Support at Home charges a percentage of each service received. Standard rates are 0% for clinical care, 5-50% for independence services and 17.5-80% for everyday living. Anyone receiving or approved for a Home Care Package on 12 September 2024 is on much lower no worse off rates: 0% for full pensioners, 25% for self-funded retirees.
If you have a Support at Home plan in front of you, it will list the services you have been approved for. What it will not do is tell you what they cost you.
The answer is not a dollar figure — it is a percentage, and there are two entirely different sets of them. Which set applies to you turns on a single date in September 2024, and the gap between them runs as high as 3.2 times for the same service.
How the charging actually works
Support at Home does not charge a package fee. You contribute a percentage of the price of each service you actually receive, and the government pays the remainder directly to your provider as a subsidy (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). Receive no services in a period and you contribute nothing.
The percentage depends on two things: the type of service, and your income and assets. Services fall into three types, and the ordering between them is deliberate. Clinical care services — nursing, physiotherapy, allied health — attract no contribution at all, at any means level; the government funds them in full. Independence services — personal care, assistive technology, the things that keep someone living at home and out of hospital — attract moderate contributions. Everyday living services — cleaning, gardening, domestic assistance — attract the highest contributions of all. In other words, the services with the strongest case for keeping someone out of residential care are the cheapest to the participant.
The standard rates
These apply to participants who came into Support at Home from 1 November 2025, the date the programme's contribution arrangements commenced.
| Age Pension status | Clinical care | Independence | Everyday living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | 0% | 5% | 17.5% |
| Part pensioner, or eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card | 0% | Between 5% and 50%, depending on income and assets | Between 17.5% and 80%, depending on income and assets |
| Self-funded retiree not eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card | 0% | 50% | 80% |
Two things are worth noticing. A self-funded retiree pays 80% of the price of having the lawn mowed — the subsidy on everyday living services at the top end is small. And the part-pensioner band is wide: the difference between the bottom and the top of it is a factor of ten on independence services.
Where you sit inside that band is not something you can work out from the table. Services Australia conducts an income and assets assessment, similar to the Age Pension means test, and tells both you and your provider your rate. The department publishes the endpoints and the ranges but not the schedule in between — so treat anyone who quotes you an exact percentage without doing your assessment with caution, and use the Support at Home fee estimator on the My Aged Care website for a figure tied to your own services.
One thing many self-funded retirees do not realise: if you receive no government payment at all, you can still qualify for lower rates by giving Services Australia your financial information. If your income and assets are the same as those of a full pensioner, you get the lowest contribution rates. Not volunteering that information means being charged as though you are at the top of the scale.
The date that changes everything: 12 September 2024
There is a second, much lower set of rates, and it applies under what the government calls the "no worse off" principle.
It covers older people who were receiving, or approved for, a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024 (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).
Read that twice, because the word "approved" is doing a great deal of work. You did not need to be receiving services on that date. If you had been approved and were waiting for a package to become available — as very large numbers of people were — you are covered.
It is worth noting that the department's own two publications word this slightly differently. The contributions page says "on or before 12 September 2024"; the fact sheet says "on 12 September 2024". The broader wording is used here, because someone approved earlier in 2024 could read the narrower phrasing and wrongly conclude they are excluded. If your own dates sit anywhere near this line, it is a question for Services Australia rather than for either document.
| Age Pension status | Clinical support | Independence | Everyday living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | 0% | 0% | 0% |
| Part pensioner, or eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card | 0% | Between 0% and 25%, depending on income | Between 0% and 25%, depending on income |
| Self-funded retiree | 0% | 25% | 25% |
Put the two tables side by side and the size of the difference is hard to miss. A full pensioner in the protected group pays nothing at all, for everything; outside it, the same person pays 5% on independence services and 17.5% on everyday living. A self-funded retiree in the protected group pays 25% for everyday living services; outside it, 80% — the same cleaner, the same hour, more than three times the contribution.
Note also that the protected part-pensioner row is assessed on income alone, in the department's wording, where the standard table assesses that row on income and assets. That difference is in the source, not a slip.
The principle goes further than the rates. If you were assessed as not having to pay an income-tested care fee under your Home Care Package, you will never pay contributions under Support at Home — and that holds even if you are later reassessed into a higher classification with more services. If you did pay a fee, you will pay the same or less than you did before, not more.
If there is any chance you or your parent held or were approved for a package in 2024, that is worth establishing with Services Australia before accepting a rate. It is not information that arrives unprompted.
Your rate is not fixed once it is set
Even within one set of rates, the amount can move. The department lists four reasons a participant's contributions may change over time: a change in assessed aged care needs, a change in financial circumstances, indexation of pension rates and thresholds, and reaching a lifetime cap.
The second of those catches people out most often. A change in your income or assets — an inheritance, the sale of an investment, a partner's death altering your pension status — can move you between bands, and the effect on everyday living services in particular is large.
What changes on 1 October 2026
From 1 October 2026, the Australian Government will fully fund personal care services. Participants approved for the personal care service type in their support plan will be able to access personal care at no out-of-pocket cost.
Personal care currently sits in the independence category, where standard-rate participants pay between 5% and 50%. For anyone building or reviewing a support plan now, that is the largest single item moving out of the contribution base, and it is worth knowing before deciding what to accept and when. If you are reading this after 1 October 2026, confirm the change commenced as announced before relying on it.
The lifetime caps
Contributions do not run forever.
The Support at Home lifetime cap was $135,318.69 as at 20 September 2025 and is indexed on 20 March and 20 September each year; the current figure, from the departmental schedule effective 1 July 2026, is $137,917.01. Once you have paid that much toward your services you are not charged again.
The important structural point is that this is a combined cap. It is the same cap as the non-clinical care contribution in residential aged care. Contributions you make at home count toward the ceiling that would later apply if you moved into residential care, and vice versa — a link explained from the other direction in our article on the hotelling and non-clinical care contributions. Someone who has had years of home care support may be far closer to the cap than they assume.
For the no worse off cohort, the old Home Care Package lifetime cap remains in place: $84,571.66 as at 20 September 2025, indexed on the same two dates. Lower rates and a lower ceiling. Services Australia notifies both you and your provider when a cap is reached.
Worked strategy examples
Both examples below use only the exact published rates for the two cohorts where the department states a single figure rather than a range. Service prices are set by providers and are not published by the department, so the hourly figure used here is illustrative — included only to turn the percentages into dollars.
Norma, 81, single, self-funded retiree, entered Support at Home in February 2026. Norma has around $920,000 in financial assets, receives no Age Pension and is not eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card. She came into the programme after 1 November 2025 and had no Home Care Package before it, so the standard rates apply. Her plan includes two hours a week of domestic assistance and gardening, plus a fortnightly nurse visit.
The nurse visit is clinical care, so she contributes nothing toward it at any means level. The domestic assistance and gardening are everyday living services, where her rate is 80%. If her provider prices that help at $75 an hour, two hours a week costs $150, of which Norma contributes $120 — roughly $6,240 a year. Had she been in the protected cohort, the same two hours would cost her 25%, or $37.50 a week, about $1,950 a year. On these facts, the single most valuable thing Norma can do is establish with Services Australia whether she was ever approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024, because that one question is worth around $4,300 a year to her on this service alone. Providing her financial information is also generally rational even though she receives no government payment, since it can only move her rate down.
Frank, 84, single, full pensioner, protected cohort. Frank was approved for a Home Care Package in July 2024 and was still waiting for one to become available on 12 September 2024. His package came through in March 2025, and he transitioned to Support at Home on 1 November 2025. He receives the same two hours a week of domestic assistance as Norma, plus personal care three mornings a week.
Because he was approved before the cut-off, the no worse off rates apply: 0% on clinical care, 0% on independence services and 0% on everyday living. Frank contributes nothing. A full pensioner who came into the programme from 1 November 2025 with no earlier package would pay 17.5% on the same domestic assistance — on the illustrative $75 an hour, about $26 a week or $1,365 a year — plus 5% on the personal care. Frank was never receiving services on the qualifying date, only approved and waiting, which is precisely the situation most likely to be missed. On these facts, confirming that waiting-list status with Services Australia and having it recorded is generally the rational step, because nothing about his plan or his invoices will reveal it on its own.
If the contributions are unaffordable
Financial hardship assistance exists and has not changed under the reform. You apply using the Aged Care Claim for financial hardship assistance form (SA462), lodged with Services Australia together with evidence supporting your claim. They assess within 28 days and tell you in writing what you are eligible for. If approved, the government pays a fee reduction supplement covering some or all of your contributions for the time you are in hardship.
It is worth applying rather than quietly reducing services, because cutting back the help that keeps someone at home tends only to bring forward the far more expensive alternative.
What to do next
The first and most valuable step is to establish which set of rates applies — were you receiving or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024? That single question is worth more than everything else on this page. Next, give Services Australia your financial information even if you receive no government payment at all, since it can only move your rate down. Ask what has already accrued toward the lifetime cap, particularly where there is a long history of home care, and remember that the cap is shared with residential care.
Beyond that, use the fee estimator on the My Aged Care website for a figure specific to your own services, and read the department's own published case studies, which show how the rates combine across a realistic service mix. And consider talking to a Centrelink Financial Information Service officer: the service is free, independent of your provider, and covers exactly this ground — see our article on the Financial Information Service.
For the programme itself and how it replaced Home Care Packages, see Support at Home: the new in-home aged care program and what continues for grandfathered HCP participants. For what came before, Home Care Packages for retirees. If you receive Commonwealth Home Support Programme services instead, that programme does not transition to Support at Home before 1 July 2027 — see the CHSP explained. The wider question of staying home against moving into care is covered in ageing in place versus residential care, with the Age Pension side in how aged care costs interact with the pension.
The point
Support at Home charges you a share of each service, not a package fee — nothing for clinical care, a moderate share for the services that keep you independent, and up to 80% for help around the house.
But the number that matters most is not on any invoice. It is whether you were receiving or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024. That one fact can be the difference between paying nothing and paying 17.5%, or between 25% and 80%, for services that are otherwise identical in every respect.
If nobody has asked you that question, ask it yourself.
Sources
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home Program participant contributions (fact sheet)
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing — Support at Home participant contributions fact sheet (PDF)
Key takeaways
- Support at Home charges a percentage of the price of each service actually received, not a package fee — the government pays the remainder directly to the provider as a subsidy.
- Standard rates from 1 November 2025: clinical supports 0% at every means level; independence services 5% for full pensioners rising to 50% for self-funded retirees; everyday living services 17.5% rising to 80%.
- Anyone receiving OR APPROVED FOR a Home Care Package on 12 September 2024 is covered by the no worse off principle — full pensioners pay nothing at all, self-funded retirees pay 25% rather than 80%. Waiting-list status on that date counts.
- The Support at Home lifetime cap ($137,917.01, indexed 20 March and 20 September) is the SAME combined cap as the residential non-clinical care contribution — home care contributions count toward the ceiling that applies later in residential care.
- From 1 October 2026 the government will fully fund personal care services for participants approved for that service type.
Frequently asked questions
How much do you pay for Support at Home services?
You pay a percentage of the price of each service you actually receive, and the government pays the rest to your provider. Clinical supports such as nursing and physiotherapy are free at every means level. On the standard rates from 1 November 2025, a full pensioner pays 5% for independence services and 17.5% for everyday living services; a self-funded retiree without a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card pays 50% and 80%. Part pensioners and card holders sit somewhere between, set by a Services Australia income and assets assessment.
What is the no worse off principle in Support at Home?
It protects anyone who was receiving, or approved for, a Home Care Package on 12 September 2024. Those participants pay much lower contributions: full pensioners pay nothing at all, self-funded retirees pay 25% for both independence and everyday living services, and part pensioners or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders pay between 0% and 25% depending on income. The word approved matters — being on a waiting list on that date counts.
Will I ever pay more under Support at Home than I did on my Home Care Package?
Not if you were receiving or approved for a package on 12 September 2024. If you were assessed as not having to pay an income-tested care fee, you will never pay contributions under Support at Home, even if you are later reassessed into a higher classification with more services. If you did pay a fee, you will pay the same or less. The Home Care Package lifetime cap of $84,571.66 as at 20 September 2025 also continues to apply to that group.
Is there a cap on Support at Home contributions?
Yes. The lifetime cap was $135,318.69 as at 20 September 2025 and is $137,917.01 under the schedule effective 1 July 2026, indexed each 20 March and 20 September. Once reached, you are not charged further. It is a combined cap with the non-clinical care contribution in residential aged care, so home care contributions count toward the ceiling that would apply if you later moved into a residential home. Services Australia notifies you and your provider when the cap is reached.
What if I cannot afford the Support at Home contributions?
Financial hardship assistance is available and did not change under the reform. Apply using the Aged Care Claim for financial hardship assistance form (SA462), lodged with Services Australia with supporting evidence. They assess within 28 days and advise in writing. If approved, the government pays a fee reduction supplement covering some or all of your contributions while the hardship continues.