The second Support at Home price summary arrived three months late. Care management’s $30 bottom end is gone; most other prices barely moved
The department’s second national summary, for January to March 2026, came out on 27 October. Of 73 services priced in both editions, 62 medians moved by $5 or less. Care management’s bottom-quarter price rose from $30 an hour to $120. Five services that had a price, including meal delivery, now show none, and the quarterly schedule has dropped out of the notes.
28 October 2026
Parliament gave the new second look at Support at Home assessments an end date: it covers decisions made from 11 January to 31 December 2027
The House agreed to the Senate’s amendments on 15 October, including two Opposition amendments that stop the escalation pathway applying to any decision made after 31 December 2027. It starts on 11 January 2027, so it covers decisions made in a 355-day window. The end date does not end your own right to ask for reconsideration.
22 October 2026
Draft rules would give assessors 14 days to ask for a second look at a Support at Home assessment; only the assessor, with your consent, can ask
A new escalation pathway lets the department take a second look at some Support at Home classification and priority decisions. The draft rules published on 12 October give the assessor 14 days to ask and the department 28 days to decide; you cannot lodge it yourself, and cost, local shortages or the wait alone will not generally be enough. The bill passed both Houses on 15 October.
15 October 2026
Support at Home quarterly budgets rose about 0.2% from October for nurses' award wage increase; the department says proposed nursing price rises need participants' agreement
The rise supports the 1 August award wage increase for aged care nurses: $5.39 a quarter at classification 1, $39.22 at classification 8. It came in October, with a catch-up, because budgets for the quarter had already been issued. A provider proposing a higher price for nurse care must get the participant’s agreement, the department says, and should not stop services if they refuse.
10 October 2026
Hotelling supplement remains $22.15 a day for now; IHACPA estimates a $5.81 daily everyday living deficit where homes received no extra or additional service fees in 2023-24
The Government said on 2 September the supplement would stay at $22.15 a resident a day for now while IHACPA reviews it, so nothing moved on 20 September, the date the department’s page gives for indexation. The maximum hotelling contribution stayed at $22.15 too, while the basic daily fee rose to $68.93.
9 October 2026
Personal care has been fully funded under Support at Home since 1 October. Under CHSP, extended to 2029, the September manual lets providers charge a contribution
About 830,000 older Australians use the Commonwealth Home Support Program, extended to 30 June 2029, which the government believes should remain standalone. Its contributions are set by each provider with no formal means test; the department’s 2026-27 guide puts personal care at $7.22 to $13.71. The consultation that will look at contributions was not on the department’s hub as at 9 October.
9 October 2026
Small homes’ registered nurse supplement increased about 7.5% in major cities on 1 October and 2.5% in medium and small rural towns; remote amounts unchanged
The monthly 24/7 registered nurse supplement for homes averaging 50 or fewer residents now tops out at $30,931 in MM 1, up from $28,786. The MM 6 and 7 amounts did not move, and the explanatory statement does not say why the rises differ. The step at 25 residents still matters more than the rise.
8 October 2026
Family members can no longer complete an aged care resident’s quality surveys unless they are authorised to act for the resident under the Aged Care Act
For a resident who cannot answer alone, only a guardian, a court or tribunal appointee, or someone holding an enduring power of attorney or like power can now complete the quarterly experience and quality of life surveys. Staff can no longer step in, and where there is no authorised proxy, the department’s manual says no survey can be completed.
8 October 2026
From 1 October, Stolen Generations redress payments are excluded from the residential aged care asset test, however much of the money remains
Payments under six named redress and reparations schemes now come off a person’s assessed assets for aged care home costs, whenever they were paid and even if some has been spent, though never below zero. Anyone already in care and assessed before 1 October gets the change when their assessment is next made or varied.
7 October 2026
From 1 January 2027, a newly built aged care home can be paid $30 a day for each low-means resident, for up to 25 years
The September Rules amendment creates two capital supplements: $30.00 a day for homes built from 1 November 2025, $15.00 for homes that grow their beds by 40 per cent, both for low-means and respite residents. Applications open 1 December. From 20 March 2027 the accommodation supplement is rewritten too, and older homes with few low-means residents gain the most.
7 October 2026
The regulator checked 25 Support at Home providers on pricing and paperwork. Four were fully compliant
Only 32 per cent met the price publishing requirements and 36 per cent the rules on service agreements, budgets and monthly statements, in a review run from January to June 2026. The 25 were not a random sample. Both are obligations the government leaned on when it paused price caps in May.
6 October 2026
From 8 March 2027, people still at home after 12 weeks on the End-of-Life Pathway will continue for a further 12 weeks
Automatically, without reassessment, with additional funding of approximately $25,000, the department says, and with no change to who qualifies. Until then the current rules apply: $25,000 over 12 weeks, stretching to 16 if money remains. What the department has not yet said is how people already on the pathway on 8 March will be treated.
4 October 2026
The Aged Care Act gives you a right to stay connected with your pet. The Rules fund no help to do it
The Statement of Rights includes staying connected with a pet. The Aged Care Rules 2025, which decide what is actually paid for, exclude pet care assistance from funded services, and the exclusion sits under the heading General cleaning while art therapy and music therapy are funded. We read all 48 public submissions to the Senate review of those Rules: three raise companion animals, no provider does, and the Department’s own submission does not mention pets at all.
26 August 2026
The evidence base behind aged care’s new price says the funding model’s own relativities need a rethink
IHACPA costed 200 homes, 12,537 residents and 355,830 days of care, measuring direct care time with Bluetooth devices. The average permanent resident cost $430 a day, and $768 in the most remote homes against $419 in the cities. The report’s own recommendation five asks whether the AN-ACC price weights still match what care actually costs.
28 July 2026
2,127 providers, and 412 of them will not be audited against the strengthened Standards
Every funded aged care provider had to be registered in one of six categories from 1 November 2025, and the category decides how closely the regulator checks them. The Commission’s day-one map of the sector, published in April and unreported since, says 81 per cent will be audited against the strengthened Standards. The other 412 will not.
17 August 2026
We said aged care staffing ratings had further to fall. In October they did not
In August we predicted the homes still waiting for a Star Rating would drag the national staffing figure down. The October extract says otherwise: homes at 1 or 2 Staffing stars edged down to 29.6 per cent, and our prediction had compared two different groups. Three homes are now at 1 star overall, each because of its Compliance rating.
16 October 2026
Funding + pricing
The AN-ACC price is $303.19. It rests on costs from 2023-24, indexed 19.6 per cent
The government took IHACPA's recommendation to the cent, and the number is built from 2023-24 cost data indexed by 19.6 per cent. We checked the derivation: it lands within seven cents of the published price.
2 October 2026
From 1 October you cannot be asked to contribute to the cost of showering or dressing. The tool for checking whether prices moved runs about seven months behind
Personal care moves into the clinical supports contribution category on 1 October. The department said it would watch for price movement. The price summary that would show it arrives about seven months after the quarter it covers.
Home care grew 307 per cent in eight years. Residential grew 9.9
Home care added 221,100 people between 2017 and 2025. Residential added 17,000. The government's own count, and the last full picture before Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages.
Someone can help you deal with aged care without taking over. The Act calls them a supporter
The duty almost nobody knows exists: a supporter must help only as much as necessary and use their best endeavours to keep the person deciding for themselves. The relative who takes over because it is faster is in breach of it.
How to complain about an aged care provider, and what the law actually requires to happen next
90 days for a written determination, then 120, then further periods of 30 days with no stated ceiling. The office that hears your complaint can compel a provider to investigate itself at its own expense, but cannot order it to fix anything.
A home with no star rating might be new. It might also have declined to be surveyed
One home in six in the May extract had no overall rating. Three of the reasons are a provider not reporting, and the manual says those are not exemptions.
How aged care Star Ratings are calculated, and why the clinical measures count least
Four sub-ratings on unequal weights, and falls and pressure injuries carry the smallest. The department’s own manual gives the reason, and it is data maturity scored 10 out of 100 rather than importance.
The Commission does not hold the powers people credit it with. Two Commissioners do
Nearly every aged care story names the Commission, ours included. On its own account the functions sit with two office-holders and the Commission’s job is to assist them. What each actually does.
The median wait for home care services has doubled to 245 days
Eight months, typically, from approval to help actually arriving, on the Productivity Commission’s own tables. Where the time goes and what you can do while you wait.
18 July 2026
“No shortage” means employers can fill the job at the pay they already offer
What the rating actually measures, from the published method. It cannot register a pay-and-conditions argument, because it is defined against current pay and conditions.
30 August 2026
The government rates home care workers as short in every state. Residential aged care workers it rates as no shortage
Read out of the JSA source file: home care short in all nine ratings, residential in two. Treating it as one shortage will fund the wrong thing.
29 August 2026
From 1 August, aged care nursing pay rises for the last time under the work value case. The exact new rates
The determination was signed on 15 July. A first-year RN’s award minimum reaches $1,571.60 a week; the full table, from the document itself.
18 July 2026
The Aged Care Act sets out your rights, then says they are not enforceable in a court
Section 23 gives you a Statement of Rights. Section 24(3) says nothing in that Division is enforceable by a court or tribunal. What the Act points to instead.
19 August 2026
The End-of-Life Pathway pays $25,000 over 12 weeks, and stretches to 16 without anyone asking
A one-off $25,000 for someone with three months or less who wants to stay home, and an automatic four-week extension with no review, and the further 12 weeks the department says will apply from 8 March 2027.
6 August 2026
The government published what Support at Home providers actually charge. The gap between them is the story
Care management runs $30 to $150 an hour between the quartiles; house cleaning runs $100 to $117. The spread sits where a participant can least judge value.
4 August 2026
Support at Home price caps are paused. Here is what stands between you and an unfair bill now
The Minister’s stated reason, the refund powers and quarterly price summary that replaced the ceiling, and what both peak bodies say.
18 July 2026
Is aged care losing money? The two scorecards disagreed in July. The Government’s has since turned the survey’s way
61 per cent of homes at an operating loss beside 64.5 per cent of providers profitable in July. The Government’s next two snapshots, published 8 September 2026, have 62.7 and 60.9 per cent profitable.
18 July 2026
The banning register names 461 people and not one provider. How aged care enforcement actually works
Bans attach to people; providers answer through different tools. A decoded guide, with a real enforceable undertaking as the worked example.
18 July 2026
The government’s own inspector: the aged care ‘transformation’ has not been achieved
The statutory reviewer’s verdict, quoted from the report itself, credits included: the law mandates the destination; the machinery is not built yet.
18 July 2026
The price that funds every aged care bed is now $303.19. Here is the gap that came before it
The anatomy of the $295.64 AN-ACC price, and the weeks providers budgeted without its successor. The new price is $303.19 from 1 October 2026.
18 July 2026