What is Support at Home?

Support at Home is Australia’s new government funded aged care program.

Who qualifies

Age: Your parent must be 65 years or older. For Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians, the age requirement is 50 years or older.

Residency: Your parent must be an Australian citizen, a permanent resident, or hold a special category visa.

Assessed need: Your parent must be assessed as needing aged care support to continue living safely at home. This is not a self assessment. It is a formal needs assessment coordinated through My Aged Care.

These three criteria apply to every older Australian accessing Support at Home across Melbourne, regional Victoria, Tasmania, and nationally.

How the assessment works

Eligibility for Support at Home is determined through a needs assessment, not a form you fill in yourself.

Step 1: Contact My Aged Care by phone on 1800 200 422 or online at myagedcare.gov.au. Register your parent and answer screening questions about their aged care needs.

Step 2: My Aged Care refers your parent for a face to face assessment. An assessor visits your parent at home to understand what personal care, domestic assistance, nursing care, and home care support they need to remain independent.

Step 3: The assessment determines what level of Support at Home funding your parent qualifies for. This is based on their needs, not their income. The higher the need, the higher the support classification.

Step 4: Once approved, your parent chooses an approved aged care provider to deliver their home care services. The funding follows them, not the provider.

One important tip. When the assessor visits, encourage your parent to be honest about their hard days, not just their good ones. Many older Australians and seniors understate their needs during assessment because they do not want to seem like they cannot cope. This can result in a lower support classification than they actually need.

What if your parent does not qualify?

If the assessment determines your parent does not yet meet the threshold for Support at Home, other government funded options may still be available.

The Commonwealth Home Support Programme may cover basic home care services like domestic assistance, social support, and transport for seniors with lower level aged care needs. State based programs and community services may also provide home care support in your area.

Your parent can also access private in home care without any government assessment. A home care provider can arrange personal care, nursing care at home, domestic assistance, and other aged care services on a private basis while your family explores government funded options.

And your parent can always be reassessed through My Aged Care as their needs change. Eligibility is not a one time decision.

What happens after approval

Once your parent is approved for Support at Home, they choose their aged care provider. This is where the quality of aged care at home depends entirely on who delivers it.

An approved aged care provider with a large aged care specific workforce can offer consistent carers, reliable home care visits, genuine carer matching, and the continuity of care that makes home care feel safe for elderly people. A provider without workforce depth may struggle with availability, consistency, and the quality of home care services your parent receives.

Chris Barnard Health and Support at Home

Chris Barnard Health is an approved aged care provider and registered NDIS provider delivering Support at Home and home care services across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Tasmania. We started as a specialist nursing agency in 2010 and our aged care specific workforce of more than 1,000 aged care professionals is ready to support your parent under the new Support at Home program.

If you are not sure whether your parent qualifies, call 1300 602 469. It is what Melbourne’s leading and largest aged care specific workforce was built for. So your family gets clear answers and the right home care, not confusion and waiting.