The CHSP Extension to 30 June 2029: What It Means for Older Australians and Their Families

Health and Ageing Minister Mark Butler and Aged Care Minister Sam Rae confirmed three things:

1. CHSP funding will be extended for another two years, from 30/06/2027 to 30/06/2029.
2. CHSP will remain a standalone program, rather than being merged into Support at Home from mid 2027 as previously planned.
3. Consultation on the long term design of CHSP will begin later in 2026, including how block funding continues, how contributions to home care costs are set fairly across programs, and how early intervention services can reduce pressure on the wider aged care system.

Around 830,000 older Australians rely on CHSP, and about 1,300 providers deliver its services. Almost 40% of CHSP recipients live outside major cities, and in many rural and remote communities the CHSP provider is a local council with no other option nearby.

CHSP is entry level support. Its services are things like domestic cleaning, meal delivery, transport to medical appointments, home maintenance, garden work, allied health, and social support. It is block funded, meaning providers receive a grant to deliver a set volume of services to a community, rather than a personal budget allocated to each recipient.

Support at Home is different. It replaced Home Care Packages on 01/11/2025 and it works as an individual, means tested budget with eight classification levels. A participant is allocated a quarterly budget out of a personal allocation, and services are drawn down against it. Support at Home is the higher intensity system for people with more complex needs.

Both programs exist under the Aged Care Act 2024. The plan until now was that CHSP would be absorbed into Support at Home no earlier than 01/07/2027. That plan is what the government has stepped back from.

Practically, the answer for most people is: not much this week, and a lot of certainty for the next few years.

If you currently receive CHSP services. Your services continue. There is no interruption. CHSP will continue as a standalone program through to 30/06/2029. Council contracts and other provider contracts continue without interruption to 2029, and the government has explicitly said providers can no longer cite uncertainty about the future of CHSP as a reason for withdrawing services. You will still make any co-contributions you were already making.

If you are on the Support at Home program. Your program is not affected by this announcement in any direct way. The eight classification levels, the three service categories (Clinical Supports, Independence, Everyday Living), the quarterly budget cycle, and the participant contribution rules all remain in place. There is a separate change coming to Support at Home on 01/10/2026 that is unrelated to the CHSP announcement, and that is far more likely to affect your monthly invoice: personal care moves to Clinical Supports and becomes fully government funded for approved participants.

If you are waiting for an assessment or are new to the system. My Aged Care remains the entry point (1800 200 422 or myagedcare.gov.au). An assessment determines whether you are best supported through CHSP entry level services or through Support at Home. That triage does not change.

Two forces did most of the work. First, a June 2026 Senate committee recommended that CHSP remain a separate block funded program. Second, local councils and other providers began withdrawing from CHSP through 2025 and 2026, citing uncertainty about whether the program would still exist after 2027. In some regional and remote communities, this left older people with no viable alternative.

Ageing Australia, the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN), the Australian Local Government Association, and the CHSP Alliance all publicly supported the decision. The government has been careful to say the extension is not the end state. Consultation is still coming, and the ministers have flagged that fair contribution arrangements across the two programs will be part of that discussion.

Three things are worth calling out.

It does not increase CHSP funding. Provider bodies have already noted that thousands of older Australians are on CHSP waiting lists, and that the 20/08/2026 announcement did not include a new funding injection.

It does not undo the 01/10/2026 change to personal care under Support at Home. That reform was announced back in April 2026 and is on a separate track.

It does not merge CHSP into Support at Home at some later date automatically. The government's stated position now is that CHSP should remain standalone.

Wayly is built for Support at Home participants and family caregivers, so the immediate operational impact of the 20/08/2026 announcement on our tools is small. What changes is the medium term picture: there is no longer a firm 01/07/2027 sunset date for CHSP, and households with one person on CHSP and another on Support at Home will be dealing with two systems for longer.

Practically, that means our Support at Home Invoice Checker and Statement Decoder continue as designed, our CHSP tooling continues with an updated horizon out to 30/06/2029, and the 2026 consultation on long term CHSP design is the thing worth watching.

For the average family, the honest headline is: no drama this month, more certainty for the next three years, and the real financial change coming out of Canberra is the personal care reclassification on 01/10/2026, not this one.