What Happened To My Home Care Package?

On 01/11/2025, the Australian Government replaced the Home Care Packages Program with Support at Home, under the new Aged Care Act 2024. If you or a parent had a Home Care Package, you are now on Support at Home. The care did not stop, the money did not disappear, and no form needed to be filled in for the change itself.

Support at Home is the same idea as a Home Care Package: government funded care that helps an older person stay in their own home. What changed is the structure around it, including how services are grouped, how budgets are managed, and how your statement is laid out.

Every active Home Care Package transitioned to Support at Home automatically on 01/11/2025. There was no need to reapply, and no need for a new assessment simply because the program changed names. If you were already approved for a package, or were waiting on the National Priority System, you were moved across and given a Support at Home budget that matched what you had.

This matters because it means there was nothing you were supposed to do and might have missed. The transition happened at the program level, not yours. If you are reading this months later and only now noticing the change on a statement, you have not fallen behind on anything.

Your funding carried across at an equivalent level. People who moved from a Home Care Package keep what is called a transitioned classification, set so that the funding matches the package they had before. You were not dropped to a lower amount because of the change.

Any unspent Home Care Package money was kept and moved across with you. Under the old system, many families built up a balance of unused funds. That balance was not wiped when Support at Home began. It came with you into the new program.

There is also a protection for people who were already in the system, often called the no worse off principle. In short, if you were approved for a Home Care Package before the change, your contribution under Support at Home should not be higher than it was before. We cover that in detail in a separate article, linked at the end.

Yes, unless you chose to change it. The move to Support at Home did not reassign anyone to a new provider. The organisation delivering your care stayed the same through the transition. You are free to change providers if you want to, the same as you were under a Home Care Package, but nothing forced a change.

This is the part most families actually notice. Support at Home statements are laid out differently from the old Home Care Package statements. Services are grouped into new categories, the budget is shown on a quarterly cycle, and the contribution line may be calculated differently depending on your situation.

The information is still there. It is just presented in a new shape, and the first one or two statements can be hard to read while you get used to the layout. If your first Support at Home statement left you unsure what most of it meant, that is exactly what Wayly's free Statement Decoder is for. Paste or upload a statement and get a plain-English read on every line in about 60 seconds.

A few things are worth a look on your first statement under the new program:

1. The services listed are ones that were actually delivered.
2. The amount you are being asked to contribute looks consistent with what you paid before the change, not higher.
3. Any personal care listed on or after 01/10/2026 shows a $0 contribution, because personal care is now funded as clinical care for approved participants.
4. Your remaining budget for the quarter makes sense against what has been spent.

If something does not add up, it is reasonable to ask your provider about it before you pay. It is far easier to hold a payment and ask a question than to claw back an overcharge later.

For questions about your assessment or services, My Aged Care is the place to start, on 1800 200 422. For free, independent advocacy if something feels wrong, the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) is on 1800 700 600. And to make sense of a statement line by line before you decide anything, Wayly's Statement Decoder is free to try with no signup for your first decode.