Personal care contributions changes
From 1 October 2026, all personal care services under the Support at Home service list will move from the Independence contributions category to the Clinical Supports contribution category. This means that the Australian Government will fully fund personal care services and participants will no longer pay contributions for these services.
Older people will not be out-of-pocket for accessing personal care services if they:
- are approved to access personal care services in their support plan
- have available Support at Home funds.
Removing personal care contributions supports dignity, hygiene and access to essential daily care.
Note: Claims for services delivered before 1 October, will still attract a participant contribution, even if they are claimed for after 1 October.
What’s changing?
- From 1 October all personal care services will move from the Independence category to the Clinical Supports category for contribution purposes. This is a mandatory change for all Support at Home providers delivering personal care services.
- Participants will no longer pay contributions for personal care services delivered from 1 October, if they are approved for the personal care service type and have available Support at Home funding.
What’s not changing?
- Participants will continue to pay applicable contributions for approved personal care services delivered before 1 October, in line with current arrangements.
- The definition of personal care will remain the same. It still covers services which help with daily tasks, such as showering, non-clinical continence management, dressing, eating, personal hygiene and assistance with self-administration of medication. There are no changes to service scope or activities. If you or one of your participants are unsure whether a particular service is included under personal care, check the Support at Home service list.
- How you deliver personal care will remain the same. There are no changes to workforce roles, qualifications, delivery models or registration categories. Personal care services can still be delivered by personal care workers. The service type is moving to the clinical supports category for participant contributions only.
- Eligibility and approval requirements will remain the same. Participants must still be assessed and approved for personal care services and have available funding.
- Service IDs will remain the same. Only the participant contribution category is changing.
- Your responsibilities and obligations will remain the same. You must continue to meet existing requirements for delivery of services, accurate claiming, billing and record keeping.
What are the impacts on providers?
- The personal care contribution change will likely impact your ICT systems, processes and information products.
- Your implementation effort will vary based on how contribution categories are managed in your organisation across service agreements, budgets, statements and invoicing.
- You may also need to update care plans for participants that want to take up more personal care because of the change.
- We have commenced engagement with providers and software vendors to verify ICT impacts and dependencies, and we are factoring this into readiness planning and support.
What can providers do to start preparing for the change?
We encourage you to start preparing well ahead of 1 October in the following priority areas:
System and Process Readiness
- Engage your ICT vendor. If you rely on a software vendor for ICT changes, engage them early. We are also directly engaging software vendors through forums and targeted support with Services Australia to ensure system changes and updates can be completed ahead of 1 October.
- Commence work to update ICT systems and claiming processes to reflect the new contribution settings.
- Review and update processes end‑to‑end across the participant experience to ensure personal care services are assessed, planned, delivered, billed and communicated correctly under the new contribution arrangements from 1 October.
Participant financial and documentation updates
- Update your participant statements/invoices to clearly show the new personal care contribution amount and rate for the delivered service from 1 October.
- Review and update service agreements to reflect the new personal care contribution arrangements. While it is not a departmental requirement to define set contribution amounts down to the service type, your organisation may have included this information in either your service agreements or attached budgets. You should review your service agreements to determine whether updates are required based on how participant contributions are currently described.
- Update individualised budgets to reflect the removal of participant contributions for personal care services from 1 October. Under current arrangements, you are required to vary and provide an updated individualised budget as soon as practicable where there has been a change in the contribution rate and amount for a service.
Care planning and service continuity
- Identify participants receiving personal care now, to support timely conversations and potential care plan updates closer to go‑live.
- Care plans may need to be reviewed and updated, including having conversations with participants, to reflect the contribution change and ensure personal care continues to meet participant needs.
- Ensure financial hardship arrangements remain available for participants who are unable to pay contributions for personal care services delivered before 1 October, in line with existing arrangements
Participant communication and engagement
- The department will be communicating with older people on the personal care changes. Providers will need to support these changes by beginning planning updates to participant-facing communications (including updates to provider websites, participant materials, staff guidance and participant communications).
For further information providers can participate in readiness activities through:
- Joining the Community of Practice and participate in forums and webinars as they are announced. A provider readiness survey will open shortly which providers will have 2 weeks to complete. We will share further details on this activity as they become available.
- Stay informed and get involved by:
- subscribing to aged care newsletters and alerts
- emailing SAH.implementation@health.gov.au to join the Support at Home Community of Practice.
Date last updated: