Support at Home is Australia’s government funded in-home aged care program, introduced on 1 November 2025, replacing the Home Care Packages (HCP) Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. It provides funding for a range of services including personal care, nursing, domestic assistance, transport, and allied health to help older Australians live safely and independently at home.
This guide is written by Chris Barnard Health, an Approved Aged Care Provider operating under the Support at Home program since its commencement. Our goal is to cut through the government jargon and explain exactly what these changes mean for your family, how the new funding bands work, and how to successfully kickstart your care. If you are just beginning to explore your options, you can always visit our main Support at Home Hub for an overview of what we offer.
What Does Support at Home Replace?
The Support at Home program was introduced to create a more streamlined, efficient system for older Australians. From 1 November 2025, it officially replaced both the traditional Home Care Packages (HCP) and the Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) Programme. The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) is scheduled to transition into this unified model no earlier than 1 July 2027.
If you or your loved one already had an active Home Care Package, you were automatically transitioned to Support at Home on 1 November 2025. For most clients, this structural shift was specifically designed by the Department of Health to protect continuity of care, meaning your daily services and designated Support Workers did not need to change. If you want to know more about how this specific changeover impacts your existing services, please read our comprehensive Home Care Package to Support at Home Transition Guide.
What Services Does Support at Home Cover?
To make it easier for families to understand their allocations, the Australian Government has grouped all approved services into three distinct categories. These align directly with the care we deliver on the ground at Chris Barnard Health:
The 8 Support at Home Funding Levels
Unlike the old system which only had four tiers, the modern Support at Home program splits ongoing funding across eight distinct classifications. This allows the government to match your budget far more accurately to your actual daily challenges.
Support at Home funding is assigned across 8 levels based on your assessed care needs, from occasional assistance with household tasks, through to regular personal care, nursing, and more complex support. The funding level grows as your needs change, helping you remain safely at home for longer. For a deep dive into how these specific tiers calculate your available hours, look over our Support at Home Funding Explained Guide.
| Funding Classification | Quarterly Budget | Approx. Annual Budget | Who It Suits |
| Level 1: Minimal Support | $2,682.75 | $10,731.00 | Older adults who are mostly independent but need occasional help with light household chores, basic shopping, or minor transport. |
| Level 2: Light Personal Care | $4,008.61 | $16,034.45 | Suitable for individuals requiring a mix of light domestic help alongside basic medication reminders or social support. |
| Level 3: Moderate Assistance | $5,491.43 | $21,965.70 | Designed for those needing regular, structured help several times a week with personal hygiene, mobility, or meal preparation. |
| Level 4: High Frequency Support | $7,424.10 | $29,696.40 | Fits individuals who require frequent weekly visits for a combination of personal care, domestic assistance, and allied health input. |
| Level 5: Daily Support and Monitoring | $9,924.35 | $39,697.40 | Best for clients dealing with early-stage dementia or chronic conditions requiring daily personal care and regular health monitoring. |
| Level 6: Comprehensive Clinical Care | $12,028.58 | $48,114.30 | Suited for individuals with complex health needs requiring frequent visits from registered nurses and coordinated clinical support teams. |
| Level 7: Intensive Daily Care | $14,537.04 | $58,148.15 | Designed for those requiring multiple daily visits from a multidisciplinary team to manage advanced frailty, complex mobility, or high respite needs. |
| Level 8: Highest In Home and Palliative | $19,526.59 | $78,106.35 | Provides intensive, around-the-clock coordination, specialized clinical monitoring, hoists/equipment support, or dedicated palliative care at home. |
A Crucial Tip for Families: Funding should grow as needs change. Choosing an Approved Provider who can seamlessly deliver services at every single level, from simple domestic cleaning all the way up to complex clinical nursing, means you will not face the stress of changing providers later as your loved one’s care needs naturally evolve.
Who is Eligible for Support at Home?
To access this government funding, an individual must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident aged 65 years or older (or 50 years and older for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples). Because the national assessment waiting list can vary significantly depending on your region, it is critical to plan ahead and start the application process before a health dip occurs. The standard pathway includes:
To initiate your application or check your initial eligibility status, visit the official portal at myagedcare.gov.au.
What the Government Does Not Tell You
While government websites are excellent at explaining the administrative rules of the Support at Home program, they rarely prepare families for the operational realities of the aged care sector.
Receiving your official government approval letter is the starting point, not the finish line. An approval letter simply means the funds are waiting. You still have to vet providers, co-design a practical care plan, structure your quarterly budget, and coordinate the actual rosters. The biggest mistake we see families make is waiting until an acute health crisis or a fall occurs to hit start. The families who experience the smoothest, most stress-free transitions are consistently those who proactively engage an operating provider weeks before the support becomes urgent.
Day-to-day satisfaction with your care does not depend on your government funding level. It depends on human execution. It relies on whether a support worker actually turns up on a Tuesday morning, whether the agency communicates transparently when a staff member is sick, and whether they send the exact same familiar face each week rather than a rotating door of strangers.
Not all Approved Providers possess the same workforce capacity. Staff availability varies significantly across different suburbs and regions. This imbalance directly dictates how quickly your care can physically start and whether you will receive consistent, high-quality service.
6 Questions to Ask Before Choosing a Support at Home Provider
- How quickly can services physically start? Avoid providers who lock you into long onboarding delays or have massive backlogs in your local area.
- Will my loved one have consistent, familiar carers? Having the same worker builds trust, comfort, and allows them to spot subtle health changes early. At Chris Barnard Health, clients receive the same support worker 80% of the time, so care feels personal rather than like a rotating door of strangers.
- Do you fully service my exact suburb? Ensure they have a dense, localized workforce nearby so travel delays do not disrupt your daily schedule.
- What happens if my care needs suddenly change? Ask if they have the administrative flexibility to quickly adjust rosters or advocate for emergency funding reviews.
- Do you have an in-house team of registered nurses and clinical services? If they do not employ clinical staff directly, you may be forced to switch providers if complex health or wound care needs develop later.
- Who exactly do I contact when I need immediate help? Ensure you get a dedicated, direct phone line to a local coordinator rather than an overseas call centre.
Why Chris Barnard Health for Support at Home?
Chris Barnard Health is an approved aged care provider and registered NDIS provider operating under the Support at Home program since 1 November 2025. We deliver home care services across Melbourne, regional Victoria, and Tasmania, from Level 1 domestic assistance through to Level 8 palliative and clinical care at home.
We answer every one of those six questions with confidence because our aged care specific workforce of more than 1,000 aged care professionals was built for exactly this. We started as a specialist nursing agency in 2010, which means clinical capability, workforce deployment, and consistent carer assignment are not things we added for the new program. They are how we have always operated. Every member of our team is chosen not just for their qualifications, but for their character, and each undergoes background checks, reference checks, and a detailed interview process before they ever step into a client’s home.
Our governance board brings over 75 combined years of aged care leadership, including a board member who helped pilot the original Home Care Packages program in Australia. We understand Support at Home because we helped shape the system it replaced.
Whether your parent is applying for the first time, transitioning from an old Home Care Package, or looking for a provider who can actually deliver what they promise, call 1300 602 469. It is what our team was built for. If you live in the metropolitan region, you can head directly to our Melbourne Support at Home Hub to connect with a localized Care Coordinator and make sure your funding translates into genuine care, not paperwork.
Chris Barnard Health is an approved aged care provider delivering home care, Support at Home, and healthcare workforce solutions across Australia. Australian owned and managed since 2010.
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