You shouldn't have to "earn" the offer of a lower fee by successfully completing certain activities like job searches and insurance claims. A sliding scale is based on ability to pay/income not on how capable someone is of carrying out administrative tasks. You are right though; not offering the lower fee is justifiable as a business decision and he has put a definite boundary in place, as he is entitled to do. To me, it seems inflexible and lacking in care for him to act like this, especially as it means you would have to halve your face-to-face time despite the fact that you clearly really value that kind of contact.