Managing services

Managing fees for residential aged care

Agreeing, collecting and reviewing fees is part of managing a residential care home. Providers have responsibilities they must meet to properly manage fees.

Agreeing and recording fees

Before a person enters your care, you must: 

The fees you can agree on with a resident depend on:

  • when they enter care
  • their fee arrangement
  • their financial situation
  • whether they enter for residential respite care or permanent (ongoing) care.

Explaining fees to residents

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

Understanding fees for aged care homes fact sheets

These fact sheets outline the fees a resident may be asked to pay for permanent residential care (under different fee arrangements) and for residential respite care. Providers can use these fact sheets to explain fees to residents.

Advising fees

Submitting an Aged Care Entry Record will notify Services Australia a resident has entered your care.

Services Australia will send you and the resident a letter advising the maximum fees you can ask them to pay.

This letter will provide amounts only for fees set by the Australian Government or worked out in the means assessment. That is, the:

You must also advise your residents about other fees as applicable, including:

If additional service fees, extra service fees or higher everyday living fees apply, you must agree on these amounts with your residents.

Collecting fees

You cannot ask a resident to pay fees before they enter your care. The exceptions to this are: 

You can’t collect fees from your residents more than one month in advance. This applies to all types of fees and contributions. If a resident has paid fees more than one month in advance, you must refund the overpaid fees.

Fees and accommodation costs are calculated daily but how often the resident is asked to pay is a decision for you.

You can’t ask a resident to pay their fees annually or upfront as a lump sum. If a resident has asked you to hold on to an amount of money more than the total allowable under aged care legislation, it is considered a loan. 

This means it:

  • counts as an assessable financial asset for the resident (subject to deeming)
  • is liable to risk if the provider goes into liquidation.

Lump sum amounts paid for accommodation costs are protected by the Accommodation Payment Guarantee Scheme. But these protections do not extend to lump sums paid to or held by you for any other purpose. 

Before entering into this type of arrangement, both parties should seek independent legal and financial advice.

Reviewing and updating fees

A resident’s fees change while they’re in care. You must ensure you’re charging the correct fees.

The basic daily fee changes in line with the age pension in March and September each year.

Services Australia regularly updates residents’ means assessments and fee calculations to account for:

  • their financial circumstances changing
  • their cost of care changing
  • indexation of means testing thresholds
  • reaching the annual or lifetime cap on their means tested fee.

This can result in changes to a resident’s:

Residents who have had their means assessed must notify Services Australia or the Department of Veterans' Affairs of any changes to their assets or income to ensure they are charged the correct fees.

From 1 November 2025, new mandatory reporting will require providers and all residents to report changes within 28 days.

Fees can also vary when a resident:

Services Australia will send you and the resident (and their nominee) a new fee advice letter if there is a change to their fees. You may owe them a refund as a result.

You will not be sent a letter if there is a change only to the basic daily fee (unless the change is due to financial hardship assistance). It is your responsibility to advise residents of changes to this fee. Current rates are listed in the Schedule of Fees and Charges for Residential and Home Care.

Late fees

The resident (or service) agreement must outline how you deal with late and unpaid fees, and include either:

  • the rate of interest you will charge for late payments
  • a method to work out the interest amount.

If fees are not paid

If a resident has not paid any agreed fees, which are properly payable, within 42 days of the due date for reasons within their control, you can ask the resident to leave. 

You must first find alternative residential care for the resident.

Find out more about exiting residents from residential aged care.

Residents in financial hardship can apply for help, or you can do so on their behalf. Financial hardship assistance can help to pay the basic daily fee, means tested fees and daily accommodation payments.

Refunding overpayments

You must refund fees to a resident if they paid more than they needed to.

Fees on day of departure

On the day a resident permanently leaves your service, you can charge:

You can only charge these fees if you provided the resident with the services they are intended to cover on their day of departure.

You can’t charge:

This is because no aged care subsidy or supplements are payable to your service on the resident’s day of departure. These provisions prevent the residential care subsidy from being paid twice for a resident who moves from one service to another on the same day. The provisions still apply when a person departs one service and does not enter another.

Managing fees for optional services

Find out more about managing higher everyday living, additional and extra service fees.

Managing accommodation costs

Find out more about managing accommodation costs.

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