Part 9 loans for aged care and disability support workers
7 min read
Support work has a specific lending problem: the sector pays modestly, the hours are often split across two or three employers, and no single payslip tells the whole story. Add a debt agreement and it can feel like the paperwork is designed to make you look unemployable, when in reality you are working more hours than most full-time staff and in a sector that cannot find enough people.
What your stress is saying
“I work three jobs and still look casual on paper.”
What's actually true
Multiple employers is a presentation problem, not a capacity problem.
What your stress is saying
“I care for people all day and can't sort out my own finances.”
What's actually true
This sector is over-represented in debt agreements for structural reasons.
The three ways support workers are paid, and how each is assessed
The label on your contract determines the whole assessment, and many workers hold more than one at once.
- Permanent part-time with a provider, the strongest position. Guaranteed hours, leave entitlements, and a contract a lender can read. Even a small permanent line is worth having as the anchor for everything else.
- Casual with a provider or agency, assessed on averaged income, typically needing six to twelve months of continuity. The 25% casual loading is counted as part of your rate, not as a bonus.
- Independent NDIS support worker on an ABN. This is self-employment, regardless of how it feels day to day. Expect the tax-return or low-doc pathway rather than the payslip one.
Why bank statements beat payslips in this sector
For most jobs, payslips are the cleanest evidence of income. For a worker splitting hours across two providers and an agency, they are the worst, three sets of documents, different pay cycles, none of them showing the total.
Six to twelve months of bank statements showing the deposits landing tells a lender the one thing they actually want to know: how much money reliably arrives, and how steady it is. Where income is fragmented, this is usually the fastest route to a sensible assessment. Payslips can then back up the pieces.
This is also why keeping work income landing in one account matters. Split across three accounts it becomes a reconstruction exercise, and reconstruction exercises get declined for being too hard rather than for being unaffordable.
The allowances and shift structures that get overlooked
Support work carries a set of payments that are easy to leave out of an application and genuinely add up over a year:
- Broken-shift allowances, where your day is split across a morning and evening client.
- Sleepover and active-night payments, which are often a significant part of residential workers' income.
- Per-kilometre travel reimbursement between clients, usually treated as cost recovery rather than income, though it is worth declaring so the lender is not surprised by the deposits.
- Weekend and public holiday penalties, which for workers covering the shifts nobody wants can be a large share of total pay.
- Qualification allowances where you hold a Certificate III or IV.
Independent NDIS workers: the ABN trap
A growing number of support workers are engaged directly by participants or through platforms, on their own ABN. It can feel like ordinary casual work. You turn up, you do shifts, you get paid, but for lending purposes you are a sole trader running a business.
That means the self-employed pathway: two years of tax returns, or a low-doc alternative using business bank statements or BAS. It also means you should have been putting tax aside, and if you have not, that is a debt sitting in front of any loan application.
It is worth being deliberate about this rather than drifting into it. Workers who move from an agency to independent ABN work often see their effective hourly rate rise and their borrowing capacity fall at the same time, purely because of how the income is now classified.
The employment-stability argument that is genuinely yours
Every lender assessing an application alongside a debt agreement is answering one question: how likely is it that this income stops? Aged care and disability support has documented, sustained workforce shortages. If you left your provider tomorrow you would be working again quickly, and both you and the lender know it.
That is a real argument and it is worth making explicitly, particularly where you hold a Certificate III or IV, an NDIS Worker Screening Check, or a first-aid certification. They are small credentials individually. Together they say you are not easily replaced and not easily unemployed.
The rule most people find out too late
Above $7,457, you must tell the lender you're in a debt agreement
Under section 269 of the Bankruptcy Act 1966, while you are in a debt agreement you must disclose that fact before obtaining credit above $7,457. This is not a lender policy or a preference. Failing to do it is a criminal offence and serious penalties apply.
In practice it is paperwork rather than an obstacle. A lender who writes in this space expects it and it does not, by itself, cause a decline. The risk is not the disclosure. It is going to a lender who never asks, never records it, and leaves you exposed. We raise it as a matter of course.
Figures current at 17 August 2026. AFSA reindexes 20 March and 20 September. Source: AFSA indexed amounts.
During, just after, or well after: three different answers
Where you sit relative to your agreement changes the lender panel more than anything else about you. Whatever your occupation, this is the shape of it:
- Still in the agreementThe smallest panel. A handful of specialist lenders write here, and they want agreement payments up to date, no new defaults since it started, and stable income. The s269 disclosure applies above $7,457.
- Recently completedA noticeably wider panel, and the moment most worth checking. It is common for someone declined a year earlier to be approved shortly after completion with nothing else in their life having changed. Make sure the completion is formally recorded before applying.
- Completed more than 12 months agoWider again, with better pricing available. The agreement may still appear on your credit file. AFSA's guidance is up to five years, and longer in some cases. A year of clean conduct behind you changes how it is read.
What this site does, and what nobody here can do
This site can
- Explain how lenders read a debt agreement
- Pass your enquiry to Simple Loans, who arrange the finance
- Tell you plainly when the answer is “not yet”
Nobody here can
- Provide credit, or credit assistance, from this website
- Advise you to enter, change or end an agreement
- Negotiate with your creditors or administrator
- Remove or dispute anything on your credit file
This website provides information only. Advising on an agreement, negotiating with creditors and fixing credit files are debt management services, which require a credit licence authorisation Simple Loans does not hold. For help with the agreement itself, speak to your registered administrator, or the National Debt Helpline on 1800 007 007 which is free, independent, and not selling anything. There is also a plain-English explainer here.
Worth thinking about before you call anyone
How many employers are you across at the moment, and which one gives you guaranteed hours?
Even a small permanent line changes how the rest is read.
Does all your work income land in the one account, or is it spread around?
It sounds trivial. It's often the difference between a straightforward assessment and a hard one.
How much unpaid time are you losing to travel between clients right now?
If transport were reliable, how many more shifts could you realistically take?
In this sector that number is usually large enough to change the affordability conversation.
No one is going to ask you these on a call to catch you out. They're here because the answers are yours, and they're the same ones a broker needs before they can tell you anything useful.
Aged care & disability support: common questions
Can I get a car loan with income from two or three employers?
Yes. Lenders routinely assess combined income across employers. The practical challenge is evidence rather than eligibility, three sets of payslips on different pay cycles are hard to read. Six to twelve months of bank statements showing the total landing is usually the clearest way to present it, with payslips supporting the detail.
I'm an independent NDIS support worker on an ABN. How am I assessed?
As self-employed, even though the work feels like casual shift work. The standard pathway is two years of tax returns; where you do not have those, low-doc options using six to twelve months of business bank statements or BAS lodgements are available from a number of lenders. Set-aside tax is worth checking on before applying, because an ATO debt sits in front of any new borrowing.
Do sleepover and broken-shift allowances count as income?
Generally yes, where they appear consistently. They are part of how the role is paid rather than an occasional bonus. Per-kilometre travel reimbursement is usually treated as cost recovery rather than income, but should still be declared so the deposits in your account are explained rather than queried.
Does being in a Part 9 stop me working in aged care or NDIS?
A debt agreement is not a criminal matter and does not appear on a police check or an NDIS Worker Screening Check. Some roles involving handling participant funds may have their own employer requirements, so if that applies to you it is worth checking your own employer's policy directly. For most direct-care roles it simply does not arise.
Find out where you actually stand
Nine questions, about two minutes, no credit check. You'll get a straight answer, including “not yet, come back in six months” if that's the honest one.