How Much Will I Actually Pay for Support at Home? The Income and Assets Assessment Explained

Under Support at Home, you contribute a percentage of the cost of some services, and nothing for others. What you contribute depends on two things: which category the service falls into, and where Services Australia has placed you on the income and assets scale.

There are three service categories.

Clinical care. Nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, allied health, and care management. Everyone pays 0%. The government covers the full cost, regardless of income or assets. From 1 October 2026, personal care moves into this category too.

Independence services. Personal care (until October 2026), transport, social support, allied health that isn't clinical. Full pensioners pay 5%. Self-funded retirees pay 50%. Part pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) holders sit somewhere between 5% and 50%, based on their income and assets assessment.

Everyday living services. Cleaning, gardening, meal preparation, home maintenance, shopping assistance. Full pensioners pay 17.5%. Self-funded retirees pay 80%. Part pensioners and CSHC holders sit between 17.5% and 80%, again based on the assessment.

A lifetime cap of $137,917.01 applies to how much you can ever be asked to contribute across your time on Support at Home. Once you reach it, contributions stop for good. Grandfathered participants under the "no worse off" principle have a lower cap of $86,185.23 and lower percentage bands to match.

Everything else on this page is an expansion of those five paragraphs.

The SA456 form is how Services Australia works out what percentage band you sit in for independence and everyday living. It is separate from the assessment My Aged Care ran when your parent was placed on the program.

It looks at income (pensions, wages, deemed income from financial assets, super drawdowns) and assets (financial assets, investments, second properties). The principal home is exempt from the Support at Home asset test. That is an important point. The house does not count.

For couples, income and assets are pooled and split in half regardless of whose name the assets are in. That is why one member of a couple can be a full pensioner and the other, on paper, look like a part pensioner. Services Australia divides everything by two.

The assessment is technically voluntary. If you don't complete it, Services Australia records you as "means not disclosed" and charges you the maximum contribution rate: 50% for independence, 80% for everyday living. For most people who aren't self-funded retirees, that is significantly more than the assessed rate would be.

Completing SA456 takes about an hour if you have your paperwork to hand: recent Centrelink pension letters, bank statements, super statements, and property valuations for any non-principal-home property. The assessment is valid for 120 days before your services start, then remains active while you are on the program (you must notify Services Australia within 28 days of any material change).

If your parent is a full pensioner and it's obvious from the pension itself that they qualify for the 5%/17.5% bands, Services Australia can often complete the assessment from data they already hold, without a new form. Ring 1800 227 475 and ask. If your parent is a DVA pension recipient, the Department of Veterans' Affairs handles the assessment; do not send the SA456 to Services Australia in that case.

Percentages are abstract. Let's put real numbers on a real care plan. Assume $80/hour for domestic assistance (everyday living) and $95/hour for personal care (independence, until October 2026). Assume the participant uses 4 hours of cleaning and 3 hours of personal care per fortnight. Rates are worked at cost, before care management is deducted.

Cohort	Fortnightly cost of services	Fortnightly out-of-pocket contribution	Annual contribution
Full pensioner	$600.50	$84.28	≈ $2,191
Part pensioner (mid-band)	$600.50	$185.50	≈ $4,823
Self-funded retiree	$600.50	$398.75	≈ $10,368

Note two things. First, the difference between a full pensioner and a self-funded retiree on the same care plan is roughly $8,000 a year. That is why the assessment matters so much. Second, from 1 October 2026 personal care drops to 0% for everyone. The full pensioner example above falls to about $56 a fortnight from that date. The self-funded retiree drops from about $399 to $256.

These are illustrative numbers only. Your actual rates depend on your provider's published prices (which must sit within the Department of Health's range), the care management deduction discussed below, and whether your quarterly budget covers the plan. The Wayly Contribution Estimator will do this arithmetic for your parent's specific circumstances.

Support at Home puts an outer limit on how much you can ever be asked to contribute. The standard lifetime cap is $137,917.01 (as at 20 March 2026, indexed twice a year on 20 March and 20 September). It is a combined cap with the non-clinical care contribution that would apply if your parent later moved into residential aged care. Contributions from both settings count towards the same total. When you reach it, Services Australia writes to you and to your provider, and you contribute nothing further, ever.

The "no worse off" principle applies to participants who were on a Home Care Package (or approved for one) before 12 September 2024. For that cohort, two things are lower:

• The lifetime cap is $86,185.23 rather than $137,917.01.
• The percentage bands are lower: 0% clinical, 0% independence, 0% everyday living for full pensioners; up to 25% for self-funded retirees on both independence and everyday living services.

If you think your parent may be grandfathered but the letter from Services Australia says "standard," check by ringing 1800 227 475 and asking specifically whether the "no worse off" principle has been applied. Providers sometimes cite the wrong grandfathered cap on their websites: the correct current figure is $86,185.23, not $84,571.66 (that was the previous indexation) and not $82,018.15 (older still). Do not accept those older figures.

On top of the contributions above, Support at Home takes a flat 10% of each quarterly budget for care management. This is mandatory. You cannot opt out, even if you self-manage. The funding is pooled across the provider's clients, and the provider must deliver at least one care management activity per month (a check-in, a plan review, a phone call).

Care management sits with a named "care partner" at your provider. It is not billed as a separate line on your statement in the way an old Home Care Package's "package management fee" was. Instead, it comes off the top of the quarterly budget before your services are drawn against it. On a $16,682 quarterly budget (Level 5), that is $1,668 set aside for care management every quarter.

You do not pay a percentage contribution on care management. It comes out of the government funded portion of your budget, not your out-of-pocket contribution. But it does reduce the amount of the quarterly budget available for actual care hours, which is worth knowing when your statement seems short on services relative to the budget on paper.

There are four things you can do that most families never realise are options.

Complete the SA456 if you haven't. If your parent is currently on the "means not disclosed" maximum rate, and their actual assets and income would put them in a lower band, completing the assessment is a permanent, one-off drop in the contribution. This is the single most common missed win.

Check Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) eligibility. CSHC holders are treated more favourably than self-funded retirees in the contribution bands. If your parent isn't a pensioner but has moderate income (below the 2026 thresholds of $99,025 single / $158,440 couple), they may qualify. Apply through Services Australia. If approved, notify Services Australia so the contribution band is recalculated.

Ask for a reassessment when income drops. If your parent's income has dropped since the last assessment (retired since assessment, super drawdown reduced, pension reinstated), that alone can move them to a lower band. Contact Services Australia within 28 days of the material change; you can ask them to backdate the recalculation to the change date.

Apply for financial hardship (SA462) if you genuinely can't afford the rate. The financial hardship supplement is designed for participants whose available fortnightly income is less than 15% of the basic single Age Pension (currently $165.05 per fortnight, indexed with the pension). If approved, the fee reduction supplement covers all or part of your contribution and is backdated to the application date. While the application is being processed, you do not need to pay contributions.

None of these is a loophole. They are how the system is designed to work when families actually engage with it. The problem is that no provider will proactively tell you about them because none of them makes the provider any money.

From 1 October 2026, personal care (help with showering, dressing, grooming, continence, safe movement around the home) moves out of the Independence category and into Clinical Care. That means the contribution drops from a means-tested percentage to 0% for everyone.

This is a real change in the amount you pay, especially for households with significant personal care hours. If you have been rationing personal care hours because of the contribution cost, the October change is a good moment to sit down with the care plan and ask whether the hours still match what your parent actually needs. Our personal care policy article walks through the practical implications, including what to check on the November statement.

Nothing else about the classification or the quarterly budget changes on 1 October 2026. The only difference is what appears in the "your contribution" column against personal care lines.

We source every dollar figure on this page from the authoritative issuing body, not from a repackaged provider blog. Here is the trail.

• Standard lifetime cap ($137,917.01): My Aged Care · Changes to contributions while accessing Support at Home and health.gov.au · Support at Home participant contributions. Note: the health.gov.au page still displays the previous "$135,318.69 (current as of 1 November 2025)" in some places; the current, indexed figure is $137,917.01.
• "No worse off" cap ($86,185.23): My Aged Care · Changes to contributions while accessing Support at Home.
• Contribution percentage bands (0% / 5% / 17.5% / 50% / 80%): Department of Health · Support at Home participant contributions fact sheet. The "no worse off" cohort bands (0% and up to 25%) are from the same fact sheet.
• Care management cap (10% of the quarterly budget): health.gov.au · Care management for Support at Home.
• Financial hardship threshold ($165.05 per fortnight): My Aged Care · Financial hardship assistance.
• SA456 form: Services Australia · SA456.
• SA462 hardship form: Services Australia · SA462.

All figures on this page are current as at 20 March 2026 and are due to reindex on 20 September 2026. If you are reading this after that date, cross-check the caps and hardship threshold with My Aged Care before quoting them to a provider.

For decisions about your specific financial situation, talk to Services Australia (1800 227 475) or a licensed financial adviser. Wayly is a plain-English translator, not a licensed adviser. Nothing here is personal financial advice.