Who gets respite care subsidies and supplements
Approved residential aged care providers with residents in respite care will receive subsidies and supplements to meet the costs of delivering care.
The resident must have Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) approval and an AN-ACC respite class. New respite residents will generally be assigned an AN-ACC respite class at the time they are assessed for eligibility for aged care services through an Aged Care Assessment Team (or Aged Care Assessment Service in Victoria).
Types of respite subsidies
Residential aged care subsidies for respite care are payable for each day a respite resident was in care. Respite subsidies consist of 2 components:
- fixed funding or Base Care Tariff (BCT) to reflect the characteristics of the service, identical to BCT funding for permanent residents
- variable funding based on the resident’s respite class.
There are 3 levels of variable funding for respite residents:
- Respite Class 101 – for respite residents who are independently mobile
- Respite Class 102 – for respite residents who require assisted mobility
- Respite Class 103 – for respite residents who have limited mobility.
A respite accommodation supplement is also payable for each day a respite resident was in care. This supplement helps cover the residential respite resident’s accommodation costs.
Current rates
See the daily residential respite care and supplement rates in the Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements.
Other supplements for residential respite recipients
Respite care recipients may also be eligible for:
Respite places
From 1 October 2022, changes to residential respite care came into effect with the commencement of the new AN-ACC-aligned residential respite funding model. This model replaced the previous Respite Subsidy and Respite Supplement, including the respite incentive supplement paid to a service for utilising an average of 70% or more of it’s allocated respite care days.
All previous allocations requiring a minimum or maximum number of respite days have ceased as of this date.
This also means approved providers can use any of their allocated places to provide residential respite care.
Claiming residential respite subsidies
You need to submit a claim form each month. Make sure you include the details of each resident you’re claiming a subsidy for in that month.
You can claim by either:
- submitting your claim online
- filling out the form and sending it to Services Australia.
Subsidy payment
You will receive an advance payment in the first few days of each month. Services Australia estimates the payment amount based on past payments.
When Services Australia receives a claim form, they check the advance payment against the form. If needed, Services Australia will either:
- make an extra payment
- reduce the following month’s payment.
Services Australia may deduct other amounts from the payment, such as:
- amounts to repay capital grants
- recovery of overpayments.