How to read your Support at Home statement and spot when something looks off

Support at Home funding is released in four quarterly budgets across the year, in July, October, January and April. Even so, the rules require your provider to send a statement every single month.

Think of it as a progress snapshot rather than a bill. It tells you how fast the quarterly budget is being used and whether the spending matches the care plan. The statement for July, for example, must be provided by 31 August.

Getting a statement every month matters because it gives you regular chances to catch problems early, instead of finding out three months later that the budget ran dry in week six.

Statements look different from one provider to the next, but the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has set out the information every statement must include. Here is what to look for.

Section	What it should show
Statement period	The calendar month the statement covers
Opening balance	Funds carried in from the previous month or quarter
Services delivered	Each service as a line item, including cancellations and no-shows
Participant contributions	Any amount your parent paid towards a service
Care management	The units or hours of care management delivered that month
Adjustments or refunds	Corrections from previous months
AT-HM items	Committed funds and expiry dates for assistive technology and home modifications
Closing balance	What is left for the rest of the quarter

If your parent previously had a Home Care Package, the statement may also show unspent Home Care Package funds. These are held in a separate pool, and there is no carryover limit on them.

This is the single biggest thing to check. Under Support at Home, care management is capped at 10% of the quarterly budget. Your provider cannot charge more than that.

This is a real improvement on the old system. Under Home Care Packages, some providers charged a lot more once you added together care management and package administration fees. The flat 10% cap is one of the clearest wins of the reform.

So if your parent is on Classification 4, with an annual budget of $29,696 and a quarterly budget of about $7,424, care management should be no more than roughly $742 for the quarter. If you see a figure well above 10%, query it.

A quick note on Wayly here. One of the most common reasons families sign up is that they want a second set of eyes on this exact number every month without having to do the maths themselves.

Nothing. Clinical services such as nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry are fully funded by the government when they are on the approved care plan. Your parent's contribution for these should always read $0.

The other two service categories are different. Independence services, such as personal care and help with mobility, attract a moderate contribution. Everyday living services, such as cleaning, gardening and meal preparation, attract the highest contribution.

If you spot a contribution charged against a nursing visit or a physio session, that is a red flag worth raising straight away.

There is also a change coming. From 1 October 2026, the government will fully fund personal care services, which include showering, dressing and continence support. After that date, your parent should not be paying a contribution for personal care either.

Most providers do the right thing, but mistakes happen and they are easier to fix when you catch them quickly. Here is a checklist of things worth a closer look.

• A care management fee above 10% of the quarterly budget.
• A contribution charged against a clinical service that should be free.
• Services listed that your parent says never happened.
• Charges for travel, admin or "package management" on top of the service price. Under Support at Home the price of a service is meant to include everything.
• A budget being used much faster than expected, which can leave gaps later in the quarter.
• Unspent funds that vanish without explanation. You can carry over $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly budget, whichever is greater. Anything above that does not roll over.

If something looks wrong, raise it with the provider first. They can usually check it against their records and Services Australia. If you are not satisfied, the Older Persons Advocacy Network runs a free advocacy line on 1800 700 600, and you can complain to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

As of May 2026, the Commission has new powers to order providers to pay refunds where they have overcharged, and to take regulatory action against providers who fail to issue monthly statements. That makes checking the statement more useful than ever, because there is now a clear path to getting money back.

This is the hard part for a lot of families. You might be in Sydney while your mum is in regional Queensland, and a paper statement that arrives at her house is not much use to you.

A few practical steps help. Ask the provider to email statements to you as well, with your parent's consent. Set a recurring reminder to read each statement the week it arrives. Keep a simple running note of the quarterly budget and how much is left.

This is also where Wayly earns its keep. It reads each monthly statement, tracks the quarterly budget across the three streams of Clinical Care, Independence and Everyday Living, and flags charges that look off, so you are not relying on memory or a shoebox of PDFs.

Your parent's Support at Home statement is not just paperwork. It is the clearest record you have of whether the funding is being spent the way it should be. Check the 10% care management cap, make sure clinical care reads $0, watch for services that never happened, and keep an eye on the rollover limit.

If you would rather have those checks done for you every month, Wayly can read the statement, track the budget and tell you when something needs a closer look. Try Wayly free for 7 days.