Fees for residential respite care

Current rates

Residential respite care fees

A resident entering your service for residential respite care may pay up to 4 types of fees:

• a basic daily fee
• a booking fee
• an extra service fee
• additional service fees.

You must record these fees in the resident agreement.

You cannot charge accommodation costs for residential respite care. The Australian Government will pay you a respite accommodation supplement to help cover these costs.

Explaining fees to your residents 

You must ensure that residents in your aged care home understand the fees in their agreements and the amounts they are charged. Our fact sheet can help explain respite care fees to your care recipients:

Basic daily fee

You can ask every resident to pay the basic daily fee. This fee is called a ‘standard resident contribution’ in aged care legislation. It helps to cover the costs of daily living, like meals, cleaning, laundry, heating and cooling.

The maximum fee is 85% of the single basic age pension. The fee amount changes with the pension amount every March and September.

Booking fee

You may ask the person to pay a booking fee to secure a period of respite care in your service and is the only fee that can be charged before they enter care. 

Once they enter the service, you must deduct this fee from their daily fees. The booking fee cannot exceed whichever is lower of:

• 1 week’s fee for respite care
• 25% of the fee for the proposed period of respite care.

You must refund the full booking fee if the person:

• cancels their booking more than 7 days before the proposed entry date
• enters hospital or dies before their proposed entry date or before the end of the booked period.

Additional service fees

With the resident’s agreement, you can charge an additional service fee for services that:

• are better than what you must provide under Schedule 1 of the Quality of Care Principles 2014 
• are not specified care and services in Schedule 1 
• are not covered by the payment of an extra services fee 
• are not services you must deliver under your responsibilities as a provider.

There are types of care and services in Schedule 1, Part 3 of the Quality of Care Principles 2014 that may attract an additional service fee, if the resident agrees and they have a low-level residential respite care approval.

Read more about additional service fees.

You must record additional fees in the resident agreement.

Extra service fees

If a resident chooses and agrees to an extra service room, you can charge them an extra service fee. 

To charge an extra service fee, you must have approval from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority.

However, the respite accommodation supplement is not payable for residents who occupy an extra service place. 

Full requirements

Details of residential respite care fees are in:

• Division 52C of the Aged Care Act 1997
• Section 10 of the Fees and Payments Principles 2014 (No. 2).

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