Aged Care Assistance in Australia: What It Is, Who Qualifies, and How It Works

The reason why Aged Care Assistance has become such a hot topic in Australia is that the population is ageing fast. In fact, in 2016, population census data reported that one in six Australian nationals was 65 or older. At this rate, by 2030, one in four will be 65 or older.

Aside from the fact that couples need to “get busy”, the other implication of this knowledge is that there will be a boom of seniors so large that more helping hands will be needed. The available ones are almost overworked as it is.

This is the second reason why elderly care assistance is now a hot topic. Families do not want to entrust their loved elders to just anyone. They want to do it themselves – in fact, some elders would have it no other way – but they also want to be certain that if they can’t, they are getting the best hands.

In this guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know about getting support for your loved elder. We will also inform you of the eligibility criteria to get the help you need, especially from the government, which is very invested in aged care.

What Is Aged Care Assistance?

First, we’ll start with the basics of aged care assistance. That means defining it, of course.

In Australia, Aged Care Assistance is the sum total of all the services that families and care support providers design and perform to make elders’ lives comfortable. The Australian Department of Health gave it a textbook definition, though.

According to their website, this is a service that “provides support for older people to help them with everyday living and other needs.” This service could be anything from nursing home care to just simple companionship and home assistance. As long as the goal remains to preserve the dignity of the senior and guarantee they remain independent for as long as their bodies allow them to, that’s aged care.

In 2021–22, the Australian government spent about $24.8 billion on aged care, and more than 1.5 million people received support. That’s a lot of tax money gone to taking care of a demographic that typically does not pay taxes anymore. But this move by our elected leaders shows you how important it has become to the citizenry.

Most of these billions were spent funding Home Care Packages (HCPs), Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), among others. Families have found financial respite in these programmes, making them increasingly popular options for elderly care.

Of course, anyone can handle their care or their loved elder’s care out of their own pockets. Whatever the financing method, the help being paid for must fit into the definition of Aged Care Assistance, or the government could come down hard on the family and carer involved.

What Kinds of Aged Care are There?

We understand that Aged Care Assistance is a service that helps elders live their best lives. But how? Where? What exactly is involved?

The answers to those questions are below.

In-home care:

As the name implies, this is help that comes to you or your loved elder. Studies have shown that more than 70 percent of Australians, including seniors, want to “age in place”. This means they don’t want to go to a home or a centre, or a hospital. If it comes down to them needing any form of assistance, they would rather it be in their own homes.

And so, care support workers will have to go to these seniors’ homes to care for them. Families will have to move things around to care for their loved elders. Doing this may go beyond medical support and into the territory of domestic chores. Whatever it is, it is a kind of elderly care that the elders receive at home.

Residential care (nursing homes):

Sometimes, elderly care cannot reach its full potential in the elders’ homes. Sometimes, families may not even be able to afford the cost of having a care worker over. This is where residential care comes in.

These facilities, called nursing homes, go the full nine yards with elderly care. From domestic chores to medication support, elders in these facilities are taken care of in totality.

Respite care (short-term care):

This is a type of elderly care that care support providers offer to family carers who need a break. There are residential care centres that can take your elder in for a brief period, so you can go on that vacation, complete that course or finish up that project. Respite care providers can also help you out after your elder comes out of a serious medical emergency. Doctors will even strongly suggest this, in fact, because this is the best way to learn what kind of care plan you should work towards for your elder.

Palliative care:

This is end-of-life care. It can be at home or in a facility. This is mostly provided by care workers who are also nurses. This type of care plan is to help your elder pass away as peacefully as possible and not spend their last moments in pain or agony.

An increasingly common denominator among all of these types of care is that they can be personalised. In fact, Australians want them to be personalised. So, whatever kind of care you want and wherever you want it, it can be done with your interests and peculiarities in mind.

And the government is ready to support you to fund it.

Why Aged Care Assistance Matters in Australia Today

Let’s address two things quickly before we learn about the different Aged Care Assistance packages that the government of Australia has for its citizens.

The first is why the government had to step in.

Cost is a major driving factor.

In 2016, when the census data revealed that one in six Australians were 65+, the data also revealed that 249,000 or more of that number were using some kind of aged care service (refer to the last section of this guide). That’s a rise of 31 percent from 2006 to 2016, when this data was collected. And of that number, around 15 percent needed help with financing this care.

All of these data points to aged care becoming such a big industry that it will make up 6 percent of the country’s GDP by 2060. When industries spring up in any economy, cash flow is what keeps it going. Cash flow is also what keeps it evolving to suit the needs of the people it is serving. Even if there’s a baby boom in the next decade or two, more and more people will start spending a small fortune on aged care assistance. This is what the government gleaned from the data and considered to make their services to the elderly population of Australia more robust.

Families can now focus on economic activities because they are certain of help from their government. This has made all the difference for a lot of people using aged care. This leads to the second major driving force behind aged care assistance.

That date revealed that more Australians were getting older, which means that there were fewer people to fill up other industries that drive Australia’s economy. If one in six Australians is a retiree, that means there’s a skill gap to be filled somewhere.

People taking time off or their lives off to care for the elderly would not have been ideal. Even if they could afford it, it meant that somewhere else was missing their skill and expertise. The simple solution? The government will pay for your elders to get taken care of, so you can work and make more money to keep the country afloat.

There’s also the fact that aged care can be tricky for “normies”. Most family carers don’t have a background in medicine or don’t know how to spot certain signs that need medical intervention in their elders. Grandma taking too long to shower can be a problem, but most family carers would shrug it off. Then it devolves into something needing medical attention, meaning they will burn through their budget faster than they thought.

Aged Care Assistance has come to the rescue of families like these because now, they can afford to have a professional over who can administer preventive measures. If they don’t want to have a professional over, they can take Grandma to a home where they will be helped with the bills, thanks to the many aged care schemes the government is funding.

Who Qualifies for Aged Care Assistance?

The second thing to address is the eligibility. Not everyone who turns 65 (the age at which one is considered a senior in Australia) immediately qualifies for this assistance.

They may need it, sure. But if they don’t meet certain criteria, every care plan will have to be funded by them or their family.

Anyone who wants to tap into any of the schemes – which will be discussed in the next section – has to pass an assessment first. My Aged Care handles this assessment, and you can get in touch with them via their website or via the phone line 1800 200 422.

Once you pass the first stage of the My Aged Care assessment online or via the phone, you’re moved to the next stage. This stage is where you get linked up with an in-person assessment by a panel called the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT; in Victoria, it’s ACAS). This team is made up of nurses, doctors, other healthcare specialists and social workers who will assess your request for assistance.

They will come to your home or even your hospital, speak to family, neighbours, and doctors. They run their own tests, too. At the end of the assessment, they’ll let you know how much funding you can receive and which of the government schemes will be the right fit.

In truth, there is no passing or failing the assessment. It is done because the government wants to make sure that they’re funding those who don’t exactly have an option. Some families or seniors are well enough, but they want that little extra from the government to help them save money. This isn’t a bad thing in itself because the funding is from taxpayers’ money. The issue is that if anybody can get it, there’s a possibility that the scheme will skip over those who really need it.

This brings us to the final stage of this assessment, which is them taking a look at your financial situation. In short, if you’re well off, you get less money. That way, those who don’t have more.

Special Considerations

The assessment is the main eligibility test for elderly care assistance in Australia. But the government recognises certain natural privileges as well as the underprivileged.

If you’re an Indigenous Australian, you’re considered a senior at 50. That’s a 15-year head start on other Aussies. However, if you’re under 65 and above 50, and living with a disability, you have the Disability Support for Older Australians programme.

Older people from culturally and linguistically diverse (CALD) backgrounds are also another group that the Australian government caters to in their assistance schemes. The government is ready to arrange interpreters for elders in this category, even.

Veterans and LGBTI seniors are also a special consideration by the government.

Seniors who pass this assessment and are pointed towards the right scheme for them can then go on to plan their care with their families or their chosen care providers. Support Network has proven its value in this regard, even helping seniors identify more ways to fund their aged care.

Types of Aged Care Assistance Available in Australia

Now, what does the government have to offer? The main ones are below:

Home Care Packages (HCP)

These are government-funded Aged Care Assistance plans that allow Australians to age in place. You want to stay home and be cared for, but you can’t foot all the bills? This is for you.

There are four levels (Level 1 to Level 4) in this scheme, all with capped funding. That means each level does not exceed a certain amount, payable monthly. No matter the level you’re placed in, rest assured that your needs have been taken into account.

You can either manage this package yourself or hand it over to your chosen care provider. The government will pay out the funds allocated to your level every month to you or your provider, leaving it up to you to manage it properly.

Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP)

This scheme is an entry-level scheme that was created to fill in the gaps. If you or your family ever runs into a budget deficit or finds out that you may need extra help for something concerning elderly care, this scheme is for you.

Through the CHSP, you can get services like personal care (hygiene, dressing), home cleaning, meals on wheels or meal prep, social support (visiting or group activities), allied health (e.g. physio) and flexible respite.

The fun part of it is that you can dip in and dip out of the scheme. You might be able to fund everything in your care plan one month, and in the next, you might need extra support for meals. That’s where the CHSP comes in.

It’s not entirely free, though. You may have to pay for some services, but you will definitely not be spending as much as you would if you were self-funding.

Residential Aged Care (Nursing Homes) Support

The government also funds nursing home support.

One of the underlying reasons that people are leaning more towards in-home support is that nursing homes can be costly. But their necessity cannot be understated.

These days, almost all homes are funded by the government, which means that if you have no choice but to move Grandma to a nursing home, you’ll be paying a heavily subsidised fee. This applies to full-time stay or respite stay.

Respite Care Support

Say your elder just comes out of a surgery and needs serious monitoring for some time. The options available to you are:

1. Take them to a nursing home for closer monitoring.
2. Take them home and monitor them yourselves.

In some cases, option 2 can be very expensive. In some other, more common cases, it even leads to option 1 because families are not exactly experts in post-surgery care or the like. The problem? Option 1 can either turn into a permanent stay, which you or your elder probably don’t want, thanks to wanting to age in place and the finances involved, or a short stay that will drain you financially.

This is where Respite Care Support. The government can finance a few weeks of supportive care and therapy at home for your elder to help them regain confidence.

Private Aged Care Services

As the name implies, there’s no government funding for this service. But we added it to this category because the ACAT can recommend that you fund your care by yourself after assessing your or your loved elder’s situation.

Outside of the government’s recommendation, people have the right to pay for any extra costs that the government’s support doesn’t cover.

How to Apply for Aged Care Assistance

This section only exists to tie all the previous sections together into one. Follow this three-step plan to enjoy Aged Care Assistance from the government of Australia:

• Contact My Aged Care: Go online and fill out the assessment form on their website, or call them(call 1800 200 422) to find out if you qualify. They can also attend to you in person in case online or over the phone doesn’t cut it for you. If you call them, they can book you an appointment at a Services Australia centre.
• Get Assessed: My Aged Care will move you on to your local ACAT, who will assess you and determine your eligibility and how much assistance you’ll get.

Choose Your Provider: Except for Home Care Packages (HCPs), all other government-assisted aged care schemes are strictly handled by care providers. Once you find out your outcome and the amount of funding assistance you’ll get, you can begin the search for a care provider. Support Network is more than happy to help you on this journey. You could also stick with the default arrangement, which means the government will assign you one.

The Future of Aged Care Assistance in Australia

The ageing boom of Australia means that the government has to adapt its aged care plans, and quickly. Luckily, big changes are coming to aged care assistance, and below are some of them.

1. Support at Home Programme (from Nov 2025)

This is going to replace the HCPs and the Respite Care Support schemes. The government will basically marry both schemes into one and call it the Support at Home Programme.

2. New Aged Care Act (from Nov 2025)

In response to the growing trend of Australians wanting to stay at home and age in place, Parliament recently passed the rights-based New Aged Care Act. This Act will see seniors have more say in how they want to be taken care of. The eligibility rules for government assistance have also been modified a bit in this Act.

3. Single Assessment System

Instead of going through multiple assessments, seniors will now go through one process and find out if they will be eligible. This change started in mid-2024 but after the government’s declaration, it will become widespread from Q4 2025.

4. Community Models

Councils and NGOs have started “village” programmes where elders can have a sense of home while being away from home. These programmes are basically a marriage of residential care and in-home care.

Conclusion & Call to Action

Once you get your Aged Care Assistance funding, the next thing is choosing the right care support partner. First, check out their credentials. Then find out what services they offer. Next, find out their location and availability. Find out if they offer person-centred care and are flexible (if you have any cultural specifications, here’s where you mention them). And finally, find out how much their services cost.

And there you have it! All about Aged Care Assistance in Australia and how you can get it. If the systems surrounding it feel complex, Support Network is there to help you find your footing.

With Support Network, you will have total peace of mind when doing your checks. We are also on hand to help you select carers.

And most importantly, we will always be cheering you on every step of the way!