Why should I pay?

This is a question I hear many times when we do our workshops. People want to know why they have to pay for the workshop and during the workshop they want to know why, with the NDIS, they will have to pay for everything. This is a direct result of the Government creating a welfare mentality within the disability sector as well as other vulnerable people sectors in this country.

Many of us send our loved ones off for the day and someone else pays for them to be there. The money doesn't pass through us - therefore people think it must be free. We pay $10 per hour to council for respite and think this is the total payment.

This is WRONG on both counts! Whenever something is free or cheap - it is because it is being paid for by someone else. We have no idea what the real cost is, so we assume what we see is the real cost.

There is a lot of nonsense floating around with the advent of the NDIS that everything is going to cost more. In reality, many things are going to be charged to us at the true cost. One of the advantages of the NDIS will be the transparency to the clients and their carers of charges and costings. This is powerful on many counts, including:

1. We know EXACTLY what something REALLY costs.
2. Money is just a manner of transfer of giving and receiving. A fair exchange.
3. We devalue people and the transaction when we expect something for nothing. Every person  deserves to be honoured.
4. We are always accountable to the organisation who is paying - they pay - we have to abide by their rules.
5. We respect and value things we have to pay for more than things that are given to us. We see this in our workshops - the workshops that are not free to participants (paid for by an organisation) ALWAYS have a much higher percentage of no-shows than the ones where the participant has to pay.
6. Giving people something for nothing tells these people they are not respected and removes dignity.

I was once asked where the $50 per person charged for a 5 hour workshop which included lunch, refreshments and resources goes! This was a very sad question, as $50 for any 5 hour workshop with the above is dirt cheap and is very obviously not making huge amounts of money, if any at all.

So the next time someone asks "why should I pay" my answer will be "because I value and respect myself and those I do transactions with".

IDareU