Aruma Pay Rates 2026: Support Worker & SCHADS Pay

Aruma is one of the country's largest disability service providers, formed from the merger of House with No Steps and The Tipping Foundation, delivering supported independent living, day programs, supported employment and allied health across the eastern states. Disability support workers make up the great majority of its workforce.

Disability support work at Aruma is covered by the Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (SCHADS), with Aruma's own enterprise agreements above it (below). SCHADS pay is a matrix of classification levels and pay points rather than a single rate, so this page points you to the matrix rather than reproducing it.

The federal awards relevant to Aruma roles:

• Social, Community, Home Care and Disability Services Industry Award 2010 (MA000100)

Workforce snapshot. In its 2024-25 report to the Workplace Gender Equality Agency, Aruma Services declared 5,798 employees — 26.9% casual and 59% women, with 279 in management roles. Source: WGEA 2025 Public Data File, data.gov.au (CC-BY 3.0 AU).

The SCHADS award pays by stream (social and community services, home care, disability, crisis accommodation), then classification level, then pay point — so there is no single "disability support worker rate". Our SCHADS pay rates page carries the full current pay-point matrix, verified against the Fair Work Commission's pay database, plus the sleepover, broken-shift and minimum-engagement rules that decide most disability pay disputes.

Enterprise agreements set rates above the award, with their own classification structures and allowances. Current Aruma agreements in our corpus (3 in total):

• Aruma Services (Employment) Enterprise Agreement 2025 — approved June 2025, nominal expiry 30 June 2028.
• Aruma Disability Services Enterprise Agreement (Victoria) 2022-2025 — approved March 2024, nominal expiry 31 December 2025.
• Aruma Victoria Enterprise Agreement 2023 — approved April 2023, nominal expiry 30 June 2025.

We don't reproduce agreement dollar figures here — the agreement covering your site, state and stream is the document to read. Find your agreement, then your classification, then your pay point, and compare it with your payslip. The award tables on this page are the floor every one of these agreements must beat.

The patterns worth checking on a Aruma payslip:

• Wrong SCHADS level or pay point for qualifications and years of service.
• Sleepover and active-night shifts paid as if they were the same thing.
• Broken shifts without the allowance, and travel between clients unpaid.
• Minimum engagements ignored on short support shifts.

Match your payslip to your classification in the agreement (or the award tables above), and price any gap with our back-pay calculator. Raise it in writing with payroll or your manager first — most underpayments are fixed at that step. Unresolved, the Fair Work Ombudsman (13 13 94) recovers underpayments at no cost, up to six years back, and your union can run the claim for you. Not sure which instrument covers you? Ask our AI advisor with your role and location.