Support At Home Changes - May Newsletter

You may have seen the recent announcement regarding changes to both NDIS and aged care funding made by Mark Butler in late-April. The new home care program ‘Support at Home’ rolled out on 1 November 2025 and after significant feedback from stakeholders, the Albanese Government have confirmed they will make changes to consumer contributions. This change will now make showering, dressing and support with continence management free for all ageing Australians. These services were previously classified in a category called ‘Independence’ and will now move to ‘Clinical Care’, removing all co-contributions. This should have significant impact on client services and hopefully see an increase in personal care support.

For this reason, the theme I’ve chosen for May is

‘Support At Home Changes’.

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Support at Home allows individuals over 65 years old and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders over 50 to access government funded in home services. There were ongoing reports from providers that clients were declining personal care services due to the co-contributions associated with those services.

The Support at Home services are currently classified into three categories

(as of May 2026):

- Clinical Care: includes all nursing and allied health services e.g. OT, podiatry, speech pathology, exercise classes.

- Independence: personal care (showering, dressing & continence management), in-home respite, social support, transport, bus trips, day programs and massage.

- Everyday Living: shopping assistance, house cleaning, garden maintenance, meal preparation, home maintenance and laundry services.

There are different contribution rates for each of these categories, as outlined below:

At present if a full pensioner receives a 1hr personal care visit for showering and dressing support three times a week, they will be paying around $70-80/month. This is because personal care currently fall into the ‘Independence’ category, which means a full-pensioner will pay 5% towards the service. If the average hourly rate for personal care is $120, a client will pay $6/visit. This might not seem like all that much, but in the example below you can see how it adds up.

Bill is a full pensioner and needs showering, cleaning, shopping and gardening assistance. He would be expected to contribute the following each month:

1hr personal care 3x/week - $120/hr with 5% contribution is $6/visit = $78/month

1hr cleaning/week - $120/hr with 17.5% contribution is $21/visit = $91/month

2hr shopping/week - $120/hr with 5% contribution is $12/visit = $52/month

2hr gardening/month - $120/hr with 17.5% contribution is $42/visit = $42/month

30min physiotherapy/week - $184/30 mins with no contribution is = $0

 = $263/month

By moving personal care from the ‘Independence’ to the ‘Clinical Care’ category, it removes all client co-contributions for showering, dressing, continence management etc. These changes are due to take effect from 1 October 2026.

I worked as a care coordinator of in-home services for several years and financial contributions are a big barrier for individuals accessing services. No one wants to pay for someone to shower them. It already took a bit of convincing to allow a carer to assist someone with this task. However, with the co-contribution removed it should make it slightly more enticing for older Australian’s to access this support.

I think this change is a great step in the right direction, however wish it came into effect earlier than 1 October 2026.

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As always, please feel free to pass this newsletter on to friends or family. If they want to subscribe, they can do so via my website. If you have any questions about the info above, please reply to this email. I’d be happy to discuss!

You can listen to previous episodes of ‘The Truth About Ageing’ in your favourite podcast app (Apple Podcasts, Spotify) or you can stream it at

www.navigateagedcare.com.au/podcast.

Occasionally I also post updates on socials, which you can find at:

Facebook - @navigateagedcareau

Instagram - @thetruthaboutageing

Thank you again for being part of the Navigate gang.

Big love,

Kate.