Individualised budgets for Support at Home participants

What is an individualised budget

An individualised budget is a document that records:  

• the funds available to a participant under Support at Home
• how the funds will pay for services.

What to include

You must set out the Support at Home funding available to the participant. Include:

• funding under the participant’s ongoing classification
• funding through the Restorative Care Pathway or End-of-Life Pathway
• any supplements the participant has been approved for
• funding through the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme.

You must also include:

• the price of each item covered by the budget
• known costs for assistive technology and home modifications
• the participant contribution (if any) for each item.

The total available budget (funding plus any contributions) should cover the total costs.

You should also break down the budget by funding source.

Preparing individualised budgets

Prepare the individualised budget:

• in plain language so it is easy to understand
• at the same time as the care plan, to ensure they align.

Work with the participant or their registered supporter to prepare the budget. Make sure they understand what the budget is for and how it works.

If needed, use the free Translating and Interpreting Service.

When and how to provide

As soon as possible, you must:

• complete an individualised budget
• provide a hard copy or digital copy to the participant or their registered supporter.

Reviewing individualised budgets

You must carry out your reviews with the participant or their registered supporter.

Review the care plan at the same time.

You should regularly review the budget to check:

• it is covering the services you are delivering
• services are meeting the participant’s needs, which may change.

You must also review a participant’s individualised budget if:

• they ask you to
• your cost of providing services changes
• there is a change to the participant’s services
• there is a change to the participant’s contribution rate
• there is a change to their available funding (e.g., approval for a higher classification, or moving between interim and full funding).

Interim funding

If a participant has interim funding, you must:

• align the individualised budget with the interim funding
• review the budget when the participant receives their full funding to include more services.

For more information about interim funding budgets, see Chapter 9 of the Support at Home program manual.

Managing unspent funds

Unspent quarterly budget

You should work with the participant to fully use their ongoing quarterly budget.

If this is not possible, they can carry over unspent amounts to the next quarter. This will happen automatically in their account.

The carryover amount is the higher of the following:

• a capped amount of $1,000
• 10% of their quarterly budget (including supplements).

For example, a participant has an unspent amount of $1,100. Their quarterly budget is $8,000. This means they can carry over $1,000 (the capped amount), because it is higher than 10% of their quarterly budget ($800). 

Unspent Home Care Package funds

If a participant transitioned from the Home Care Packages (HCP) Program, they retained their unspent funds for use in Support at Home for: 

• accessing assistive technology and home modifications
• extra services, once they spend their entire quarterly budget.

How you can use unspent HCP funds depends on the type: 

• Provider-held participant portion (from collected HCP fees) – you can choose how to manage these funds, such as refunding to the participant. 
• Commonwealth portion (from accrued HCP subsidy) – you must claim unspent funds in the following order: 
  1. provider-held portion (may apply to HCP care recipients from before 1 September 2021) 
  2. government-held portion in an account by Services Australia. 

You will need to return provider-held unspent funds to the government if a participant changes provider or exits the program.

For more information about managing HCP unspent funds, refer to Chapter 9 of the Support at Home program manual. 

Unspent short-term funding

Participants cannot carry over unspent short-term funding because it is only valid for a certain timeframe. Funding for the: 

• AT-HM scheme is valid for 12 months (in most instances)
• Restorative Care Pathway and End-of-Life Pathway funding is valid for the duration of the episode. 

If the participant does not use the funding in the relevant timeframe, the unspent amount returns to the government. 

Managing overspends

You are responsible for managing a participant’s budget to avoid any overspend. If they do occur, you can either:

• absorb the overspend amount
• invoice the participant for the overspend amount (only if they have agreed to this beforehand).

You cannot carry over the overspend amount to the next quarter.

Find out more

Read Support at Home program manual:

• Chapter 7 (starting funded care services)
• Chapter 9 (participant budget and contributions).