From 8 March 2027, people still at home after 12 weeks on the End-of-Life Pathway will continue for a further 12 weeks

If someone you care for is on the End-of-Life Pathway, nothing changes yet. From 8 March 2027, the department says, participants who are still living at home after the initial 12 weeks will automatically continue on the pathway for a further 12 weeks, without reassessment, with additional funding of approximately $25,000. Who qualifies does not change. Until that date the current rules apply: $25,000 over 12 weeks, stretching to 16 weeks if money remains. The one thing the department has not yet said is how people already on the pathway on 8 March will be treated.

4 October 2026 Department page, program manual V4.4 and Budget papers read 4 Oct 2026 9 primary sources

What changes: someone still living at home when the first 12 weeks end continues on the pathway for a further 12 weeks, with approximately $25,000 more.
From when: 8 March 2027. Until then, the current 12-week period and the stretch to 16 weeks apply.
What you have to do: nothing, on the department’s description. It is automatic and needs no reassessment.
Who qualifies: unchanged. A prognosis of about three months or less, and a mobility score of 40 or below.
Already on the pathway on 8 March: not stated by the department, checked 4 October 2026.

We wrote about the pathway in August, when the department announced an extension without saying how long it would be. The length is now published. This is the full account of what it means, what stays the same, and the questions a family is likely to have that the department’s material does not yet answer.

How the pathway works today

The End-of-Life Pathway is the part of Support at Home that pays for extra care at home for someone expected to live about three months or less. The program manual sets the amount: the Support at Home program manual, version 4.4, says A total of $25,000 is available per eligible participant over a 12-week period. The department’s own page describes it as approximately $25,000, and its fact sheet as around $25,000.

The 12 weeks are not a hard stop today. On the department’s End-of-Life Pathway page: Where needed and funding remains, services can continue for up to 16 weeks. And the manual is clear that families do not have to ask for it: A participant does not require a Support Plan Review to increase the funding period from 12 weeks to 16 weeks, this happens automatically. The catch is the money. The extra four weeks run on whatever is left of the original budget, or on unspent Home Care Package funds if the person had them. Nothing new is added.

Past that point, a person who needs ongoing help moves back to an ordinary Support at Home classification through a Support Plan Review, and the department’s page states that Unspent End-of-Life Pathway funds do not carry over to an ongoing services classification. That move back is the problem the extension is meant to fix. When the change was announced in the May Budget, Palliative Care Australia described it in its media release as resolving an issue where participants who outlive the period revert to a standard Support at Home package, despite continuing high care needs.

Drawn only from what the department has published. The department has not said whether the 12-to-16 week stretch stays alongside the further 12 weeks (checked 4 October 2026), so the 2027 line does not show it. Sources: Support at Home program manual V4.4, section 15.3.1; department End-of-Life Pathway page, last updated 2 October 2026.

What changes on 8 March 2027

The department added the detail to its End-of-Life Pathway page, which was last updated on 2 October 2026. From 8 March 2027 the pathway will be extended to provide continued support for participants who remain living at home after the initial 12 weeks, and: Participants will automatically continue the pathway for a further 12 weeks without the need for reassessment and receive additional funding of approximately $25,000.

Three things in that sentence matter to a family. It is automatic, as the 16-week stretch is today. There is no reassessment, so nobody has to go through another assessment. And the further 12 weeks come with new money, where the current stretch only lets a person spend what is left. On our arithmetic, a further 12 weeks after the first 12 takes someone to 24 weeks from their start date; the department itself does not use that figure.

The rest stays as it is. The same page says: There are no changes to eligibility criteria or arrangements for accessing the pathway. That means a doctor or nurse practitioner certifying a prognosis of about three months or less, an Australian-modified Karnofsky Performance Status score of 40 or below (more than half of each day in bed), and the age rules of 65 and over, or 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people or people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness. A person can still use the pathway only once.

If someone is already on the pathway when the date arrives

This is the question most likely to matter to a family reading this between now and March, and the department has not said, checked 4 October 2026. Its page gives the start date and the new rule, and nothing about people whose 12 weeks are already running.

The dates make it concrete. Counting from the start date on the Aged Care Entry Record, someone who begins on or after 14 December 2026 reaches the 12-week mark on or after 8 March. Someone who began between 16 November and 13 December 2026 would be somewhere in the stretch between week 12 and week 16 on that day. Whether either group receives the further 12 weeks is not something any published department document we have read addresses. That is our arithmetic on the department’s own periods, not a statement of how the change will be applied.

If that is your situation, the practical step is to ask the provider, in writing, how the change will apply to the person you care for, and to ask before any Support Plan Review is lodged. The reason is in the current manual, which warns that approval of the Support Plan Review will automatically end the End-of-Life Pathway, and advises: It is recommended that the Support Plan Review process be initiated around week 12 or 13 to avoid prematurely ending the End-of-Life episode and associated funding. Under today’s rules a review lodged too early can cut the pathway short. Whether that advice changes once a further 12 weeks exists, the manual does not yet say.

What happens after the further 12 weeks

The department has not said, checked 4 October 2026. Its page describes the extension and leaves its general exit rules as they are, and those rules are today’s: when the pathway ends and a person still needs care, a Support Plan Review moves them to an ongoing Support at Home classification. The manual sets out how. Someone who had Support at Home before the pathway goes back to their previous classification; someone who came to Support at Home through the pathway moves to the inactive classification their assessor set aside for them at the start.

Where the change came from, and what is still catching up

The extension was a May Budget decision. The Health Minister’s Budget release of 12 May listed it in a single line, Expanding the End-of-Life pathway to provide more care for palliative patients. In Budget Paper No. 2, the end-of-life pathway is one of several Support at Home refinements inside a $389.8 million, four-year allocation that also covers assessments, hardship applications and bringing forward Support at Home places. The pathway change is not costed on its own there.

In August the department’s reform implementation video explained the reason in plain terms: In some cases, 12 weeks of funding hasn't been enough. It gave no length and no date beyond early 2027. Both are now on the department’s page, last updated 2 October.

Not every official source has caught up. As of 4 October 2026, the consumer My Aged Care page still describes a second round of funding for participants who live beyond the initial 12-week funding period and says This change will commence from early 2027. It carries no specific date. The September 2026 program manual, version 4.4, does not mention the extension at all, and its summary of changes covers only provider claiming in Chapter 16. The participant fact sheet is dated December 2025 and describes the 16-week arrangement only. None of that is wrong for today, because the change has not started. It does mean that, of the official material we read, the department’s End-of-Life Pathway page is the only place the 8 March date and the further 12 weeks are written down.

Our view, labelled as such

This is the right change, and it answers the question we left open in August. A person who outlives a three-month prognosis is still dying, and moving them back to an ordinary package in their last weeks was the wrong design. Palliative Care Australia’s interim chief executive put it simply in the peak body’s May release: People do not experience dying according to a timetable. A further 12 weeks, automatic, with new money and no reassessment, is a direct answer to that.

What is missing is the transition rule, and it has a deadline of its own. People who start the pathway from mid-December will reach their 12-week mark on or after 8 March, so the question is live for their families from December. The department should say how people already on the pathway will be treated, and update the manual providers work from, well before then. We will report it when it does.

How we sourced this

The change itself, its start date, the funding and the statement that eligibility does not change come from the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s End-of-Life Pathway page, read on 4 October 2026, which carries the date last updated 2 October 2026. The current rules come from chapter 15 of the Support at Home program manual, version 4.4 (September 2026), which we downloaded as a PDF and read end to end, and from the department’s summary of changes for that version. The Budget origin comes from the Health Minister’s 12 May 2026 release and Budget Paper No. 2. Each quotation was checked as a contiguous span of the source linked immediately before it.

What we checked and did not find. On 4 October 2026 we looked for any department statement on how the extension applies to people already on the pathway on 8 March 2027, on what follows the further 12 weeks, and on whether the 12-to-16 week stretch continues alongside it. We read the department’s page, the manual, the summary of changes, the participant fact sheet, the My Aged Care page, the August video transcript and the ministerial Budget release, and searched the department’s ministerial media pages. None of them answers those three questions. The week-count dates in this piece are our arithmetic from the department’s own 12 and 16 week periods. We have not spoken to the department or to a provider. This is general information about program rules, not advice about any person’s care; anyone in this situation should speak to their provider or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.

Sources

Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, End-of-Life Pathway (date last updated 2 October 2026, read 4 October 2026): the extension from 8 March 2027, a further 12 weeks without reassessment, additional funding of approximately $25,000, no change to eligibility or access, the current 12-week period and continuation to 16 weeks, the eligibility criteria, one use per person, unspent funds not carrying over, and the exit rules.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Support at Home program manual: a guide for registered providers, version 4.4, September 2026 (PDF, chapter 15 read end to end 4 October 2026): the $25,000 over a 12-week period, the automatic extension to 16 weeks, the options beyond 12 weeks, the Support Plan Review timing advice, and the exit route to an ongoing or inactive classification. Listed on the department’s manual page.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Summary of changes to the Support at Home program manual (version 4.4) (PDF, read 4 October 2026): the only change listed is to Chapter 16, provider claiming and payment.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Support at Home program: End-of-Life Pathway, participant fact sheet, December 2025 (PDF, read 4 October 2026): around $25,000 over a 12-week period and an additional 4 weeks if funding is left.
My Aged Care, End-of-Life Pathway (read 4 October 2026): the consumer description, including the change described as a second round of funding commencing from early 2027.
Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Reform Implementation Video Series: End of Life Pathway Changes (published 6 August 2026, transcript read 4 October 2026): that 12 weeks has in some cases not been enough and the changes take effect from early 2027.
The Hon Mark Butler MP, Budget 2026-27: A stronger care system for all Australians, media release, 12 May 2026 (read 4 October 2026).
Commonwealth of Australia, Budget Paper No. 2: Budget Measures 2026-27 (PDF, 12 May 2026, read 4 October 2026), measure Improving Access to Home Care, page 99: $389.8 million over four years from 2026-27 for Support at Home refinements including the end-of-life pathway.
Palliative Care Australia, Budget a welcome step towards fairer end-of-life care, media release, 13 May 2026 (read 4 October 2026).

Spotted an error, or been through this pathway and been told something different about the change? Request a correction and we will check it against the department’s own material and log the outcome.