Support at Home Budget & Contribution Calculator
- Rates from 1 October 2026
- Personal care at 0%
- Free, no sign-up
Use the full price of each service. Personal care counts as clinical from 1 October 2026, so it has no contribution, but it still comes out of the budget.
Participant contribution this quarter
Government pays $5,700.00 of $6,000.00 in planned services
Full pensioner rates.
Services Australia sets the real rates from an income and assets assessment. This is an estimate to plan with, not a quote.
Contributions count towards a lifetime cap of $140,652.80, indexed each 20 March and 20 September.
How a Support at Home budget works
Each ongoing classification has an annual amount, released as four quarterly budgets on 1 July, 1 October, 1 January and 1 April. All amounts rose on 1 October 2026 to fund the aged care nurses’ award wage increase. Ten per cent of every quarterly budget goes to the provider’s pooled care management account, and the rest pays for the services in the participant’s care plan.
What the participant contributes
Contributions are a percentage of each service’s price, set by service category and by an income and assets assessment from Services Australia:
| Outcome | Clinical | Independence | Everyday living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | 0% | 5% | 17.5% |
| Part pensioner or seniors card holder | 0% | 5% to 50% | 17.5% to 80% |
| Self-funded, or means not disclosed | 0% | 50% | 80% |
The taper uses the method in the Aged Care Rules: half of income above the $5,876 free area, or 7.8% of assets above the full-pension limit, whichever is larger, against a maximum of $49,586. People who don’t provide their income and assets within 43 days of being asked pay the maximum rates.
To see how the classifications compare, use Support at Home Classifications Explained. In Rostery, every claim applies the participant’s own contribution rates and draws down the right budget automatically.
Further reading
- Support at Home vs Home Care Packages: What Changes for ProvidersSupport at Home replaces Home Care Packages, and the mechanics change more than the name. Quarterly budgets instead of accruing funds, a defined service list, and means-tested contributions you have to collect.
- Rostery vs Brevity Care: NDIS Software ComparisonRostery vs Brevity Care compared for NDIS providers: pricing, rostering depth, SCHADS award interpretation, NDIS claiming and mobile experience to help you choose.
What this tool follows
- Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements for Aged Care: Support at Home, version 3 (rates effective 1 October 2026, published 22 September 2026): annual and quarterly amounts for classifications 1 to 8 and transitioned HCP levels 1 to 4, effective 1 October 2026
- Support at Home program manual, version 4.4 (September 2026): day-based quarterly budgets (section 9.2), care management (8.8), contribution rates (9.4), carryover (9.7.1)
- Aged Care Rules 2025, Compilation No. 10: the contribution taper, sections 314-55 to 314-85, and the grandfathered fortnightly cap, section 273-10
- Aged Care Amendment (July and August Indexation and Other Measures) Rules 2026 (F2026L00862), Schedule 4: personal care: moves personal care into clinical supports from 1 October 2026
- Aged Care Amendment (September Indexation and Other Measures) Rules 2026 (F2026L01252): lifetime caps from 20 September 2026 and the seniors health card income limit
- health.gov.au: Support at Home participant contributions
- Services Australia: Age Pension income and assets tests, and the seniors health card income test: income free area, full-pension assets limits and the card income limit used in the taper
General information only, not financial, legal or claiming advice. Always check a claim against the current official documents.
Questions people ask
Why is my quarterly budget different from the published figure?
The Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements lists each quarterly budget as the annual amount divided by 4, and says the figure is indicative. The program manual says the actual budget is the annual amount divided by the days in the year, times the days in the quarter. A 92-day quarter such as October to December is a little higher than a quarter of the year; a 90-day quarter is a little lower.
Does the participant pay anything for personal care?
Not from 1 October 2026. Personal care moved from the independence category to clinical supports, which have a 0% contribution for everyone. It still uses the participant’s budget; only the contribution changed. Services delivered before 1 October 2026 keep the old rate.
Is the participant contribution taken from the budget or added on top?
Neither adds funding. When a claim is finalised, the full price of the service (the government share plus the participant contribution) comes out of the participant’s quarterly budget. The contribution reduces what the government pays, not what the service costs the budget.
What contribution rates apply to someone who had a Home Care Package before 12 September 2024?
They are grandfathered under the no worse off principle. If they were not paying an income-tested care fee when Support at Home started, they pay nothing, for life. Otherwise they pay 0% for clinical supports and up to 25% for independence and everyday living, worked out on income only, with a fortnightly cap based on their old fee.
What happens to money that isn’t spent in a quarter?
It carries over to the next quarter, up to the higher of $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly budget after care management. Anything above that is not carried over. Short-term pathway funding does not carry over.
Is there a cap on what a participant pays?
There is a lifetime cap of $140,652.80 from 20 September 2026, shared with the non-clinical care contribution in residential care. Grandfathered participants keep the Home Care Package lifetime cap of $88,934.57. There is no quarterly or annual cap. Both caps are indexed each 20 March and 20 September.
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