The Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) and its user guide, explained

The Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) User Guide is written for assessors. It tells them what to consider and record for each question, and three of its instructions matter more than families expect. "Without help" means no prompting, reminding or standing by (and the Department's technical details count that answer in both scores). The person's own view comes first, but the assessor can weigh what a support person tells them. And help from aged care services already in place is set aside when deciding whether a need is met.

Both official documents are public: the IAT User Guide (version 2.6, published 28 August 2026) and the IAT offline form (form 2606, published 29 June 2026), which shows the questions. This page explains what they mean for your assessment. The assessor records the answers; the tool does the scoring. For how the scores become a classification, see the aged care assessment guide.

What is the Integrated Assessment Tool?

It is the common set of questions assessors use in every aged care needs assessment, brought in with the Single Assessment System. It starts with triage, to work out what kind of assessment is needed, then the full assessment. Its questions draw on clinically validated assessment tools, such as the Barthel Index of Activities of Daily Living. [Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Ongoing home support classification levels assignment, 6 October 2026]

The Department describes trained assessors using "their professional judgement" to record the answers. For ongoing help at home, the tool then works out the classification from them, and the User Guide says the outcome "must first be accepted by the assessor". If the tool finds someone ineligible for ongoing home support, the system offers a prompt to override it to a higher classification. The User Guide is blunt: "Assessors must not take this action." [Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Ongoing home support classification levels assignment, 6 October 2026; IAT User Guide, published 28 August 2026]

What is in the IAT?

A triage step comes first. The full assessment then has 13 sections, not the four, eight, nine or twelve "domains" you may have read about. Some questions only appear when an earlier answer calls for them, so assessments can look different from person to person. The table shows each section and how it is used for an ongoing home support classification.

The Rules mostly list whole sections as compounding factors. The method the Department published uses much less of them: one question from Carer Profile, one from Social, the two continence questions, a frailty screen, a mood screen and a memory indicator. "Not a classification input" doesn't mean a section is unimportant. The whole assessment informs the support plan, the services recommended and any referrals.

What does the Function section ask?

The Function section asks 24 questions about everyday activities and abilities. The Rules and the Department's technical details count 23 of them in the functional independence score, from 0 to 48. The one left out is light housework: it is asked, but it isn't part of that score. [Aged Care Rules 2025, s5-5; Department technical details, 6 October 2026]

The first answer decides which questions follow

For most activities the first question has three answers: without help, with some help, or completely unable. The two follow-up questions, "Who helps?" and "Is the need being met?", only open after "With some help" or "Completely unable". So if an activity is recorded as managed without help, the tool never asks whether that need is met.

Transfers (such as getting in and out of a chair or bed) and toilet use have a fourth answer, minor help, and a higher bar: the follow-up questions open only after "Major help" or "Completely unable". The bladder and bowel questions work differently again, with their own follow-up questions about continence. [IAT offline form 2606]

What "without help" means, and why it counts twice

"Without help" means managing as often as needed with no physical, verbal or standby assistance. The User Guide's example for showering says to consider "cognitive as well as physical reasons": someone with dementia may be physically able to shower but need prompting. Prompting, reminding, supervising and standing by all count as help. [IAT User Guide, published 28 August 2026]

The answer also counts twice. An activity recorded as done without help scores as independent in the functional independence score. The Department's technical details then give that activity the full 2 points in the needs met score, as if the need were completely met. One answer moves both scores, so the first answer to each question has to be right. [Department technical details, Constructed Variables: "if the individual answered "Without Help" for the activity, assign them the maximum score of 2 for that activity"]

How should "Is the need being met?" be answered?

The assessor records one of four answers: completely unmet, partially met, completely met, or client does not require assistance. A need that is "only being met some of the time" counts as partially met. The person's own view comes first. Where it seems to conflict with their actual needs, the assessor can weigh what they observe and what a support person tells them. [IAT User Guide: "consider the client's perception first. If necessary, investigate other considerations (for example, assessor and/or support person observations)"]

That matters if the person tends to say "I manage fine". A family member who sees the day-to-day can give the assessor the other half of the picture, before the visit or on the day.

One instruction surprises families: even when aged care services are already in place, assessors answer "based on the assumption that no aged care services are in place". The instruction is about aged care services. It doesn't tell assessors to set aside help from family. So if you are quietly covering gaps, say exactly what you do, how often, and what happens on the days you can't. [IAT User Guide]

What else does the assessor record that affects the classification?

Beyond everyday activities, six items decide whether there are "significant compounding factors", which can move a person to the higher of their two possible classifications. Two of them are single questions, quoted here from the Department's technical details:

The other four are continence (the bladder and bowel questions), a short frailty screen, a short mood screen for anxiety and depression, and a memory indicator. The assessor may run a short memory check, and may ask a family member how the person's memory compares with five to ten years ago. There is nothing to practise for it.

How much each item counts depends on where the person sits in the decision tree, so no single answer has a fixed value. What matters is that each one is answered accurately. The aged care assessment guide explains how compounding factors are worked out. [Support at Home classification system and technical details, 6 October 2026]

How do the answers become a classification?

The tool turns the everyday-activity answers into a functional independence score (0 to 48) and the need-met answers into a needs met score (0 to 36). Together they narrow the result to two possible levels, and the compounding factors pick one. Lower scores mean more need. The Department calls it "a fixed, repeatable points scoring system". [Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Ongoing home support classification levels assignment, 6 October 2026]

The aged care assessment guide sets out the full method, including the table in the Rules that turns the scores into a classification. What each classification is worth is on the Support at Home fact sheet.

What aged care assessment questions should I prepare for?

Preparation starts earlier than you might expect: with your first contact with My Aged Care. Information gathered then can be carried into triage, and triage has its own questions about everyday function. Once triage is finalised and the assessment is assigned, the assessor can't change the triage answers. So describe everyday help accurately from the very first call. [Aged Care Assessment Manual, section 5.3; IAT offline form 2606]

Before that call and the visit, have these ready. For a fuller checklist, see how to prepare for the aged care assessment.

New to these terms? See the full glossary →

What is the single most important thing to do on the day?

Let the assessor see and hear how things really go. Home support assessments are done face to face in the person's usual home where it is safe, and assessors must observe everyday tasks where possible. They are told to ask the person to show how tasks are done. Don't stage a bad day, and don't let the person put on a good one. [Aged Care Assessment Manual]

If today genuinely isn't typical, say so, and give the detail behind it:

If you are the carer, speak about your own situation too. The carer question is one of the compounding factors, and a carer whose arrangements are unsustainable or at crisis point is one of the signs of urgent need the Assessment Manual describes.

What are my rights during the assessment?

What if the classification doesn't reflect the real situation?

Compare the Notice of Decision with what was true at the assessment. If they don't match, ask for a review in writing within 28 days of receiving the letter. The letter explains how, My Aged Care has a request form, and requests go to agedcarereviews@health.gov.au. The Department acknowledges it within 14 days and has 90 days to decide; if it doesn't decide by then, the original decision stands. You can then apply to the Administrative Review Tribunal. [Aged Care Assessment Manual, section 11; My Aged Care]

Two bills before Parliament could change how assessment decisions are made or reviewed. Where they stand is in the aged care assessment guide. For who to contact at each step if things still aren't resolved, read the escalation ladder guide.