By Steve Hadfield, AgedCareActionPlan.au · Last reviewed: 9 October 2026
Last updated: 9 October 2026
An ACAT assessment is the free government assessment that works out your parent's care needs and which government-funded aged care they can get. ACAT stands for Aged Care Assessment Team. The Single Assessment System replaced those teams on 9 December 2024, but the name stuck. The Department now calls it an aged care needs assessment, arranged through My Aged Care.
Here's the part that's easy to miss: the assessment starts on the phone. What you say when you apply sets a referral priority. A short triage call then confirms the type of assessment and its urgency. Some triage answers, such as whether your parent can shower without help, carry straight into the assessment.
This guide covers the process, from the first call to the letters. For how the result is decided, see our guide to how the aged care assessment and its outcome work.
Four things that are easy to get wrong
An aged care assessment is a free check of an older person's care needs by a qualified needs assessor, usually at home. It works out what help they need and which government-funded aged care they're eligible for. To get government-funded aged care, your parent needs one, though some urgent short-term services can start first.
There are two kinds. People with entry-level needs get a home support assessment from a non-clinical assessor; people with more complex needs get a comprehensive assessment from a clinical assessor. A home support assessment can be converted to a comprehensive one without starting again.
Both use the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), which replaced the National Screening and Assessment Form on 1 July 2024. Follow-up questions open only where needed. Our guide to the Integrated Assessment Tool explains each part.
Who can be assessed?
People aged 65 or older, or 50 or older for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, who have aged care needs. Assessments can also happen in hospital, at a clinic, or by phone or video.
[Assessment Manual v8.3, s2.7, s5.2, s5.8; My Aged Care FAQ]
Assessors follow the Department's Aged Care Assessment Manual (version 8.3, 29 June 2026) and IAT User Guide. Both are public. You can read the Aged Care Assessment Manual (Word) and the IAT Offline Form (PDF), which assessors use when they can't use the online system. The User Guide is on the Department's assessment tools page.
ACAT stands for Aged Care Assessment Team. ACAS, Aged Care Assessment Services, was the name used in Victoria. Both were replaced from 9 December 2024 by the Single Assessment System. ACNA is different: it's Access Care Network Australia, an organisation that carries out assessments in some areas, not the name of the assessment.
The Department says its new workforce started on 9 December 2024, “bringing together and replacing” the Regional Assessment Service, Aged Care Assessment Teams and independent AN-ACC assessment organisations. Victoria's health department says the system “replaces the previous Regional Assessment Services (RAS) and Aged Care Assessment Services (ACAS).”
The organisation covering your parent's area: My Aged Care refers them locally. The Department's list of assessment organisations by service area, region, state and territory includes Access Care Network Australia (ACNA). State and territory governments do hospital assessments, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can ask for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander assessment organisation where one is available.
Whoever comes, it's one national process, which My Aged Care says exists “to ensure everyone is assessed in a fair and consistent way.”
[Department, New Single Assessment System workforce; Victorian Department of Health; Department, SAS fact sheet; My Aged Care]
An approval can open Support at Home, the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), residential respite, permanent residential care and, if your parent is assessed in hospital, Transition Care. The assessor recommends what fits in the support plan, and an Assessment Delegate decides whether to approve it.
Support at Home
Introduced on 1 November 2025, replacing Home Care Packages. Ongoing help at one of 8 classifications, each with a quarterly budget, plus short-term pathways for restorative care, end-of-life care, and assistive technology and home modifications. What happens once it's approved
Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP)
Entry-level help for people who manage at home with a little support. It needs an aged care needs assessment too, usually a home support assessment. CHSP is a separate program, and in August 2026 the Department announced it has been extended to 30 June 2029.
Permanent residential care
An approval doesn't oblige your parent to move. It lets them start if and when they choose, without another assessment. When a parent is told they need residential care
Residential respite
Short stays that give a carer, or your parent, a break: up to 63 days a financial year. The respite provider can ask for up to 21 more days at a time, for example if the carer is unwell, and this can be approved more than once. It needs a comprehensive assessment.
Transition Care
A funded period of 12 weeks of support after hospital, which the provider can ask to extend if recovery takes longer. Your parent must be assessed while an admitted hospital patient, including hospital-in-the-home. How Transition Care works
If a carer genuinely needs a break, say so when you apply and at triage, so the right type of assessment is booked.
[My Aged Care FAQ; Assessment Manual v8.3, s6.5, s6.8 to s6.10, s8.7.1; Aged Care Rules 2025, s80-60; Department, Support at Home page, news 21 August 2026]
Apply online at My Aged Care, call 1800 200 422, or book an appointment with an Aged Care Specialist Officer at Services Australia on 1800 227 475. It takes 15 to 20 minutes. You can apply for your parent with their permission, and a health or aged care professional can request one with their consent.
The phone line is open weekdays 8am to 8pm and Saturdays 10am to 2pm, local time; TIS National on 131 450 can interpret. Online, use My Aged Care's apply page with your parent's Medicare card. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can also apply through an Elder Care Support worker.
Your parent must consent before triage and the assessment. If neither they nor an appointed decision maker with legal authority can consent, the referral is rejected. If it's urgent, call and say so: some services are available short-term before or without an assessment. For emergency respite, call Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737.
Because it's part of the assessment. Screening sets a referral priority, which tells the organisation how quickly to assess, and screening answers can be pre-filled into triage. The IAT User Guide says the triage answer on showering “will pre-populate in function section of IAT”; the falls answer carries over too. Once triage is finalised, an assessor can't change the triage answers. At the visit, the assessor may check that pre-filled answers are still correct, so if something was understated on the phone, say so then.
So describe everyday help accurately from the start. If you see what happens day to day, be on the call, with your parent's permission. If your parent wants someone with them for triage and nobody is there, the delegate should call back.
A Triage Delegate from the assessment organisation, usually by phone, works out which type of assessment your parent needs and how urgently. The Department says this happens “within 2 weeks of receiving referrals for an aged care needs assessment.” If no one has called after 2 weeks, check your parent's My Aged Care Online Account or call 1800 200 422. Allow 15 to 20 minutes for the call. Questions include “Are you able to take a bath or shower?” and “Have you had any recent falls or near miss falls in last 4 weeks?” Then the visit is booked.
[My Aged Care, How to apply; Assessment Manual v8.3, s5.1 to s5.3; IAT User Guide v2.6; Department, About the Single Assessment System]
A needs assessor visits your parent, usually at home, and works through the Integrated Assessment Tool with them as a conversation. They ask about everyday tasks, health, memory, mood, safety and support. Where possible, they must also watch your parent do tasks. Then they draft a support plan with your parent.
The assessor confirms consent and checks two identity documents: have the Medicare card and one other ID ready, with any doctor's referrals and the GP's contact details.
Your parent's social, physical, medical, cognitive and psychological needs, safety and support. In practice: showering, dressing, meals, housework, getting about, medicines, falls, memory, mood, social contact, home hazards, money or legal worries, any carer's situation, and how your parent wants support given. For questions that need clinical judgement, a non-clinical assessor can call in a clinical assessor by phone or video.
A family member, friend, carer or registered supporter, who needn't be registered if your parent agrees. An advocate can come too (OPAN: 1800 700 600). Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can bring an Elder Care Support worker, and someone with no one they're comfortable getting help from may be able to have a care finder there. If your parent prefers another language, tell the assessment organisation before the visit so an interpreter can join, in person or by phone.
The Assessment Manual sets no official length, and nor do the My Aged Care pages we checked. The Manual says comprehensive assessments “often require a longer time to complete due to the complexity of needs,” and expects the organisation to keep in touch while one stays open. It also tells assessors to watch for fatigue. Keep the day free.
Before finishing, the assessor is prompted to add your parent's goals to the support plan, so think about what they want help to achieve.
[Assessment Manual v8.3, s2.7.2, s5.1, s5.6, s5.7; My Aged Care, Preparing for your assessment]
Then the assessor hears only part of the picture, and that's common. Your parent's own view is asked first and recorded. Where it doesn't match their actual needs, assessors can look at other information, including a support person's observations. Your job is to make that information accurate and specific, with your parent's agreement.
The Inspector-General of Aged Care's submission to the Senate inquiry into Support at Home (July 2026) says: “The Inspector-General has repeatedly heard that many assessors consider that older people often understate their need for assistance or overstate their capacity for self-reliance.”
This isn't necessarily dishonesty: routine help is easy to overlook. For showering, “without help” means managing as often as needed with no physical, verbal or standby help. For showering, dressing and getting in and out of a chair, prompting counts as help. And whether a need is being met is judged as if no aged care services were in place.
My Aged Care says a supporter can give the assessor information before the assessment. Write down dates, examples and who helps with what, and ask how to send it when the organisation calls to book. Talk it through with your parent first.
[IAT User Guide v2.6; Assessment Manual v8.3, s5.7.2; My Aged Care, Preparing for your assessment; Inspector-General of Aged Care, July 2026, p 25]
If an assessment is coming up
It's easy to forget things on the day. Our free tool turns what you see day to day into a written statement, built only from your answers, to give to the assessor. It works for a first assessment or a reassessment, and we'll email you a copy.
Prepare for the assessment — free →New to these terms? See the full glossary →
After the visit, an Assessment Delegate decides, and your parent receives a Notice of Decision, also called the assessment outcome letter, with their support plan. If Support at Home is approved, it shows the classification, the quarterly budget and a priority category, which affects how long you wait for funding.
It also gives the reasons and how to ask for a review.
For ongoing home support, the IAT produces the classification. The User Guide says that outcome “must first be accepted by the assessor”, and assessors must not override an ineligible result to a higher classification. So the assessor must accept it. Residential care, residential respite and Transition Care are recommended by the assessor in the support plan instead. Our guide to how the assessment decides the outcome explains the inputs and the priority category.
On 6 October 2026, the Department published decision trees, a guideline and technical details showing how the IAT combines the functional ability score, the needs met score and compounding factors into a classification.
From 1 October 2026, ongoing budgets range from $11,031.56 a year at Classification 1 to $80,294.00 a year at Classification 8, including the 10% set aside for care management. Our Support at Home fact sheet lists every classification's budget.
[My Aged Care; IAT User Guide v2.6; Department, Support at Home page, resources 6 October 2026; Support at Home classifications and budgets, October 2026]
Match the route to the problem, or you can lose the review deadline.
Review (the decision is wrong): ask in writing within 28 days of receiving the Notice of Decision, and say why you think it's wrong. If the 28 days have passed, ask anyway and explain why you're late: the Department can allow more time. Email agedcarereviews@health.gov.au, write by post, or use the Request for an Internal Review of a Decision form. It's free, and a family member or registered supporter can write for your parent. Receipt is confirmed within 14 days and a decision is due within 90; if none comes, the original decision is affirmed. Next is the Administrative Review Tribunal, at a cost. See our guide to appealing an aged care classification.
Reassessment (needs have changed): for a significant change, such as a carer permanently stopping some or all care, or an event or decline that means more or new services. Call 1800 200 422 or ask the provider. If your parent still has a Transitioned HCP Level from a Home Care Package, a reassessment can't lower their funding: the level stays unless the result is a classification with more funding. A reassessment isn't backdated, but someone reassessed to a higher classification while waiting for funding keeps their queue position from the original approval date.
Support Plan Review (services need adjusting): an assessor updates the plan or refers your parent for a reassessment. It isn't a way to challenge a decision.
[Assessment Manual v8.3, s1.5.1, s5.2.1, s10.1.4, s11.2, s11.3; My Aged Care]
There are two waits. My Aged Care says an assessment usually happens within 5 to 40 days, by urgency; the national median was 26 days (April to June 2026). Its estimate for ongoing Support at Home funding, from approval, is within 1 month (urgent) to 7 to 8 months (standard), as at 30 June 2026.
My Aged Care counts that median from when a referral is submitted to when the assessment occurs, across 140,028 assessments completed in those three months.
| Step | Who does it | What happens | Timeframe | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apply | You or your parent | Screening questions; a referral priority is set | 15 to 20 minutes | My Aged Care |
| Triage | Triage Delegate, usually by phone | Confirms eligibility, assessment type and priority; books the visit | Within 2 weeks of receiving the referral | Department |
| Assessment | Needs assessor | IAT questions and observation; support plan drafted | Usually within 5 to 40 days, by urgency; national median 26 days (1 April to 30 June 2026) | My Aged Care |
| Decision | Assessment Delegate | Notice of Decision and support plan sent | Within 14 days of the decision | Assessment Manual s9.3.1 |
| Review, if you disagree | You, in writing | Internal review by the Department | Within 28 days of receiving the Notice of Decision | Assessment Manual s11.2 |
| Funding wait (ongoing Support at Home) | Priority System | Funding allocated by priority category | Urgent: within 1 month. High: 1 month. Medium: 5 to 6 months. Standard: 7 to 8 months | My Aged Care |
| Funding assignment letter | You and your provider | Enter a service agreement and start services | 56 days, plus a 28-day extension on request | Program Manual s6.9 |
On the outcome, My Aged Care's FAQ says: “Your assessor may need some time to review the information.” Its outcome page says this “can take up to 2 weeks”. Track progress in your parent's My Aged Care Online Account or on 1800 200 422.
If ongoing waits run longer than expected, interim funding of 60% of the budget may be allocated, though not in the urgent category. Interim funding comes with its own letter, which starts the 56 days below, so don't wait for the rest before finding a provider. See our guide to Support at Home waiting times.
When funding is allocated, a funding assignment letter arrives. You have 56 days to enter a service agreement and start services, counted from the date funding was allocated (the date on the letter), not the day it arrives. The 28 review days, by contrast, count from receiving the Notice of Decision. A 28-day extension from My Aged Care makes it 84. The provider must also give Services Australia the start information within the same 56 days (or 84). If either doesn't happen in time, the funding is withdrawn and your parent leaves the queue. They can re-join through My Aged Care, keeping their original approval date, without a new assessment unless their needs have changed. Our guide to the 56-day window and what happens after your aged care assessment cover each step.
[My Aged Care, How to apply and Assessment outcome: Support at Home; Support at Home program manual v4.4, s6.8.1.1, s6.9, s7.4]
About this guide
Written by Steve Hadfield, a NSW community services worker. Steve is not an aged care assessor or a financial adviser, so the claims here are checked against the government sources named on the page. AgedCareActionPlan.au is independent and is not a government service.
General information only. Sources: Aged Care Assessment Manual v8.3 (29 June 2026); IAT User Guide v2.6 (August 2026) and Offline Form 2606; Support at Home program manual v4.4 (September 2026); Aged Care Rules 2025 (Compilation No. 10); Department, Support at Home program: classifications and budgets (October 2026); Department, SAS assessment organisations by service area (June 2026); Department Support at Home page (news 21 August 2026, resources 6 October 2026); Victorian Department of Health, My Aged Care assessment services (15 July 2026); other Department and My Aged Care pages (read 9 October 2026); Inspector-General of Aged Care (July 2026). Last reviewed 9 October 2026.
Not quite. The Single Assessment System is the national system that, from 9 December 2024, brought together and replaced the old assessment workforces, including Aged Care Assessment Teams. The assessment itself is now called an aged care needs assessment. You still apply through My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.
Apply online at myagedcare.gov.au, call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, or book a face-to-face appointment with an Aged Care Specialist Officer on 1800 227 475. It takes 15 to 20 minutes. You can apply for your parent with their permission. A Triage Delegate then calls to book the right type of assessment.
Yes. Your parent can have a family member, friend, carer or registered supporter with them, and you don't need to be a registered supporter if your parent agrees. A supporter can also give the assessor information beforehand. Being there helps: where your parent's view doesn't match their needs, assessors can look at a support person's observations.
How your parent manages everyday tasks such as showering, dressing, meals and getting about, plus health and medicines, falls, memory and mood, social contact, home safety and any carer's situation. Where possible, the assessor must watch tasks being done. Prompting counts as help for tasks such as showering and dressing. Our guide to the Integrated Assessment Tool explains each part.
You'll get a letter explaining why. If you think the decision is wrong, ask for a free review in writing within 28 days of receiving the Notice of Decision, saying why it's wrong. Email agedcarereviews@health.gov.au or use the Request for an Internal Review of a Decision form. If your parent's needs increase later, they can be reassessed.
Yes, if the change is significant, such as a carer permanently stopping some or all care, or an event or decline that means your parent needs more or new services. Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or ask their provider. If your parent still has a Transitioned HCP Level, a reassessment can't lower their funding below it. A reassessment isn't backdated, so a decision you think was wrong needs a review instead.
No. My Aged Care says the assessment is free of charge, and a review of the decision is free too. Costs come later, if your parent receives services, and depend on the program, the services and their income and assets. My Aged Care's fee estimator gives a general guide; for advice, see a licensed aged care financial adviser.
Only the name. ACAT stands for Aged Care Assessment Team; ACAS, Aged Care Assessment Services, was the name used in Victoria. Victoria's health department says the Single Assessment System replaced Aged Care Assessment Services, as it did ACATs nationally. Wherever your parent lives, you now apply through My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.
An Assessment Delegate decides, and your parent receives a Notice of Decision with their support plan. For Support at Home it shows the classification, budget and priority category. When funding is allocated, a funding assignment letter follows, and you have 56 days to enter a service agreement and start services. You can ask for a 28-day extension.
An assessment coming up? Make sure the assessor hears the full picture.
Our free tool helps you put what you see day to day into a written statement, in your own words, to bring to the assessment. Independent — no sales calls.
Prepare for the assessment — free →This guide is for information only — not legal, medical, or financial advice. Support at Home operates under the Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025. Check myagedcare.gov.au for current rates and rules.