The new aged care rules from November 2025: what changed, and what it means for you

Aged care in Australia has just been through its biggest shake-up in a generation. Following the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, a new Aged Care Act commenced on 1 November 2025, rewriting how the system works, who pays what, and how care at home is delivered (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/aged-care-act). If you've found the coverage confusing, you're not alone — it's a large reform with a lot of moving parts. Here's a plain-English overview of what changed, and, just as importantly, the reassurance that matters most if you or a family member is *already* in care. This article is general information only, not personal advice, and because contribution amounts are indexed and the detail is still settling, confirm the current figures with My Aged Care and Services Australia before you act on any of them.

Is the system now built around your rights?

The most fundamental change is one of philosophy. The new Act puts a Statement of Rights for older people at the centre of the system — a set of rights that providers now have a positive duty to uphold, backed by a strengthened regulator and updated Aged Care Quality Standards (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/aged-care-act). "Positive duty" simply means providers must actively demonstrate they understand those rights and deliver services in a way that honours them, rather than just avoiding the worst outcomes. The intent, coming out of the Royal Commission, is a system organised around the person receiving care — their rights, their choices, their safety — with clearer accountability when providers fall short. That framing sits underneath everything else that changed.

Does Support at Home replace Home Care Packages?

For people receiving care in their own home, the big structural change is the Support at Home program, which replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care programme on 1 November 2025 (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/support-at-home). The older Commonwealth Home Support Programme continues for now and is due to move across no earlier than 1 July 2027. Support at Home comes with a new way of classifying and funding people's needs — there are eight ongoing funding classifications, plus short-term pathways for restorative care, assistive technology and home modifications, and end-of-life support — and a defined list of services. Crucially, what you contribute now depends on the *type* of service: the government fully funds clinical care such as nursing, while independence and everyday-living services attract means-tested contributions that vary with your income and assets (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/support-at-home/charging-for-support-at-home-services/support-at-home-participant-contributions). Our separate article on Support at Home goes into how the classifications and contributions work in detail.

What changed for residential care contributions?

For people entering a residential aged care home from 1 November 2025, the fee rules also changed, and the direction is that people with greater means contribute more toward the non-care side of their stay. The government now fully funds all clinical care — nursing, medication management and the like — while residents may pay a means-tested non-clinical care contribution (toward things such as bathing and lifestyle activities) and a hotelling contribution toward everyday living costs like meals, cleaning and laundry (My Aged Care, https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/aged-care-home-costs-and-fees). There's protection built in: a resident who has been in care for more than four years stops contributing to non-clinical care costs, and a single lifetime cap of $130,000 applies to non-clinical care contributions across the whole aged care system — home care and residential combined — so no one pays more than that cap regardless of their means or how long they need care (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/support-at-home/charging-for-support-at-home-services/support-at-home-participant-contributions). That $130,000 is the legislated figure and is indexed, so confirm the current amount. The accommodation rules shifted too: providers may now retain part of a refundable accommodation deposit (a RAD — the lump sum some residents pay for their room), deducted at 2% a year for up to five years, and daily accommodation payments are indexed (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/residential-aged-care/charging/rad-and-rac-retention). These are exactly the sorts of figures the reform changed, so our detailed articles on the means-tested contribution and the RAD-versus-DAP decision — which are kept up to date — are the place to check the current numbers, and our piece on how to choose a residential aged care home covers the surrounding process.

What is the reassurance that matters most — "no worse off"?

Here's the point to hold onto if you have a parent or partner already in care, because it's caused a lot of needless worry. The reforms come with a "no worse off" principle, and its scope is now fairly precise. If you were already in a permanent residential aged care home before 1 November 2025, you keep your existing fee arrangements. For home care, the protected group is people who were receiving a Home Care Package as at 12 September 2024, or who had been approved for one as at that date and were waiting on the National Priority System for a package to be allocated (My Aged Care, https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/how-changes-aged-care-impact-you). In other words, the new, generally higher contribution rules mainly apply to people entering care after those cut-offs. If your family member was already in the system, the odds are they're grandfathered onto the old arrangements — but because the home-care cut-off date (12 September 2024) is earlier than the start of the Act, it's worth confirming their specific situation rather than assuming.

What does it mean for you?

Where you stand depends on which side of the change you're on. If you're already in care, you're most likely protected on the old rules — check, but don't panic. If you're planning aged care now, the most important thing to know is that the sums are genuinely different from a year or two ago: old fee figures, and older guides written before the reform, may simply be out of date, so work only from current numbers. And because the new means-tested contributions change who pays what, the key financial decisions — RAD versus DAP, and whether to keep or sell the family home — shift with them, which makes getting those numbers modelled properly more valuable than ever. Note too that a couple of pieces are still phasing in: from 1 October 2026, for instance, the government is due to fully fund personal care under Support at Home, another reason to work from current sources.

What do the worked examples show?

These show the two sides of the reform — someone already in care, and someone planning it now. They are illustrative only, not personal or aged care advice.

Consider Margaret, 82, a widow who moved into a residential aged care home in early 2025, well before the new Act began. Her family has read that contributions went up under the reform and worries her fees will jump. On these facts the "no worse off" principle is the reassurance that matters: because Margaret was already in permanent residential care before 1 November 2025, she keeps her existing fee arrangements rather than moving onto the new contribution structure (My Aged Care, https://www.myagedcare.gov.au/how-changes-aged-care-impact-you). On these facts it is generally rational for a family in Margaret's position to confirm her grandfathered status with the provider and My Aged Care, and then simply stop worrying about the new-entrant figures, which don't apply to her.

Now consider Robert, 74, and his wife Helen, 71, planning ahead because Helen's health is declining and residential care may be a year or two away. On these facts the reform changes the maths they should be working from: if Helen enters care after the start date she'll fall under the new arrangements, where the government fully funds her clinical care but she may pay a means-tested non-clinical care contribution and a hotelling contribution, all counting toward the $130,000 lifetime cap on non-clinical care (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, https://www.health.gov.au/our-work/support-at-home/charging-for-support-at-home-services/support-at-home-participant-contributions). On these facts it is generally rational for a couple in Robert and Helen's position to ignore pre-reform fee estimates entirely, arrange a Services Australia financial assessment closer to the time, and get personal advice on the RAD-versus-DAP and keep-or-sell-the-home questions, since those decisions now interact with the new contribution rules and with the Age Pension.

What should you do?

So the practical steps are simple. Confirm the current rules and fees with My Aged Care and Services Australia rather than relying on anything written before the reform. Arrange a financial assessment through Services Australia to work out any means-tested contribution (Services Australia, https://www.servicesaustralia.gov.au/aged-care-means-assessment). Check whether the "no worse off" grandfathering applies to your situation — and remember the home-care cut-off is 12 September 2024, not the start of the Act. And for the funding decisions, get personal advice. The reform hasn't made aged care simpler, but understood properly, and with the right help, it's still very much navigable. It's a big change, and a calm, current, well-advised approach is the way through it.

Sources

• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — About the new Aged Care Act
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home program
• My Aged Care — How the changes to aged care impact you
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — RAD and RAC retention
• Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions
• Services Australia — Aged care means (income and assets) assessment