By Steve Hadfield, AgedCareActionPlan.au · Last updated: 15 June 2026
A fall. A hospital discharge. A GP who mentions “home care packages.” Or a letter that arrived with a classification number you’ve never seen before.
Whatever brought you here — you’re trying to work out how to get help at home for someone you love, or for yourself. That’s the right instinct. This page will give you the full picture.
Here’s the thing most search results won’t tell you: the Home Care Package program stopped accepting new applications on 1 November 2025. It wasn’t cancelled — it was replaced by something called Support at Home, with a different structure, different terminology, and in most cases, more funding than the old system provided.
This matters whichever of three situations brought you here.
If you’re already receiving a Home Care Package: your package wasn’t taken away. You were moved across automatically on 1 November 2025, your funding is protected, and your contribution rate stays the same or gets lower. You don’t need to do anything — but the system around you has new rules, and it’s worth understanding them.
If you’ve just been assessed or received a classification letter: the term “Home Care Package” won’t appear on it. You’ll see “Support at Home” and a classification (1 through 8). This is the same kind of support, restructured.
If you haven’t been assessed yet: good — you’re ahead of most families. This page explains the system you’ll actually enter, not the one that existed before November 2025.
The short version: Home Care Packages became Support at Home. Four funding “Levels” became eight “Classifications.” Annual budgets became quarterly. A management fee that could reach 35% is now capped at 10%. And existing arrangements are protected under something called the “No Worse Off Principle.”
Source: Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home program overview
Before the structure and the numbers — the practical reality. Support at Home funds services that help people stay living at home safely and independently. That means real people coming to help with real things:
Clinical services — nursing visits, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, speech pathology. These are now 100% government-funded under Support at Home. You pay nothing for clinical services, regardless of your income, assets, or classification.
Independence services — personal care (help with showering, dressing, toileting), assistive technology (grab rails, shower chairs, mobility aids), and home modifications (ramps, bathroom alterations). These attract moderate participant contributions based on your means-tested rate.
Everyday living services — domestic help (cleaning, laundry), gardening, meal preparation, social support, transport to appointments. These attract the highest contribution rates of the three categories.
What this looks like in practice: a Classification 3 recipient with a quarterly budget of $5,491.43 might receive something like 6–8 hours per week of combined support — some mix of personal care, cleaning, and meal preparation, depending on what’s in their approved support plan. The exact hours depend on provider pricing and your service mix, but the budget is real and it’s meaningful.
From 1 October 2026, personal care services (showering, dressing, continence support) are scheduled to reclassify into the fully-funded clinical category — removing participant contributions for that service type entirely. If this applies to your situation, it’s worth knowing ahead of time.
If you or your parent haven’t been assessed yet, the entry point is My Aged Care — the government gateway for all aged care services.
Call 1800 200 422 (My Aged Care) or register online at myagedcare.gov.au. You’ll answer screening questions about the person’s situation, and if eligible, an assessment will be arranged.
The assessment is a home visit. An assessor — usually a nurse, social worker, or allied health professional — comes to the person’s home and spends 45–75 minutes assessing how they manage daily activities across multiple domains: mobility, self-care, cognition, communication, emotional wellbeing, and more. The assessment uses a structured scoring tool called the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT), which has 12 sections.
Here’s what most families don’t know: the IAT scores what’s documented. An honest but vague answer — “she copes, mostly” — scores lower than a specific, accurate one — “she fell twice in March and hasn’t attempted the stairs alone since.” The families who get the classification that actually reflects their parent’s needs aren’t lucky. They’re prepared.
After the assessment, an outcome letter arrives — typically within 2–4 weeks — telling you which classification (1–8) was assigned. If you’re approved for services, a separate funding allocation letter follows. These are two different letters, and it’s the second one — the funding letter — that starts the activation clock.
Our free assessment preparation tool walks you through all 12 IAT domains and produces a printable carer statement to hand to the assessor at the door. Takes about 15 minutes.
Start preparing — free →On 1 November 2025, the Australian Government’s Support at Home program replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. This wasn’t a rebrand — it was a structural change to how funding, fees, and care management work, introduced under the new Aged Care Act 2024.
If you’re on CHSP (Commonwealth Home Support Programme — the lower-level, entry-tier program that provides basic services like domestic help, transport, or occasional respite without a formal “package”), your program hasn’t transitioned yet. CHSP continues under its existing rules until at least 1 July 2027. But if your needs have increased beyond what CHSP covers, a reassessment could move you into a funded Support at Home classification — meaningfully more support. Many families on CHSP don’t realise this pathway exists, and it’s one of the highest-value actions available to them. Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 to discuss a reassessment.
Not sure which program you’re on, or what actually changes if you move? Our CHSP vs Support at Home — which program are you on? guide breaks down the funding, fees, and ceilings of each — and the five things that shift the moment a reassessment moves you across.
For everyone who held, was approved for, or was assessed as eligible for a Home Care Package, one date matters more than any other: 12 September 2024.
The Australian Government created three groups, based on where you sat on 12 September 2024 — more than a year before Support at Home launched.
Grandfathered. You were receiving a Home Care Package, on the National Priority System, or assessed as eligible for one, on or before 12 September 2024. You transitioned automatically on 1 November 2025 under the No Worse Off Principle. This means: your contribution rate stays the same or gets lower, even if you’re later reassessed into a higher classification. If you paid nothing under your old package, you will never be asked to pay under Support at Home.
Transitional. You were approved between 13 September 2024 and 31 October 2025. You moved to Support at Home on 1 November 2025 under the new contribution arrangements — not grandfathered. If this is you, the contribution rates and fee structure below apply to you in full. This group is easy to miss in most explanations.
New. You were assessed and approved from 1 November 2025 onwards. You entered Support at Home directly. Everything below applies to you from day one.
Source: Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home pricing arrangements fact sheet
| Home Care Package (old) | Support at Home (current) | |
|---|---|---|
| Structure | 4 Levels (1–4) | 8 Classifications (1–8) |
| Budget period | Annual | Quarterly |
| Care management fee | Up to 35% (provider-set) | Capped at 10% (government-set) |
| Clinical services | Bundled into package budget | 100% government-funded — no contribution |
| Unspent funds | Carried over within package | Carry over for grandfathered + transitional groups |
| Statements | Variable | Itemised monthly statements required |
The biggest practical change for most families is the 10% care management cap. Under Home Care Packages, providers could allocate up to 35% of a package toward “package management” before any of it reached actual care. Under Support at Home, care management is capped at 10% of the quarterly budget — government-set, not provider-set.
That’s not a rounding difference. On a Classification 4 quarterly budget of $7,424.10, the difference between a 10% cap and a 35% allocation is roughly $1,856 per quarter — money that either reaches your care, or doesn’t.
Under the old system, four Levels covered the full spectrum of need. Under Support at Home, eight Classifications allow funding to be matched more precisely. Each classification sets a quarterly budget — and that budget compounds over time. The gap between Classification 3 ($5,491.43/quarter, ~$21,966/year) and Classification 4 ($7,424.10/quarter, ~$29,696/year) is approximately $7,730 per year, every year, for as long as your care needs remain at that level.
If your old package was a “Level,” it became a “Transitioned HCP Level” under Support at Home — same funding, carried across under the No Worse Off Principle. Anyone assessed from 1 November 2025 onward is assessed directly into one of eight classifications.
This is why documentation at assessment time matters. The assessment doesn’t score optimism — it scores evidence. Families who walk in without understanding what’s being measured tend to come out with a lower classification than their situation warrants, not because anyone did anything wrong, but because the tool scores what’s documented, not what’s true.
Our classification explainer breaks down what each of the 8 levels covers and how the assessment determines which one you receive.
This is the single most actionable thing on this page, and it applies to everyone on Support at Home — grandfathered, transitional, or new.
Every quarter, your provider deducts a care management fee from your budget before allocating the rest to your actual services. By law, that fee cannot exceed 10% of your quarterly budget — whether your provider manages your care or you self-manage it.
For a Classification 3 recipient, the correct quarterly care management fee is $549.14 (10% of $5,491.43). If a provider charges 15% instead — an extra ~$275 per quarter — that’s money that was meant to pay for care hours and didn’t. Over three undetected quarters, that’s over $800 gone.
Most families have never checked this, because most families don’t know the cap exists or what their own number should be.
Our care management fees guide covers how to read this line on your statement and what to do if the number doesn’t match. For the full picture of what you’ll pay out of pocket beyond care management, see our costs guide.
If you’re in the grandfathered group — approved for or receiving a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024 — the transition should have been close to invisible. Same funding level, same or lower contribution rate, unspent funds carried over.
The direct answer to the fear most families have: your package wasn’t taken away. Your funding wasn’t cut. Your provider didn’t change. You don’t need to reapply or redo any assessment. The transition happened automatically, and the No Worse Off Principle means your out-of-pocket costs can only stay the same or decrease — never increase — even if you’re reassessed into a higher classification later.
Three things worth checking now, even if nothing seems to have changed:
Your provider’s care management fee. The 10% cap applies to grandfathered participants too. If your provider hasn’t adjusted their fee structure to the new cap, that’s worth raising.
Your inclusions list. What was covered under a Home Care Package isn’t automatically identical to what’s covered under Support at Home — the service list changed. Our inclusions and exclusions guide covers exactly what’s covered under the current rules.
Your lifetime contribution cap. Grandfathered participants have a separate, lower lifetime cap than new participants. The exact dollar figure is set per individual and tracked by Services Australia — contact them directly to find out where you stand against your personal cap.
If you’re self-managing under the transitioned arrangements, our self-management guide covers what’s changed for self-managers specifically.
Separately from the 10% care management cap, there’s a lifetime cap on what you’ll ever contribute toward non-clinical aged care services — combined across home care and residential care.
For new Support at Home participants (assessed from 1 November 2025), the lifetime cap is $135,318.69 as of 1 November 2025, indexed twice yearly on 20 March and 20 September. Once you reach this figure across your lifetime, you stop paying contributions for non-clinical services entirely — the government covers the rest.
Grandfathered participants have a separate, lower lifetime cap set per individual. Services Australia tracks this and will notify you when you approach it.
Source: Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions
It happens. The assessment is thorough but it’s a snapshot — one visit, one day. If the assessor came on a good day, or your parent put on a brave face, or the carer statement didn’t capture the full picture, the classification can come back lower than it should be.
You have 28 days from the Notice of Decision to request a formal internal review. If that review doesn’t resolve it, you can escalate to the Administrative Review Tribunal for an independent external review.
The families who win these reviews don’t have better cases — they have better documentation. The same preparation that matters before the assessment matters even more at review: specific incidents, dates, changes from baseline, and evidence of daily functioning that wasn’t captured the first time.
Our escalation ladder guide covers the full review and appeals process step by step — who to call, what to submit, and in what order.
Haven’t been assessed yet?
Start with our free assessment preparation tool. It walks through what the assessment actually measures, domain by domain, and produces a printable carer statement to bring with you.
Start preparing — free →Classification letter in hand, activation window open?
You have 56 days from the funding allocation letter (not the outcome letter — they’re separate) to choose a provider and start services. The Complete System covers exactly what to do in that window — the provider questions, the agreement red flags, and the 28-day extension if you need more time.
Know what to do before the clock runs out →Already receiving services?
Navigator checks your monthly statement against the 10% cap and your classification budget. If something doesn’t add up, you’ll know before it compounds.
Learn about Navigator →Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home program
Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions
Aged Care Rules 2025 (F2025L01173)
My Aged Care (1800 200 422)
The term still applies to anyone who held a package before 1 November 2025 — your funding was carried across as a 'Transitioned HCP Level' under the No Worse Off Principle. For anyone assessed from 1 November 2025 onward, there's no 'package' — you're assessed directly into a Support at Home classification (1–8).
If you're grandfathered (approved on or before 12 September 2024), the transition happened automatically. No action needed. It's still worth checking your provider's care management fee is within the new 10% cap — this applies to everyone.
Levels (1–4) were the old Home Care Package structure. Classifications (1–8) are Support at Home — twice as many tiers, allowing funding to be matched more precisely to need. If you were grandfathered, your old Level became a 'Transitioned HCP Level' carrying the same funding.
A classification. The term 'Home Care Package' doesn't apply to new applicants from 1 November 2025 onward. Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or register at myagedcare.gov.au to start.
Yes. It's a legal cap under the Aged Care Rules 2025, effective 1 November 2025. It applies to every Support at Home participant — grandfathered, transitional, or new — regardless of whether your provider manages your care or you self-manage.
Not yet. CHSP continues under its current rules until at least 1 July 2027. But if your needs have increased beyond what CHSP covers, a reassessment could move you into a funded Support at Home classification with significantly more support. Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 to discuss a reassessment.
Need a complete personalised plan for your situation?
This guide is for information only — not legal, medical, or financial advice. Verified against the Aged Care Act 2024 and Aged Care Rules 2025. Check myagedcare.gov.au for current rates and rules.