About aged care

What is aged care?

Aged care is the support provided to older people who need help in their own home or who can no longer live at home. It can include:

• help with everyday living
• assistive equipment and home modifications
• personal care and health care
• accommodation. 

Aged care can help you to:

• stay connected to your community
• be more independent
• take care of your health and safety
• meet your cultural and social needs.

Who is eligible?

You may be eligible for government-funded aged care services if you have care needs and are either: 

• aged 65 years or over 
• Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander and aged 50 years or over
• homeless or at risk of homelessness and aged 50 years or over.  

Younger people accessing aged care services, including home care packages, before 1 November 2025 can continue to access services even if they are below the minimum age.

Types of aged care services

Care in your home

In-home aged care provides support to help you stay independent for as long as possible. It can help with things like:

• clinical care, such as nursing care, occupational therapy and continence care
• independence – help with getting dressed, taking medications, transport or respite care
• everyday living – support for cleaning, gardening, shopping or meal preparation.

We subsidise:

• entry-level support through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme
• more complex needs, including short-term pathways, through Support at Home.

Residential care in aged care homes

Residential care in aged care (nursing) homes is for older people who:

• can no longer live at home
• need ongoing help with everyday tasks or health care.

We subsidise aged care homes to provide care that is available 24 hours a day, as well as access to nursing and general health care services.

Residential care can be short-term (respite care) or permanent.

 

Retirement villages (or retirement homes)

Retirement villages are an option if you do not need the higher level of care offered by aged care homes. We do not subsidise these, so you will need to pay the full cost yourself.

If you are considering this option, read about retirement homes to find out how they work.

How to access aged care

Find out where to start on the My Aged Care website. It steps you through how to:

• check if you are eligible
• apply for an assessment
• find a provider.

If you need help, contact My Aged Care on the phone or in person.

Costs of aged care

If you can afford to, you are expected to help with some of the costs of aged care.

If you are not eligible, or waiting for funded services to become available, you can access privately funded services at any time. You will need to pay the full costs yourself.

How aged care fees are controlled for home and residential care

We set a maximum amount for daily fees and accommodation costs.

We also set yearly and lifetime caps for care fees that are income or means tested. Once you reach these caps, your care provider cannot ask you to pay any more care fees.

Aged care providers must get approval from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority if they want to:

• increase their fees for extra services such as better accommodation and food
• charge new fees for extra services
• charge accommodation costs that are higher than the allowed maximum rate.

Quality in aged care

Aged care providers must protect the rights of older people and deliver aged care in line with requirements.

To help make sure this happens, aged care providers must:

• ensure services align with the Statement of Rights
• be guided by the Statement of Principles
• meet the Aged Care Quality Standards
• deliver safe, high quality care aligned to the Aged Care Rules 2025.

The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission monitors and assesses providers’ compliance against each of the Quality Standards. 

To check the quality of aged care providers, you can:

• find assessment and audit reports for aged care homes
• use the provider finder tool to check the Star Ratings of the provider and understand how providers operate and manage their finances
• ask providers about the quality of their care.

Discuss quality concerns with your aged care provider. If you are not satisfied with their response, contact the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission: 

• call 1800 951 822
• email info@agedcarequality.gov.au
• visit the Commission’s website.

If you have questions, concerns or complaints about food, nutrition or dining arrangements in your aged care home, please contact the Commission’s Food and Nutrition hotline on 1800 844 044

Older people, their families and carers can also contact the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) on 1800 700 600 free, independent and confidential information and support.  

What we’re doing about aged care

We are making changes to aged care to put the rights of older people first. We develop policy that supports high quality aged care.

Find out more about what we’re doing about aged care.

Aged care laws in Australia

The Aged Care Act 2024 is the main law that covers Australian Government-funded aged care. It sets out how the aged care system in Australia operates including:

• the rights of older people
• who can access aged care services
• government funding of services and what an older person can be asked to pay
• aged care programs
• what quality safe aged care services look like
• regulation and the powers of the Commission. 

Laws on diversity and discrimination also apply to aged care.

Find out more about aged care laws in Australia.