Flexible care subsidy for the Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme

What is the flexible care subsidy for the STRC Programme?

The Australian Government pays a daily subsidy to approved providers on behalf of each person receiving government-subsidised STRC services.

To receive the subsidy for a client you must:

• hold an allocation of places for flexible care subsidy
• be providing care under a care plan
• have offered a flexible care agreement to the client before delivering services
• be delivering flexible care in the form of STRC

Who defines the flexible care subsidy?

The Australian Government sets the subsidy and supplement rates for aged care.

Calculating the subsidy

The flexible aged care subsidy for STRC is based on the:

• number of allocated places
• daily funding amount

A Ministerial Determination sets the daily funding amount.

For 2019–20, the Commonwealth basic STRC combined subsidy amount is $208.71.

To understand how this is calculated, see Chapter 4, Part 1 of the Aged Care (Subsidy, Fees and Payments) Determination 2014.

How to claim

You can only claim the subsidy for the days you have delivered care.

You must submit a claim form to Services Australia before the 20th day of each month.

On the form, you will need to include:

• the details of each client you’re claiming a subsidy for in that month
• the functional capacity score of each client on entry to and on exit from the STRC

Request the claim form from and submit the completed form to Services Australia.

STRC service providers do not need to submit Aged Care Entry Record (ACER) forms for STRC clients.

When can the subsidy vary?

Whenever aged care subsidies or supplement change, we update the Determination.

The subsidy and care-related supplements are indexed once a year on 1 July.

You cannot claim the subsidy for any day a client is on leave from their services.

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