Charging for the Disability Support for Older Australians Program services

The Australian Government funds the Disability Support for Older Australians (DSOA) Program. Some clients pay for some of the services they receive. There are no changes to client contributions at the time clients move to DSOA. Clients continue to pay what they were paying before moving.

Pricing

Funding under DSOA will be more in line with market pricing and will be nationally consistent across states and territories.

Appendix A of the DSOA program manual sets out the Service and Pricing schedule.

Client contributions

Client contributions are when a person receiving your services pays a contribution towards the cost of that service.

You will continue to receive client contributions in the same way you did before moving from the CoS Programme. If your clients did not pay a contribution under CoS, they will not pay any fees under DSOA.

If your clients do pay a client contribution, you may increase the fees each year in line with the Consumer Price Index (CPI).

Under the DSOA Program, client contributions must:

  • be set out in the client’s Individual Support Plan (ISP)
  • not be paid using grant funds
  • be checked to make sure your client isn’t experiencing any financial hardship.

You should follow these principles in relation to client contributions:

  • Continuity – policies that were in place before moving to the DSOA Program should continue.
  • Transparency – policies should be publicly available and in an accessible format. You should provide and explain them to your clients.
  • Hardship – policies should have options for clients who cannot pay.

You must report any client contributions you receive in your performance report, but you may use them for any purpose.

Date last updated:

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