New Aged Care Act Rules Consultation Release 2a: Support at Home funding

Closed 6 Dec 2024

Opened 6 Nov 2024

Contact

newagedcareactrules@health.gov.au

Results updated 18 Feb 2025

Public consultation summary 

From 6 November to 6 December 2024, we asked for public feedback on rules on funding for the new Support at Home program. This was Release 2a of the new Aged Care Rules Consultation. Release 2a covered Support at Home funding, including things like subsidies, individual contributions and means testing for older people.

We received 87 written submissions from providers, aged care workers, aged care professionals, older people, family members and advocates. They were from rural, regional and metropolitan areas. 

Thank you to everyone who shared their thoughts.

What we heard

People liked that: 

  • the government will help pay for assistive technology (like communication or visual aids) and home modifications (like ramps or bathroom changes)
  • there will be support for people nearing the end of their life 
  • there will be extra funding for person-centred care and care management
  • there will be no client contributions for clinical support. 

Concerns raised were:

  • the cost of contributions for Support at Home, especially for full pensioners and those who do not own a home
  • whether care management funding is enough to meet the needs of older people, especially those with high needs 
  • the $15,000 lifetime limit on home modifications might not cover major changes, like bathroom upgrades and special equipment. 

Suggestions:

  • there should be more resources to help people and providers understand how the funding works in real life
  • allow more funding flexibility for care management for people with high needs
  • more funding for providers in regional and remote locations to cover extra costs, such as transport and infrastructure costs
  • changes to exemptions on income and assets to include relevant civil claim, redress and compensation payments made outside of the National Redress Scheme, including schemes that recognise the harm experienced by Stolen Generations survivors.

What’s next

We will consider all feedback to improve the Rules. 

Already, the Government has committed to introducing additional consumer protections to monitor prices and to ensure pricing is fair during the first year of the Support at Home program, when providers are able to set their own prices for service. These changes will be reflected in the Rules before the Act commences. 

We will continue to consult on the other Rules that will sit under the new Aged Care Act. 

All Rules consultations will be published on the department’s Consultation on the new Aged Care Act webpage. More Rules will be released in stages through to early 2025.

Written submissions

The following submissions were received during the consultation.

Consent to publish these submissions has been provided.
The views and recommendations expressed in these submissions are those of the authors and are not the views or recommendations of the Australian Government.

The Government accepts no responsibility for the accuracy or completeness of any material contained in these submissions.

Please note submissions may have been redacted to remove sensitive or personally identifiable information such as names of individuals and email addresses. If you have any concerns about information that has been published, please contact us at NewAgedCareActRules@health.gov.au.
 

Files:

Overview

The Stage 2a release contains the draft Rules for Chapter 4 of the Aged Care Act 2024. The release focuses on funding related to the new Support at Home program, it covers funding for aged care services under the program, including subsidies, individual contributions and means testing for older people.

Feedback was collected via an online form. Submissions closed on 6 December 2024. 

We will use this feedback to refine the Rules for the new laws. 

Audiences

  • Aged care service providers
  • Aged care workforce
  • Aged care professionals

Interests

  • Home Care
  • Aged Care