By Steve Hadfield, AgedCareActionPlan.au · Last reviewed: 21 June 2026
Last reviewed: · Next review: after the 20 March 2027 indexation
No personal care contribution from 1 October 2026 (still paid from your budget)
From 1 October 2026, personal care moves into the Clinical Supports contribution category. If it is approved in your support plan and there is funding available, you pay no contribution for it, whatever your income. It is still paid from your Support at Home budget, so removing the contribution does not free up budget for other services. Personal care covers showering, non-clinical continence management, dressing, eating, personal hygiene and help taking your own medication. Personal care delivered before 1 October 2026 still attracts a contribution.
Source: My Aged Care — Support at Home personal care contribution changes ↗Last updated: 25 September 2026
CHSP and Support at Home don't just differ in "how much" — they differ in how the money flows, who controls it, and what it costs you.
Under CHSP, the government pays providers directly through block grant funding — a lump sum allocated to the provider organisation, not to you as an individual. Your provider delivers services from that pool. You pay a co-contribution toward each service, set by the provider according to the CHSP Client Contribution Framework. There's no nationally fixed rate — fees vary between providers. Hardship provisions are required, and you can't be denied services for inability to pay.
Under Support at Home, you're assigned a classification (1 through 8) based on assessed need, and each classification carries an individual quarterly budget. At Classification 3, that's $5,645 per quarter. At Classification 4, $7,632. That budget is yours — allocated every three months, directed toward approved services of your choosing.
But here's what the "more funding" framing leaves out. Under Support at Home, 10% of every quarterly budget is set aside for care management: developing and reviewing your care plan and coordinating your services. At Classification 3, that's $565 a quarter. It's pooled with other clients' care management funding, and you pay no contribution towards it. Under CHSP's grant-funded model, there is no equivalent individual-budget percentage — because there's no individual budget for a percentage to apply to.
Support at Home also has means-tested contributions, which differ across three service categories (clinical supports have none). The government publishes the rates:
| Pension status | Clinical care | Independence | Everyday Living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | 0% | 5% | 17.5% |
| Part pensioner, or self-funded CSHC holder | 0% | 5–50% | 17.5–80% |
| Self-funded, no CSHC | 0% | 50% | 80% |
Source: Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions. Rates effective from 1 November 2025. From 1 October 2026, approved personal care attracts no contribution if funding is available (it is still paid from the budget).
This matters because the shift from CHSP to Support at Home isn't just "more help." It's a completely different financial model: your contribution rates are set by a national means test instead of by your provider, and what you pay can be higher or lower than now. Whether you come out ahead depends on your pension status, your income and assets, and the services you actually use.
This section isn't about accusing providers of acting badly — most don't. It's about understanding a structural incentive that exists whether or not anyone exploits it.
Under CHSP, your provider receives block grant funding from the government regardless of your individual care plan. Under Support at Home, your provider is paid for each service it delivers from your budget, and claims for care management from a pool made up of 10% of each client's budget. The more funding attached to your classification, the more services your provider can deliver and be paid for.
When a CHSP provider suggests you might benefit from a reassessment, they may be right — and often are. But you should know that the outcome also changes how they're paid. An independent assessment of whether your needs have genuinely increased is the basis of that decision — not your provider's recommendation alone. You don't have to go through your provider: you can ask My Aged Care for a reassessment yourself on 1800 200 422.
The reassessment trigger isn't vague — it's needs-based. You can't request to "upgrade" from CHSP to Support at Home because you'd like more funding. An assessor has to find your needs have genuinely increased. Government guidance is clear on this: increased needs is the trigger, not preference.
But "needs have increased" is a phrase families don't know how to measure against their own situation. Here's a practical self-check — based on the areas the Integrated Assessment Tool covers — to help you decide whether the call is warranted.
Ask yourself whether any of these have changed significantly in the last 6 to 12 months:
Daily functioning
Can they still shower, dress, prepare meals, and manage toileting independently — or has the help needed to do these things increased? If a task that used to be manageable now requires someone else present every time, that's a change worth documenting.
Mobility and falls
Have falls or near-misses become more frequent? Have they stopped going outside, stopped using stairs, or started holding furniture to walk? Write each fall or near-miss down with its date.
Cognition
Are they missing medications, repeating questions, getting confused about time or familiar places, leaving the stove on? Specific incidents with dates carry weight in an assessment. "Getting a bit forgetful" doesn't.
Carer capacity
Has the person who was helping become unable to continue — through burnout, illness, or a change in their own circumstances? A carer who can no longer cope is itself a trigger for reassessment.
Safety at home
Is there a genuine risk that wasn't there before — wandering, inability to call for help, medication errors with real consequences?
If you can point to specific, dated incidents in any of these areas, that's the basis for a call to My Aged Care. If the changes are more gradual and harder to pin down, talk to the person's GP — a supporting letter documenting functional decline strengthens any reassessment request significantly.
Step 1: Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and say: "My needs have changed since my last assessment — I want to request a reassessment." Be ready with specific incidents and dates.
Step 2: Before the assessor visits, use the assessment preparation tool to turn what you see day to day into a printable written statement. It takes about 15 minutes.
Step 3: Read the section below — what actually changes if you move — before you sign anything. The transition involves five simultaneous shifts, and knowing them in advance prevents the most common surprises.
Most content about this transition says "you'll get more funding." That's true, but incomplete. Here's what actually changes at once — and no other source lists them together.
1. Your fee structure changes completely
CHSP's provider-set co-contributions are replaced by means-tested contributions across three service categories. A full pensioner using domestic assistance currently pays whatever their CHSP provider charges per occasion. On Support at Home, they'd pay 17.5% of the price of the same cleaning, and the full price comes out of their budget. Care management takes 10% of the budget, but you pay no contribution towards it. A self-funded retiree without a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card pays 80% of Everyday Living service costs. Whether you pay more or less overall depends on your pension status, income, and services used.
One significant change: from 1 October 2026, approved personal care attracts no contribution if funding is available. It is still paid from your Support at Home budget. If you move to Support at Home after that date, you pay no contribution for approved personal care.
2. Your existing CHSP services in overlapping areas generally stop
Once you're on Support at Home, your Support at Home budget is expected to cover those needs. The government allows CHSP access alongside Support at Home only in limited, specific circumstances — pre-existing social group activities, emergency access, and a small number of other exceptions. Five in total. This catches families off guard. You may need to re-engage the same services through your Support at Home provider, and there can be a gap while that's arranged.
3. You gain an individual quarterly budget — and 10% of it goes to care management
At Classification 3, the quarterly budget is $5,645. After the 10% for care management ($565), $5,081 is left for services, about $391 a week. At the Department's national median weekday prices (November to December 2025), that's about 3.5 hours a week of personal care or cleaning; your provider's prices may be higher or lower. The classifications in hours guide maps every classification to approximate service hours.
4. You enter a 56-day activation window
From the date funding is allocated, shown on your funding assignment letter (not the outcome letter — a critical distinction), you have 56 days to choose a provider, sign a service agreement and start services. You can ask My Aged Care for a 28-day extension. If services haven't started in time, the funding is withdrawn. The 56-day activation guide explains the mechanics and what to do if you're running short.
5. Your provider may change
Not all CHSP providers are registered to deliver Support at Home services. If your current provider doesn't deliver Support at Home, you'll need to find one that does — which means a new relationship, a new service agreement, and potentially different workers. For someone whose parent has built trust with a specific support worker over months or years, this is the emotional weight of the transition. Check with your current provider before the reassessment, not after.
If the wait for your full budget runs longer than expected, you may be given interim funding first: 60% of your classification's budget. It comes with its own letter, and the 56 days start from that allocation, so don't wait for the rest before finding a provider.
Not every CHSP recipient should be moving toward Support at Home. If your needs genuinely haven't changed — the cleaning, the meals, the transport are covering what you need and nothing has deteriorated — then CHSP is the correct program for your situation. It's not a consolation prize or a waiting room. It's the program designed for entry-level support, and if that's what you need, it's doing its job.
A reassessment that finds no change in needs won't move you to Support at Home, and shouldn't. Requesting one when nothing has changed wastes your time and an assessor's time, and doesn't produce a different outcome.
The question isn't "can I get more?" It's "have my needs changed enough that what I'm getting isn't sufficient?" If the answer is yes, call. If the answer is no, keep going — and revisit if circumstances change.
Most people don't know which program they're on because both feel the same on the ground — a worker turns up, does the cleaning, leaves. The system distinction only becomes visible if you go looking for it.
Log into your My Aged Care online account. Support at Home shows a classification number (1 to 8) and a quarterly budget figure on your dashboard. CHSP shows a list of approved service types with no budget figure attached — because there isn't one.
Or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and say: "Am I currently on CHSP or Support at Home?" The operator can confirm it immediately from your client record.
Not for now. In August 2026 the government extended CHSP for another two years, to 30 June 2029. My Aged Care says older people will continue to access CHSP entry-level support, and the Department will consult on a long-term design for an entry-level program that is better integrated with Support at Home.
Some government pages and documents, including the Department's CHSP page and its Aged Care Assessment Manual (June 2026), still say Support at Home will replace CHSP no earlier than 1 July 2027. That can still be true, but the extension to 30 June 2029 is the newer announcement, and it doesn't give a date for any move.
If you're on CHSP and things feel stable — the services you have are covering what you need — there's nothing to do. Keep going, and revisit this if anything changes.
If you're on CHSP and the gap between what you're getting and what you actually need has been growing — more falls, slower recovery, a carer who's stretched thin — the next move is the phone call above, not more research. Reassessments aren't won by waiting for the system to notice. They're won by calling and stating specific, dated examples.
If you've just been told you're moving to a Support at Home classification, or you're preparing for the reassessment conversation, that's exactly the moment families make expensive mistakes — accepting the first provider explanation of a fee, missing the funding letter's 56-day clock, not knowing what the new quarterly budget actually buys. Our guide to choosing a Support at Home provider covers what to compare and what to check before you sign.
| CHSP | Support at Home | |
|---|---|---|
| Funding model | Government block grant to provider — no individual client budget | Individual quarterly budget tied to your assessed classification (1–8) |
| Assessment | Entry-level assessment via My Aged Care | Full assessment via Single Assessment System (Integrated Assessment Tool) |
| What it covers | Entry-level services such as domestic help, meals, transport, social support, personal care, nursing, allied health, equipment and home modifications | Ongoing services paid from your own quarterly budget, plus separate funding for equipment and home modifications (the AT-HM scheme) |
| Client fees — structure | Provider-set co-contributions per service occasion (varies; hardship provisions required) | Means-tested contributions across three categories; 10% of the budget set aside for care management (no contribution) |
| Client fees — rates | No nationally fixed rate; each provider sets fees within the CHSP Client Contribution Framework | Clinical 0% · Independence 5–50% · Everyday Living 17.5–80% (depends on pension status and income/assets) |
| Care management | N/A — no individual budget for a percentage to apply to | A fixed 10% of every quarterly budget, set aside for care management. You pay no contribution towards it. |
| How you move between them | N/A — does not escalate automatically | Reassessment via My Aged Care, triggered only by genuinely increased needs |
| What happens to existing services | N/A | CHSP services in overlapping areas generally stop; SaH budget covers those needs |
| Current status | Continues separately; extended to 30 June 2029 | Running since 1 November 2025 (replaced Home Care Packages) |
From 1 October 2026, approved personal care under Support at Home attracts no contribution if funding is available (it is still paid from the budget). All classification budget figures apply from 1 October 2026 and are indexed each July — check the Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements for current figures after July 2027.
Not sure if a reassessment is warranted? Turn what you see day to day into a printable written statement to hand to the assessor.
Open the assessment preparation tool →No. CHSP continues for existing clients: in August 2026 the government extended the program to 30 June 2029. No action is required to keep your current services.
In most cases, your CHSP services in overlapping areas stop — your Support at Home budget is expected to cover those needs instead. The government allows CHSP alongside Support at Home only in limited circumstances, such as pre-existing social group participation and emergency access. Check with your provider before the reassessment about how the handover will work in practice.
No. A move only happens through a reassessment, and a reassessment only results in a Support at Home classification if an assessor finds your care needs have genuinely increased. If that sounds like your situation, the self-check section in this guide can help you decide whether the call is warranted.
Look for concrete, specific changes: new falls, a new diagnosis, a hospital admission, your usual carer no longer able to manage, or a genuine safety risk at home. If you can name a specific incident with a date, that's worth raising with My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. The assessment preparation tool on this site can help you organise the evidence.
It can. Under Support at Home, 10% of every quarterly budget is set aside for care management, which you don't contribute to. Independence and everyday living services carry means-tested contributions that depend on your pension status and means. Full pensioners pay 5% for Independence services and 17.5% for Everyday Living. Self-funded retirees pay up to 50% and 80% respectively. Clinical care — nursing, physiotherapy — has no contribution. From 1 October 2026, approved personal care attracts no contribution if funding is available, but it is still paid from your budget.
You can ask for a review in writing within 28 days of receiving the Notice of Decision, and say why you think the decision is wrong. If your needs have changed since the assessment, ask for a reassessment instead.
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.