Exiting care recipients from your Home Care Package service

A care recipient exits your service if they no longer want or need home care, pass away, change providers or you need to transfer services to another provider. You cannot charge an exit fee and must follow specific steps to exit the care recipient.

When a care recipient exits your home care service

A care recipient exits your Home Care Package service when: 

  • they move to a new provider 
  • they no longer need or want home care 
  • they pass away 
  • you cannot care for them in their home with the resources you have available 
  • an aged care assessor finds that their needs would be better met with other services, such as residential aged care and the person chooses to move to an aged care home. 

If a care recipient exits your service you must: 

You cannot charge an exit amount to care recipients when they leave your care.  

Changing provider

A care recipient can change their Home Care Package provider for any reason.  

Find out what the care recipient, current provider and new provider need to do.    

Transferring services

Transferring Home Care Package services from one approved provider to another involves doing basic checks, linking the services to the new outlet, and submitting the application.  

Find out what you need to do to transfer services and care recipients to another provider

Cancelling a package

You must deliver home care as long as a care recipient needs those services. This is called security of tenure.  

Find out under what circumstances you can cancel services and what you need to do.  

Moving to residential aged care

If a care recipient needs higher levels of care than can be met through a Home Care Package, they may consider moving to permanent residential aged care.  

Find out about options available, reassessment and the transition process

Releasing unspent package funds

If a care recipient changes provider, you must transfer their unspent funds to their new provider. 

If they leave the program or pass away, you must return the care recipient portion of unspent funds to them (or their estate) and the government portion to us.  

Find out how to release unspent funds

Date last updated:

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