demand go away.
If you’re facing something similar
If a business is demanding you pay money back:
- don’t pay or agree to anything straight away
- find your signed agreement and read what it says about payment
- keep every invoice, payslip and email
- ask the business, in writing, to show exactly how it worked out the amount
- get advice before you respond
Get advice early, because time limits apply. Read more about debt and contract disputes.
ezylegal operates on a no-win, no-fee* basis across consumer, commercial and insurance disputes, so you’re not weighing the cost of a lawyer against the cost of walking away.