Applies to
An older person can apply for financial hardship assistance if they are receiving:
What is the supplement?
The supplement helps older people who are in financial hardship and cannot contribute to their aged care costs because of circumstances beyond their control.
An older person can apply for help with:
- Support at Home for participant contributions
- residential respite care for the basic daily fee
- permanent residential aged care for the basic daily fee, means tested fees and accommodation costs.
If approved, the Australian Government will pay for some or all of their contributions, fees and charges.
Eligibility
To find out about the eligibility requirements, go to financial hardship assistance on the My Aged Care website.
If a Support at Home participant or aged care resident is having financial difficulties, encourage them to apply as soon as possible.
How to apply
To apply, the person must complete the Aged Care Claim for financial hardship assistance form (SA462) and submit it to Services Australia.
Services Australia assesses each application and considers things that are unique to each person.
Services Australia will let the person and their provider know:
- if they approve the financial hardship assistance
- how long it will last.
If they need ongoing help, they will need to apply again before their current financial hardship assistance ends.
Payment
If approved, the provider will receive the supplement on behalf of the Support at Home participant or aged care resident.
Automatic payment for some aged care residents
Some classes of aged care residents from before 30 June 2014 automatically receive the supplement. These are:
- Class A – self-funded retirees who entered care before March 2008 and have income just above the age pension income test cut-off
- Class B – residents who were receiving an income support payment that stopped because of the aged care changes on 1 October 1997
- Class C – residents who were living in a hostel on 30 September 1997 and have not moved to an aged care home that was approved before 1 October 1997.
Transferring to a new provider
If a person changes aged care provider, their supplement should transfer with them. Contact Services Australia if the fee reduction supplement was not transferred.
Find out more
Learn more:
- Hardship assistance for aged care – Factsheet
- Financial hardship assistance - My Aged Care
- When you need financial hardship assistance to help meet aged care cost of care - Services Australia
- Aged care claim for financial hardship assistance form (SA462) - Services Australia.
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