Wayly Provider Price Checker: Comparing Support at Home Prices After the Cap Deferral

The plan was clear on paper. From 1 July 2026, the government would set a maximum price for each Support at Home service, and providers could not charge above it. On 19 May 2026 the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae, deferred that plan, saying the government would wait until it had "greater confidence in the stability of the market." No new start date has been set. In the Department of Health media release "Strengthening consumer protections for older Australians," Rae said, "Older Australians and their families told us they need stronger protections against rogue market prices. We've listened, and we're acting."

The reasoning given was that caps only work if they are set at the right level, and that setting them against an unstable, higher than usual pricing baseline could push prices up rather than down. Provider peak bodies welcomed the deferral. Ageing Australia chief executive Tom Symondson said the decision "reduces the immediate risk of widespread, last minute changes to service agreements," and Catholic Health Australia's aged care director Alex Lynch called it a "sensible decision," adding that "this was a solution without a problem." Consumer advocates were more cautious. The Older Persons Advocacy Network's policy director, Samantha Edmonds, warned that "delaying pricing caps means older people will continue to face uncertainty about what they will pay," while COTA Australia chief executive Patricia Sparrow described the measures as "a welcome and necessary first step."

So as things stand, there is no government ceiling on Support at Home prices. Providers must set prices that are reasonable and reflect the cost of delivering care, and they must publish them, but reasonable is a judgement rather than a hard number.

The government did not leave the gap empty. As part of the May 2026 package, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission gained the power to order refunds where a provider is found to be overcharging, and to take action against providers that fail to issue monthly statements.

The government also committed to publishing a quarterly National Summary of Support at Home Prices. As the Department of Health put it, the document "will show the median and the range of prices charged by providers," so families can see how their provider compares. As of June 2026 that quarterly National Summary had not yet been published, so the practical tools available to families right now are published provider price lists and independent comparison.

Providers are also being encouraged to limit price increases. The same Department release says the government will "encourage providers to limit the frequency of price increases to no more than two per year, giving older people certainty to budget their packages." This is encouragement rather than a rule.

Every Support at Home provider must publish its full price list on the My Aged Care Find a Provider tool and on its own website, and the published price must be the one most frequently charged. That gives you a starting point for a like for like comparison.

Price is not the only thing that matters. A cheap provider that cannot deliver reliably, or that leans heavily on brokered workers, may cost you more in practice. Brokering is where a provider sends in an outside worker for a service it does not deliver itself, and it can come with a premium on top of the published rate.

The trick is to compare price and quality together, and to keep an eye on whether the rates you are actually charged match the rates that were published and agreed.

The Wayly Provider Price Checker brings price and quality into one view. Because the 1 July 2026 caps were deferred, the Checker no longer measures prices against a government ceiling that does not exist. Instead it compares your provider's rates against published prices and, once it is available, the government's quarterly National Summary of Support at Home Prices.

The Wayly Provider Price Checker also weighs prices against the Wayly Provider Quality Index, so you are not just chasing the lowest hourly rate. It highlights brokered service premiums, where an outside worker is charged above the published rate, so you can see when a premium is creeping into your statements.

The result is a clearer answer to the question families actually ask, which is not just is this cheap, but is this fair and is this good value.

Robert Kowalski is 84, lives at 18 Jetty Street, Coffs Harbour, and is on Support at Home Level 6 with Sunrise Community Care. His care manager is Anika Brennan and his wife Margaret is his main contact. His participant ID is SAH-2025-NSW-009147.

Robert's May statement included a brokered physiotherapy service. The Wayly Provider Price Checker flagged a premium of 16 dollars an hour over two hours, so 32 dollars above the published physio rate. Because physiotherapy is clinical care, Robert pays no contribution towards it, but the premium still draws down his budget faster than the published rate would.

The Checker also showed how Sunrise Community Care's rates sat against published prices for the Coffs Harbour area and against the Wayly Provider Quality Index. That gave Margaret a grounded way to decide whether to query the brokered premium with Anika Brennan, or whether the convenience of the brokered physio was worth it. Either way, the decision was informed rather than a guess.

With caps on hold, value is something you have to check for yourself. Run your provider through the Wayly Provider Price Checker to see how their rates compare and whether any premiums are quietly adding up.