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

What your budget did on 1 October

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing put it plainly on its Support at Home funding pages, last updated 22 September: From 1 October 2026, Support at Home subsidy rates and some supplements will increase. The reason is the last step of the Fair Work Commission’s Aged Care Work Value Case, an award wage increase for registered and enrolled nurses in aged care from the first full pay period on or after 1 August 2026. We set out the new nurse award rates in July.

The department says The increase will apply to all ongoing Support at Home quarterly budgets from October 2026 and to new End-of-Life and Restorative Care Pathway commencements from 1 October 2026. Its schedule of subsidies and supplements from 1 October, published on 22 September, gives the new amounts. Set against the 1 July schedule, every classification moved by the same proportion.

From the appendix of the department’s Schedule of Subsidies and Supplements for Support at Home, 1 July 2026 (version 2) and 1 October 2026 (version 3). Rows 1 to 8 are the Support at Home classifications; HCP 1 to 4 are the transitioned Home Care Package levels. The schedule calls the quarterly figures indicative; each is the annual amount divided by four and includes the 10 per cent the department deducts from each quarterly budget for care management. Changes, and the 0.196 per cent, are our arithmetic; every row rounds to 0.196 per cent.

The short-term pathways moved by similar small amounts. The End-of-Life Pathway now provides $25,736.57 over 12 weeks, up from $25,686.28 in the July schedule, and the Restorative Care Pathway $6,179.40 an episode, up from $6,167.33. Some supplements rose by a cent or a few cents a day: oxygen from $15.04 to $15.06, for example. Supplements set as a percentage, such as the veterans’ supplement at 11.5 per cent of the classification’s daily funding, move with it.

One practical warning. As at 10 October, the department’s own Funding classifications for Support at Home page, last updated 6 October, still lists the 1 July budgets ($2,752.50 a quarter at classification 1, for instance), marked Current as of 1 July 2026. If you are checking your monthly statement, the schedule from 1 October is the document with the current figures.

Why October and not August

The Aged Care Rules were amended in June with higher Support at Home amounts to start on 1 August. They did not reach anyone’s budget then. The explanatory statement to the September amending Rules, registered on 18 September, says why:

because quarterly budgets had already been issued under the framework established by the primary legislation, those increases could not be reflected in budgets from 1 August 2026.

So the October rates carry a catch-up. In the statement’s words, they include an adjustment to account for the additional subsidy that would otherwise have been payable from 1 August 2026 credited from the commencement of the October quarter, ensuring providers are not disadvantaged. The department’s page describes the same thing as a slightly higher subsidy amount to support providers between the start of the latest award wage increase to the next quarterly budget cycle.

The classification 8 daily amount, step by step

1. 1 Jul 2026Base individual amount $197.60 a day, set by the June amending Rules for July indexation.
2. 1 Aug 2026The June Rules raise it to $197.92. Nurses’ award wages rise from the first full pay period on or after this date. Budgets already issued for the quarter do not change.
3. 25 Aug 2026The department’s wages page lists the Support at Home increase as to be credited with October 2026 quarterly budgets.
4. 18 Sep 2026The September amending Rules are registered, with the October amounts and the catch-up.
5. 1 Oct 2026Base individual amount $197.98, now in quarterly budgets. In budgets

For classification 8 the October amount is 6 cents a day above the August one. That gap is the visible part of the adjustment; neither the statement nor the department’s page, as published, sets out how it was calculated or says when, if ever, it falls away. The department also says the money could not come early: The increased funding to support providers with the nurses’ award wage increase cannot be paid in advance. Under the Act, it explains, subsidies are paid after services are delivered and claimed.

In July our story on the nurses’ final pay rise reported the department’s provider fact sheet, which said: Participants will automatically receive the increased subsidy rates from 1 August 2026 under the Support at Home program. The explanatory statement above shows the budgets did not carry it from that date. That story now carries a dated update.

If your provider wants to raise its price for nurse care

Support at Home providers set their own prices. The department says Providers are responsible for reviewing their pricing and deciding whether any increases are reasonable and justified. If a provider proposes to increase prices for care and services delivered by registered or enrolled nurses, the same page lists three things it must do.

1. 1. Discussdiscuss the proposed changes with affected participantsBefore the price changes
2. 2. Explainexplain why the increase is neededIn a way you can follow
3. 3. Agreereceive agreement from both the participant and provider on the price changeNo agreement, no new price

Providers cannot change prices or service agreements without a participant's informed consent.

If you do not agree, the department says the provider should explain the reasons clearly, show how the new price reflects the cost of delivering the care, give you enough time, and encourage you to get independent advice. It names the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and the Older Persons Advocacy Network as places to go, alongside a family member, friend or supporter. You can also change providers. And: Providers should not cease services because a participant does not agree to a proposed price increase.

For a sense of scale, the department’s only published summary of prices actually charged, for November and December 2025, put the national median for an hour of registered nurse care at $180, with the middle half of prices between $160 and $195. We looked at what that summary showed in August.

Our view

Paying the rise through the next quarterly budget, with a catch-up, is a reasonable fix for a timing problem the budget system created, and the explanatory statement is candid about it. A rule made in June set an amount for 1 August that, by the department’s own account, the budget machinery could not pay until October.

The harder point for participants is in the size and the shape of the rise. The department says it is based on provider spending on registered and enrolled nurses working in aged care in 2023-24. That is a sector average, and it lands as the same 0.196 per cent on every budget, whether a person’s plan is mostly nursing or has none. At the $180 median, the $5.39 a quarter added at classification 1 buys under two minutes of registered nurse time (our arithmetic). Someone whose budget goes largely on nurse visits could see a provider’s proposed nursing price rise outrun their budget’s rise. That makes the consent rule, not the subsidy figure, the protection that matters: ask what the new price is, why, and what it will do to your quarterly budget, before you agree.