About residential aged care supplements
The Australian Government pays supplements to residential age care providers to help with:
- the cost of meeting residents’ specific care needs
- complying with 24/7 registered nurse requirements
- some of the costs of delivering hotelling services
- accommodation costs, if residents cannot afford some or all of the cost.
Eligibility
The eligibility and application process varies for each supplement.
We automatically check eligibility for some supplements. For others, you are responsible for applying for the supplement on your resident’s behalf.
Some supplements are paid to registered providers of eligible residential aged care homes. For example, the 24/7 registered nurse supplement is paid on behalf of each resident in your care in an eligible aged care home.
Check the eligibility criteria, whether you need to apply and how to apply.
Person-centred supplements
Below are the supplements that apply to aged care residents.
Some supplements may be affected by subsidy reductions, as outlined in Chapter 4 of the Aged Care Act 2024.
Care related supplements
These supplements help eligible residents meet their special care needs.
Accommodation related supplements
These supplements help residents who can’t pay their full accommodation costs.
- Accommodation supplement
- Accommodation charge top-up supplement
- Higher accommodation supplement
- Transitional accommodation supplement
- Concessional resident supplement
- Respite accommodation supplement.
Other related supplements
These supplements help eligible residents with the cost of care and services.
Provider related supplements
These supplements help eligible providers with the cost of delivering care and services in line with legislative requirements.
From April 2026, eligible residential care homes may get the care minutes supplement.
Getting the supplement
You will be paid supplements on behalf of eligible residents. Supplement amounts are included in your subsidy payments for permanent and respite care.
Before completing your monthly claim, you need to:
- notify Services Australia of any events and changes to residents (e.g., temporary leave)
- apply for supplements on behalf of eligible residents.
When a resident is on some types of temporary leave from their aged care home, you may only get supplements up to a certain number of days.
Learn more about claiming for residential aged care funding.
Record keeping
You must keep records about residents’ eligibility for supplements.
Learn more about record keeping requirements under the Aged Care Act 2024 (Section 154).
Supplement rates
The Australian Government sets and updates the supplement rates.
- Care-related supplements are indexed on 1 July each year.
- Accommodation and other person-related supplements are indexed on 20 March and 20 September each year, in line with pension increases.
- The hotelling supplement is subject to change on 20 September each year, following consideration of pricing advice by the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority.
- The 24/7 registered nurse supplement is subject to change on 1 October each year.
View the daily supplement rates in the Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements.
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