From the Rostery team in Sydney. This walkthrough was first published on our blog as Support at Home Program: The Complete Guide.
Support at Home is now the main way the Australian Government pays for care and practical help at home for older people. It started on 1 November 2025 and replaced two programs at once: Home Care Packages and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. Three agencies share the work. The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing runs the program, Services Australia holds each person's budget and pays providers, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission registers and regulates the providers.
This post goes through it in the order most people meet it: whether you can get it, how to apply, what funding you might be approved for, what you'll pay, and how to pick a provider. It's written for older people and families, and for the provider staff who explain the program every day. Every dollar figure is the one in effect from 1 October 2026.
General information only. Amounts and wait times change, so confirm current figures with My Aged Care or your provider before you decide anything.
Step 1: Check you can be assessed
Under section 58 of the Aged Care Act 2024, you can be assessed for Support at Home if you have care needs and you are:
- 65 or over
- 50 or over and an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person
- 50 or over and homeless or at risk of homelessness.
If you're under 65, you have to choose aged care in writing, and you must be told about other services that may suit you.
Meeting the age rule doesn't mean you're approved. It only means you can be assessed. The assessment decides whether you get Support at Home, at what classification and for which services.
Step 2: Apply through My Aged Care
There are three ways in:
- Online at myagedcare.gov.au. Have your Medicare card handy. The form takes about 15 to 20 minutes.
- By phone on 1800 200 422, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 10am to 2pm.
- In person with an Aged Care Specialist Officer at a Services Australia office. Book on 1800 227 475.
A GP, another health professional or a hospital can refer you instead, and a family member or friend can apply with you. If there's nobody to help, a care finder can. Elder Care Support helps Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.
Step 3: The assessment and your two documents
If you're eligible, an aged care needs assessor gets in touch to arrange an assessment. It's part of the Single Assessment System, which started on 1 July 2024, and the assessor uses the Integrated Assessment Tool to understand your needs, your goals and the help you already get.
Afterwards you receive two documents, and both matter:
- The Notice of Decision says what you're approved for: your ongoing classification, any short-term pathway or AT-HM tier, the reasons and evidence, and your right to ask for a review.
- The support plan sets out your needs and goals and the services you're approved to use.
Whichever provider you choose works from these two documents, so keep them somewhere you can find them.
Step 4: Understand which kind of funding you have
Ongoing services
Most people are approved for ongoing services in one of eight classifications. Each sets a budget paid every quarter:
| Classification | Each quarter | Each year |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,757.89 | $11,031.56 |
| 2 | $4,120.89 | $16,483.55 |
| 3 | $5,645.23 | $22,580.93 |
| 4 | $7,632.04 | $30,528.15 |
| 5 | $10,202.32 | $40,809.27 |
| 6 | $12,365.48 | $49,461.91 |
| 7 | $14,944.20 | $59,776.80 |
| 8 | $20,073.50 | $80,294.00 |
These amounts include the 10% that goes to care management. Budgets are normally indexed every 1 July. The rise on 1 October 2026 was an extra, one-off increase to fund the August 2026 award wage increase for aged care nurses.
If you want to see what a level is worth week to week, or how carry-over works, our guide to Support at Home funding levels 2026 goes into detail, and the free Support at Home classifications explainer lets you click through all eight.
Restorative Care Pathway
An intensive, short period of care from allied health professionals and nurses, to help you regain or keep your independence. One unit is $6,179.40 for people starting from 1 October 2026 and covers up to 16 weeks. You can have up to two units in 12 months, and a second episode can't start until three months after the first one's 16 weeks end.
End-of-Life Pathway
For people who want to stay at home in their last months. A doctor or nurse practitioner must estimate three months or less to live, and the person's Australian-modified Karnofsky Performance Status (AKPS) score must be 40 or less. It provides $25,736.57 over 12 weeks for people starting from 1 October 2026, and the money can be used over up to 16 weeks without a new review. It's one episode per person. While on it, your ongoing classification is set aside. A second round of funding, from early 2027, has been announced for people who live beyond the first 12 weeks.
Assistive technology and home modifications (AT-HM)
Equipment and changes to your home are paid separately from the quarterly budget. For people starting from 1 July 2026 the tiers are $513 (low), $2,052 (medium) and $15,390 (high). Each runs for 12 months, or up to 24 months for complex home modifications at the high tier. Assistive technology over $15,390 can be funded with evidence of need, such as a valid prescription. Whatever's left at the end can't be carried over.
Supplements
Some people get extra funding for a specific need. From 1 October 2026: oxygen is $15.06 a day; enteral feeding is $23.90 a day (bolus) or $26.84 (non-bolus); the veterans' supplement adds 11.5% of the classification's daily funding; and people in Modified Monash areas 6 and 7 get a remote supplement of 50% of the AT or HM tier.
Step 5: The wait
Restorative Care and End-of-Life funding is available straight away. AT-HM has its own priority systems. Ongoing funding comes through the Support at Home Priority System, which has four categories: urgent, high, medium and standard. My Aged Care's estimates, last updated 30 June 2026, are within 1 month for urgent, 1 month for high, 5 to 6 months for medium and 7 to 8 months for standard.
When funding is tight you may get interim funding first: 60% of your classification, with the rest added later and not backdated. People in the urgent category, and people on either short-term pathway, always get full funding.
Step 6: Work out what you'll contribute
Every service on the Support at Home service list sits in one of three categories, and the category decides what you pay:
- Clinical supports: nursing, allied health such as physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry and dietetics, personal care, and care management. You pay nothing.
- Independence: social support, respite, transport, therapeutic services such as remedial massage, and AT-HM.
- Everyday living: cleaning and laundry, shopping help, gardening and minor home repairs, meal preparation and delivery.
Personal care moved into clinical supports on 1 October 2026, so it no longer attracts a contribution. The date the service was delivered is what counts. Personal care delivered before 1 October still carries a contribution even if the provider claims it later.
For independence and everyday living you pay a percentage of each service's price, and the government pays the rest. Full pensioners pay 5% and 17.5%. Part pensioners and self-funded retirees with a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card are on a sliding scale up to 50% and 80%. Self-funded retirees without a card, and anyone who doesn't share their means information, pay 50% and 80%.
Two protections sit on top:
- A lifetime cap. From 20 September 2026 it's $140,652.80, counting Support at Home contributions together with the non-clinical part of any later residential care contribution. Under the no worse off rules it's $88,934.57.
- The no worse off rules. If on 12 September 2024 you had a Home Care Package, were on the National Priority System or had been approved for a package, you pay lower rates. Full pensioners under these rules pay nothing.
Our Support at Home budget and contribution calculator gives a quick estimate for a given classification.
Also worth knowing: providers have to build their costs into each service price. They can't charge separate administration, package management or travel fees, or charge you to start or leave.
Step 7: Choose a provider within 56 days
Once your funding is allocated, you have 56 calendar days to sign a service agreement and start services. A 28-day extension from My Aged Care takes that to 84. If services haven't started by then, the funding is withdrawn.
One registered provider delivers and claims for all your services. It must be registered with the Commission in at least Category 4, plus Category 5 if it delivers nursing. Providers report their usual prices on My Aged Care and publish their full price list on their website, and you can compare them with the Find a provider tool.
Before or on the first day, the provider writes a care plan with you, gives you an individualised budget as soon as practical, and allocates a care partner, who must have at least one direct care management contact with you each month of at least 15 minutes.
After you start: budgets and statements
Services Australia holds your budget, and your provider claims from it after delivering services. Unspent ongoing funding carries over to the next quarter, up to $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly budget after care management, whichever is higher. You get a statement every month, even in months with no services, by the last day of the following month. If no services are delivered for four quarters in a row, your funding is withdrawn.
You can change provider for any reason, and your funding moves with you. There's no exit fee.
For providers
If you're a provider setting up for all this, the obligations add up quickly: prices on My Aged Care, a signed agreement, a care plan by day one, monthly care management contact, contributions by date of service, and a statement every month. In Rostery, each quarter's funding is drawn from the right budget for the participant's classification and budget, and claims and statements are built from the same visits.
If your home care staff are paid under the SCHADS Award, our dev.to piece on SCHADS Award 2026 pay rates, levels and rules covers the pay side.
Read the full guide
The original has the full exclusions list, every table, the Home Care Package transition amounts, CHSP and the key dates, plus all the government sources: Support at Home Program: The Complete Guide.
The Rostery team, Sydney
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