Will I Pay More Under Support at Home Than My Home Care Package?

When Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program on 01/11/2025, the government included a protection for existing recipients, often called the no worse off principle. It is set out in the Aged Care Rules 2025.

The intent is straightforward. If you were approved for a Home Care Package before the change, your contribution arrangements under Support at Home should not leave you paying more than you would have under the old program. The protection exists so that moving to a new system does not quietly raise your costs.

The protection is for people who were already in the Home Care Package system before Support at Home began, including those approved for a package before the change took effect. If you were a longstanding recipient, or were approved and waiting, this is aimed at you.

If you are new to in-home care and applied under Support at Home from 01/11/2025 onwards, you were never on a Home Care Package, so the comparison does not apply to you in the same way. Your contributions are worked out under the Support at Home rules from the start.

In plain terms, the protection means your participant contribution under Support at Home should not be higher than what you were paying under your Home Care Package. Importantly, this holds even if you are later reassessed into a higher Support at Home classification. A higher classification raises the funding available for your care, but the protection is about what you contribute, not what the government puts in.

If you had no income tested care fee under your Home Care Package, that position is generally preserved under Support at Home as well. The detail of how this applies depends on your own circumstances, which is why it is worth checking your statement and asking your provider if anything looks higher than before.

One point that confuses many families: what you contribute to Support at Home is based on your financial means, not on how much care you need. Two people with the same care plan can pay different amounts, and that is by design. Your classification sets your funding. Your means assessment sets your contribution. Keeping those two ideas separate makes the whole system easier to read.

Support at Home includes a lifetime limit on what a person contributes across their care. It is a ceiling on total out-of-pocket contributions, there as a protection. For many families the cap is reassurance rather than a live concern, because typical contributions sit well below it. Still, it is worth understanding where you stand, especially over years of care. If you have never seen your running total, that is a fair thing to ask about.

There is one recent change that reduces what some people pay. Since 01/10/2026, approved personal care under Support at Home is funded as clinical care, which is fully government funded. For many participants, the contribution that used to apply to help with showering, dressing, grooming and continence support no longer does. If personal care appears on your statement dated on or after 01/10/2026, check that it shows a $0 contribution.

The practical test is your own statement. Compare your contribution now with what you were paying before the transition. If it is the same or lower, the protection is doing its job. If it looks higher, that is worth raising with your provider, and if needed, seeking independent advice.

Wayly's free Statement Decoder can help you see your contribution clearly, line by line, so you have the facts before you ask. It explains each charge in plain English in about 60 seconds, with your first decode free and no signup. Wayly helps you understand your statement. It does not give financial advice, and for your own situation a licensed adviser or My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 is the right source.