Support at Home program update for older people, families and carers – Webinar video

[Opening visual of slide with text saying ‘Australian Government with Crest (logo)’, ‘Department of Health and Aged Care’, ‘Support at Home update’, ‘Older people, families and carers’, ‘April 2025’] 

[The visuals during this webinar are of each speaker presenting in turn via video, with reference to the content of a PowerPoint presentation being played on screen] 

Greg Pugh: 

Hello everyone. Welcome and thank you for joining us for today’s Support at Home webinar. I would like to begin by acknowledging the traditional custodians of the lands on which we are meeting today. I am based in Canberra on the lands of the Ngunnawal people and I recognise other people or families with connection to the lands of the ACT region. I wish to acknowledge and respect their continuing culture and the contribution they make to the life of this city and region and I would like to also extend those respects to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people here with us today. 

So my name’s Greg Pugh. I’m the First Assistant Secretary of the Reform Implementation Division here in the Department of Health and Aged Care. And today I am joined by an expert panel that includes Craig Gear, Chief Executive Officer of the Older Persons Advocacy Network, Pat Sparrow, Chief Executive Officer of the Council on the Ageing, Tom Symondson, Chief Executive Officer of Ageing Australia which many of you may know under their former name of Aged and Community Care Providers Association, and also with me today are two of my Departmental colleagues, Lezah Rushton who is the Assistant Secretary of the Assessment and Home Care Transition Branch and Jasmine Snow who is the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Support at Home Reform Branch. 

So just to dispense with some of the formalities we are recording this webinar so it can be shared for those who are unable to join us in real time. And it will also be made available on the Department’s website in the coming days. You can also access a copy of the slides. They’re already published on the same page that you went to to register for the webinar. Now this webinar was originally advertised as having a live Q&A session however given we are operating in accordance with the caretaker conventions pending the outcome of the 2025 Federal Election we are unable to do so today. But we are planning on holding a subsequent webinar in May where live questions will be answered, and at the end of this webinar we will also answer some of the most popular pre-submitted questions. As always we will be releasing a frequently asked questions document as well. 

So maybe just to start a bit of a reminder around why we’re here and a bit of the operating context. So on the 25th of November 2024 the Aged Care Act 2024 passed through Parliament. The new Act and with it the Support at Home Program and many other reforms will commence from 1 July 2025. And while there is still some work to be done we now have a solid understanding of the key changes and how they will impact older people, their families and carers. So for today’s webinar we’re going to focus on two main things. One around why a new Support at Home Program is required and then work through what some of those key substantive changes look like. We’d also like to clarify a few matters that we recognise might be a bit confusing or unclear for older people, their families and carers.  

So we do have a lot to cover in the hour. We won’t be able to go through absolutely every single detail but we will highlight the key areas so you know what’s ahead and then where you could go to for more information. 

All right. So a little bit about Support at Home, why it’s needed. The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety final report really challenged us as Government and as society to improve aged care services and standards for older people in Australia and those changes we need to make to deliver care that values safety, dignity and respect of older people in aged care. One of the constant themes throughout the Royal Commission was that people want to remain at home and in order to do this safely the Royal Commission recommended that improved access to aged care that meets a person’s assessed needs could be achieved through combining the Commonwealth Home Support Program which many of you will know as CHSP, and also the Home Care Packages Program. 

Now since 2020 the Department has engaged closely with stakeholders including older people and the sector at large to test and refine the program design. That process has taken some time but that time has been essential to really ensuring that policy design is responsive to feedback from those who will be impacted by this reform. Probably just to remind people what some of those engagement activities have looked like, we’ve been through a multitude of workshops, surveys, public webinars. We’ve had dedicated meetings with providers and a lot of online question and answer sessions with older people, providers and the aged care sector at large. 

I wanted to take a quick pause. I want to bring on stage someone who has been instrumental in this work. That person is Anne Burgess who amongst many of her roles is currently the Chair of the Council of Elders and also the Chair of the Aged Care Transition Taskforce. Anne couldn’t be with us in person today or virtually in person. And for those of you who know Anne, have the good fortune of knowing her, she’s obviously in high demand throughout all of this reform work so she will be coming to us via video address. So over to you thanks virtual Anne. 

All right. Now that we’ve had a suitably awkward silence I want to thank Anne for that excellent presentation. But we will be able to come back to Anne a bit later on during this webinar and obviously you can watch her address when this video goes live on to our website. 

So we’ll move on from that and we’ll take a little bit of a closer look at the new Support at Home Program and some of the changes that are going to be introduced. So the Support at Home Program will eventually bring together current in home aged care programs but not all at the same time. So on 1 July 2025 this year the Support at Home Program will replace the Home Care Packages Program and the Short Term Restorative Care Program and then the Commonwealth Home Support Program will transition no earlier than 1 July 2027. 

Craig and Pat are going to join me on stage in a second and when they get here I’m going to ask them to talk through the benefits of Support at Home including from the lens of their respective organisations both in the Older Persons Advocacy Network and also the Council of the Ageing. 

Here we are. So over to you thanks Pat and Craig. 

Patricia Sparrow: 

Good afternoon everyone. It’s really great to be here. And now we’ve got the technical glitch over I expect it will all run really smoothly. So thanks for putting up with that. Craig and I are going to run through some of the benefits and one of the things I’d start by saying is that one of the most important shifts is actually that the new Aged Care Act is rights based and that will carry through to Support at Home and in residential care. And this is really a fundamental shift and what we’ve got is a clear statement of rights for older people in aged care which we haven’t had before. What’s going to need to happen to give that life and to make sure rights are upheld is a real culture change and there’s going to need to be training for providers and for the workforce to help them make the shift. That’s going to take time but without the Act we wouldn’t have it at all. So I think it’s really, really important. 

It's going to be complemented through a new and improved complaints system which is going to communicate more clearly with you and the people supporting you if you do need to make a complaint and hopefully resolve complaints more effectively using more different methods like restorative justice and mediation that will hopefully get a better outcome. So the intent and our hope is that this is much more focused on supporting you. 

And I want to just draw out a little bit about the Statement of Rights because it is fundamental to how you’re going to experience services and it articulates what your rights will be including the right to make your own decision which you should always have the right to make choices, the right to stay connected and the right to take risks. But Craig one of the things we were both a bit disappointed about was the fact that it was not enforceable in and of itself. Do you want to talk about how it is going to be enforceable? 

Craig Gear: 

Yeah. So I suppose one of the discussions we’ve had is should you have to be running off to courts to get your rights upheld and we don’t think that should be the case. And there are mechanisms in place where the rights are enforceable and that’s predominantly through the complaints system which I’ll come to in a second and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. So the really great thing is that we were able to push that there should be a positive duty for providers to uphold that Statement of Rights which means like under the Sexual Discrimination Act where it’s actually saying they’ve got to do policies and procedures, train their staff, do all these other things to make sure that they’re talking to you about your rights and they understand that as well.  

So the first port of call I think will really be about talking to your provider about whether your rights are being upheld. If you don’t think they are you can come to us at OPAN. You can raise a complaint first of all with your provider but we can also help you with our aged care advocates to help you there. And the other way you can go is to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and put a complaint into them. Because what it does, it links to the Aged Care Quality Standards and particularly Standard 1 which is all about you as a person. That’s really putting you at the centre and your rights at the centre of this. It’s also about the Aged Care Worker Code of Conduct. So they’ve got a responsibility to do that as well. And there’s new things in the Aged Care Act called obligations and those things are actually enforceable. So the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission can take action. They can investigate your complaint. And they’ve told me that from the 1st of July, on that first day they will be ready to take complaints in relation to the Statement of Rights, whether it’s being upheld or not, take that through the investigation process and importantly ask providers to take action. So enforceable undertakings, these restorative justice things that you were talking about, really important things so that the rights are actually able to be upheld.  

Patricia Sparrow: 

So look that’s really important. I mean I think one of the other benefits if I think about the new program is the fact that there’s going to be higher levels of care and we know that many people with the four levels sometimes kind of max out and perhaps go into residential care before they really want to. So I think it’s really important that there’s going to be the eight levels of care and also that it will allow you to hopefully stay home for longer and to be independent.  

I think the other really great thing about the program is that there’s going to be two new short term pathways. And I think Craig you’re going to cover off on those a little bit more later. But just to mention them we’re going to have a restorative pathway and a palliative care pathway. And I think they’re really important and really good features that are going to enhance the care that’s able to be provided. We all know that people want to stay at home for as long as possible and we want to support that. And the new levels with higher funding should do that. If you’ve got more support at different levels you should be able to also move through a little bit more easily and free up packages down the bottom so if your needs increase hopefully you’ll be able to get higher levels of support to help you stay at home. 

It’s going to take time for all of this to free up and to make sure that people are getting support more quickly but the Government has committed from 1 July ’27 that their target will be that people shouldn’t wait for more than three months to get the care they need. That’s significantly better than the time people are waiting now which can be anything up to a year or more. Maybe down the track we’ll want to see it go more than three months but it’s good to see that commitment and that shift happening from there. 

So Craig now that I’ve kind of got a package what are going to be the benefits when I’m actually in receiving a service?  

Craig Gear: 

Yeah. And I think the other part we might have not talked about is getting into the system, which is the single assessment workforce and contacting My Aged Care to get that assessment underway. And that should be much more streamlined and there’s more money going into that. But once you’re in the service you have that relationship with your provider. And one of the parts of this is around a care partner. Now we were a little bit concerned that the care partners might not be able to give the level of support that they did and so we are going to keep monitoring that the right people get the right levels of care partnering support, care management at the right times. But it’s actually a really flexible process so that people can actually say ‘Hey I’m really good at self-managing so I only need you to check in once every couple of months or once a month’ that sort of thing, see how things are going. Other people are going to need higher levels of that. And so that’s going to be really about planning people’s needs, importantly what do they want. So it’s about again self-determination. My goals, my needs, when I want people, who I want coming. So that’s the care partnering approach. 

Patricia Sparrow: 

And driven by the older person. 

Craig Gear: 

Driven by the older person. Yeah. Exactly. But that’s what I think we really all wanted is people to be in control of their own package and how services are delivered for them. So that agreement of that care plan is going to be a really important part of it. And then talking to your care partner about do I need to increase or decrease or change things. The other part of this then is yes you’ve got the services to those levels. Again you might get that reassessment to change your levels. And then there’s the other thing. So the restorative pathways I’ll come to in a second but first of all is the really important thing about assistive technology and that home modification. So assistive technologies, up to $15,000 which is kind of ready to go. I think we hear at the moment people are having to save their money and squirrel it all away for the rainy day sort of thing just in case they need that piece of equipment. This will be a much more streamlined, pre-approved approach.  

Now a lot of people have also asked me about whether that means if I need more than that, so I need a specialised wheelchair, what happens? Well you can get a prescription like you do from your doctor but it would probably be from an occupational therapist and maybe your doctor as well, which means that they can go to those higher levels of equipment. And then with the home modifications we know railings, those sorts of things are really important. So stay at home, getting the railings put in, $15,000 that’s allocated up to for that as well. So that’s really important. 

Now the two other final pathways. I call this next one the restorative pathway. This is Val’s pathway.  

Patricia Sparrow: 

Yes it is Val’s pathway. 

Craig Gear: 

It is. Because Val was in hospital and found it really difficult to get back home and get the services she needed. And it was building her back up again she was talking about. The physiotherapy, sometimes people needed speech pathologists to dieticians. So this is an amount of money that actually helps you for 12 weeks, which can be extended to 16, to get those services that you need to build you back up again as well. 

The final thing that I think is so important is around end of life care. So people have told us that they do want to die at home and 70% of people say they want to. Productivity Commission has found that only 10% of people actually are able to do that. So what this is going to do is say here’s $25,000. It’s for three months of support for that end of life time. It can increase. It doesn’t take away from what the community is doing, what the state hospitals are doing with palliative care. But it’s to complement and supplement that. The other one that people said is but what happens at the end? And there is a pathway there that says if that doesn’t happen and you need continued support that that will be there as well back on the lower level but probably looking at what your needs are going to be if that continues on. So that’s a really positive outcome I think for people.  

Patricia Sparrow: 

I think it really is and I can only say from personal experience seeing how those things didn’t line up I think this package is going to be – this support at the end of life is going to be really, really important.  

Craig Gear: 

So the program needs to take some time to embed and play out but I think it’s much more in line with what I’ve heard older people telling me that they’re looking for in the services. So Greg that’s where our summary of the - - - 

Patricia Sparrow: 

I’ve got one I think we’re going to touch on I think which is just about I know that everybody will want to talk about fees and charges and co-contributions but there are a couple of things I think are really important to know about that that I think are a benefit, which is that if you’re an existing client before the 12th of September then you’ll benefit from the no worse off principle and I know that we’re going to cover that later in the webinar but I think that’s really important to say upfront. But the other really good feature is that no one is going to pay for the clinical care services. That’s really important because often they’re the most expensive services and the ones that people generally have to have. So that’s really, really important. And then I think what’s important to know is that the contribution system is based on the pension scale so you’ll be dealing with Services Australia. But you’ll be familiar with being a pensioner or that you might be a Commonwealth Seniors Healthcare card holder and so I think the system will make sense to you. 

Then the other two service categories, there’s independence which will help you keep moving, things like personal care, and what you’re contributing will be based on what your assessment is and you’ll pay anything from 5% to 50% of your cost. And then support for everyday living services, those things that you have to do to stay at home, that will also be based on your cost, and there’s also a range there of anything from 17.5% to 80%. So it’s a sliding scale. It’s based on a system that you know. And that will be important. 

And then I just did want to draw out that obviously there are indicative prices at the moment. Your providers will be talking to you about that. I know Tom’s going to speak in a minute. But for the first 12 months providers are setting their own fees and you can compare your pricing etcetera on that. And you can change providers if you need to and you can talk to them about the pricing. So there are things that you can do around that to make sure that it stays affordable for you. And now I think we can hand back to Greg. 

Craig Gear: 

Thanks Greg. 

Greg Pugh: 

Thanks Pat and thanks Craig. That was an absolutely excellent overview. Thank you for walking through some of those key facts. We know that people are particularly interested in those various pathways and that work around the contributions as well. 

So we were going to bring Tom Symondson onto stage but before we do that we do want to try and give Anne Burgess another run. So I might just reintroduce her. We’ll see if we can get her up second time lucky. But as I said earlier Anne Burgess amongst the many hats that she wears she’s currently the Chair of the Council of Elders and also the Chair of the Aged Care Transition Taskforce. So really Anne’s been instrumental in assisting us in the reform not just to get to 1 July but in reforms more broadly. And so a really great opportunity to hear from her now. Thank you. 

[START VIDEO PLAYBACK] 

Anne Burgess: 

Hello everybody. I’m Anne Burgess and I’m lucky enough to be Chair of the Aged Care Council of Elders. It’s lovely to be talking with you today and I want to talk a bit about the Council of Elders and a bit about the Support at Home Program. 

The Council of Elders was formed as a recommendation of the Aged Care Royal Commission and really the Royal Commission recognised that the voices of older people needed to be much more strongly featured in the design and the implementation of programs for aged care. So there are 13 of us from all around Australia in the Council of Elders and we’re a really diverse group. And we come together to share our experiences and provide advice to the Department and to the Minister on what we think should happen with the aged care reforms. We do that on all of the aspects of the reform which are really wide as you would know. Today we’re talking about specifically the Support at Home Program. 

So what we do in Council of Elders is always to make sure that the reforms are focused on the older person and the older person’s rights. And this is the first Aged Care Act that has rights and the rights of the older person as the major part of that legislation. So how do we as a Council of Elders make sure that we reflect that? Because we are out and about talking to older people every day and we can bring those views and perspectives into discussions and all of the advice that we provide. So we want to make sure that older people have a choice, that their views and their wishes and their preferences are respected and that services are directed to them in the way that we want as older people. 

So we know that overwhelmingly when we talk to older people people want that if they need support that that’s provided to them at home. They want to build the opportunity to get that support when they need it in their own homes. And they want the service to be provided by people who are well trained so they can feel safe in the services that are provided. 

We were particularly interested in making sure that there was opportunity for early intervention, for people to get help early in the lifecycle of them needing help at home, to help them maintain their independence as long as possible. And that means that we’re really keen on that new alternative restorative pathway so that people can get allied health assessments and get help with home modifications, with assistive technology and that single assessment can provide advice about what should be provided as early as possible for people. We’re also really keen on when things become really complex for people and really difficult that there’s going to be additional funding for end of life care services. And that we hope will help a lot of people to stay at home in that end of life situation. 

There is a Transition Taskforce which I’m also fortunate to chair that brings people from all around the sector and we’re all working together to try to get that Aged Care Act in place and working well by the 1st of July. As you can imagine there’s lots of moving parts. It seems to me sometimes a million moving parts and we’re trying to bring all those parts together making sure that we’ve got IT systems working and that we can put the Act into place so that people will get access to all of those new developments. This is such an important step forward in aged care, this new Act. It’s such an important focus on helping older people to live their very best lives for as long as that’s possible. This is something we all want and I’m so impressed by the fact that everybody is working together to try and get that in place.  

So I’m hoping that you will find this webinar interesting and informative and that you’ll join with us in welcoming a new Aged Care Act and this new focus on older people and their rights.  

[END VIDEO PLAYBACK] 

Greg Pugh: 

So thanks. That was good to see that worked on the second time of trying. But look I agree with Anne’s sentiments, including I hope people have found the webinar to be interesting so far. But it is really good to be able to hear from Anne and also the collective views of the Council of Elders who are really instrumental in being the voice on the ground for our older people and understanding how the reforms are working in practice. 

So as you can see on stage I’m now joined by Tom Symondson. As I said before Tom is the Chief Executive Officer of Ageing Australia, the provider peak, representing around 75/80% of the providers in the aged care sector. And just like Anne, just like Pat, Craig and many others, heavily involved with and heavily invested in ensuring the success of these reforms. So Tom I wanted to ask you a question around providers and what sort of overview you can give us on how providers are helping to prepare to support both existing and new clients in the transition to the Support at Home Program.  

Tom Symondson: 

Thank you Greg. And it’s great to be here. I’m on Dja Dja Wurrung country in Bendigo in central Victoria so acknowledge traditional owners. We are working incredibly hard to get as much work done in the next I think it’s about 58 days – I can’t remember exactly – to the 1st of July. Because we’re very committed to this reform. The Royal Commission, number one thing it said, recommendation number one was a new rights-based Aged Care Act. The current Act dates back to 1997. It doesn’t really talk about older people at all except as passive recipients of service. And that’s not how the world works. So what we now need to do is ensure that that Act comes to life. It’s one thing to have the rights statement as Pat and Craig outlined but it needs to live, it needs to be real, and it needs to mean something to the people who receive services from us obviously in residential care but for the purposes of this conversation in home-based care. 

And so our members are doing a huge amount of work. There’s about 1,000 of them around the country who are rewriting policies, training staff, complete digital overhauls from top to bottom because this reform in home care is really very significant. It changes the way we do almost everything. Some of those changes are small. Some of them are huge. And you’ve heard some examples of the bigger changes, so things around charging, things around how we deliver clinical services. One of the things we’re looking at, because the new system for those who are not grandfathered, so people who have come into the system since the 12th of September, because those contributions that are going to apply don’t apply on clinical services, we’re actually looking at how we ramp up our capacity to deliver clinical services because we think people are going to use them in even greater numbers than they already do. It’s not to say we won’t see people using the other kinds of services but we do think we’re going to see an increase in our need to be able to deliver clinical services into people’s homes. That’s the allied health, that’s the nursing support that helps people stay healthy and well in their own homes. Because people do want to stay in their own homes as long as they possibly can. 

Most of the changes that we’re really focused on right now you shouldn’t actually notice. They are things like changing our policies. You might notice the impact of those things but you shouldn’t notice the detail. Changing our digital systems should be something that does not make your life more difficult. It should be something that happens in the background. Our promise to the extent we can do this to older people who use our services, who rely on our services, who will need our services into the future, our promise is to make that as seamless as possible. The reality is this is a really big reform. 1st of July is not very far in the future. There are still details of the program that haven’t been worked out and now that we’re in an election period of course things become a little bit more difficult. But we will commit to being as ready as we possibly can not just because the new system should be better but because we do not want things to fall over during the transition and we need to do everything we can to make sure that that comes true. Our mantra is we’re here to make the lives of older people better not worse. We’re here to make sure that care and services are better on the 1st of July than they were on the 30th of June. But there’s a lot of effort and work that goes into that and our workforce is working very hard, 450,000 of them, to try and ensure that. 

You’ve heard about the Statement of Rights, the way that you can raise concerns formally through the system, through either OPAN or COTA or the Complaints Commissioner in the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. But the other thing that I’d say is talk to your provider. If you are feeling like there’s something happening you don’t feel comfortable with or that you’re not fully across the detail of what you need to understand talk first to your provider because they have a duty to communicate with you. And if you’re not hearing the information from them that you think you need please raise it with your provider. At the same time there’s a lot of information your provider won’t yet have so they might not be able to answer all of your questions.  

But definitely our commitment is to make sure as far as possible we can make this transition a really good one for the people who use our services now but also the very, very many people who are going to use our services into the future. We’re big proponents of this reform from the perspective of the rights but we also hope it will do exactly as I think Pat said, it will reduce the amount of time people are waiting for services. It will deliver growth into this system so that people are not waiting 12 months. At the moment we’ve got people waiting 12 months just to get a funding package before they can even start talking about approaching providers. We don’t want to see that. I’m with Pat. I don’t even want it to be three months. I want people to be waiting no more than one month. But we’re nowhere near that and we’ve got a long journey. 

So the other piece of work we as providers are going to have to do is ramp up our services because many more people are going to need them into the future particularly if we get the system right. And that’s our commitment. I’m not going to pretend it’s not going to be challenging. We have a huge amount of work still to do. Providers are spending a lot of time working through those new pricing frameworks, changes to the way we deliver care management, changes to the way we report to Government, changes to the way we communicate with people who use our services. But as far as possible we’re doing everything we can to make sure that that transition is as smooth as possible. All I’d ask is have patience with us. The amount of work that we’re having to do is very significant. It’s not an excuse. It is simply reality. So be patient with us. We will do our absolute best to ensure this transition is a good one for everybody already receiving service as well as people who come into our services from this point forward. 

So thanks Greg and I think I’ll hand back to you. 

Greg Pugh: 

Thanks Tom. Look great summary. Some really good points made there. And we couldn’t agree more. We want to make sure that the changes are as seamless as possible, that they happen to the furthest extent possible in the background. And from the Department’s perspective very cognisant of both the opportunities and challenges that a looming 1 July 2025 implementation date does present. So we’re grateful for the work of your organisation and all the organisations represented here today in helping us to both take advantage of those opportunities but also to address those challenges. 

I did want to move on now though to another key change that I know people are very understandably keen to know more about and that is participant contributions. So by way of brief background the Aged Care Taskforce – so not to be confused with the Aged Care Transition Taskforce that we’ve spoken a little bit about today – that was established in June 2023. Its primary purpose was to review the future aged care funding arrangements and also provide options to Government to support an aged care system that is sustainable, fair, equitable and innovative. 

So the Government response to the Taskforce included a contribution framework that was based on its recommendation that there should be a balance between both Government funding and participant contributions. And they included things like the Government continuing to be the main funder of aged care, that it is appropriate for older people to contribute to their aged care costs where they have the means to do so, that there is a strong safety net for low means participants to meet aged care costs. And so I think it’s really worth working through some case studies on contributions. Many of you will have heard us use the terms grandfathered or grandparented. This is a bit of a Government or service term. I recognise that in many respects it’s not readily understood what we mean and so we want to move away from that particular terminology and others just in some of our products when we’re talking to you, to our older people and their families, so that we understand what those changes are and what they mean in practice. 

So lucky for you you’re not going to be hearing from me going through those case studies. We are going to be hearing from someone far more knowledgeable on that topic and that someone is Jasmine Snow. So I mentioned Jasmine earlier. She’s currently the Acting Assistant Secretary of the Support at Home Reform Branch. And so without further ado over to you thanks Jas. 

Jasmine Snow: 

Thanks Greg. So as Pat mentioned earlier a no worse off principle will apply to people who on the 12th of September last year were either receiving a Home Care Package, in the national priority system or had been assessed as eligible for a Home Care Package. The no worse off principle means that people will make the same contributions or lower than they would have had under home care arrangements. People who have a Home Care Package or who are in the national priority system or who are assessed as eligible for a Home Care Package before 1 July 2025 will receive the same package level under Support at Home when the program starts including any unspent funds. 

As mentioned earlier those who were receiving a Home Care Package on or before the 12th of September 2024 will be subject to the no worse off principle. To bring some of this detail to life I’m going to walk you through a couple of scenarios as Greg foreshadowed earlier. So let’s look or talk about Muhammed. Muhammed is an existing Home Care Package recipient. Muhammed is a single part pensioner and Muhammed’s income is $40,000 per year including pension income of $25,260. Muhammed owns his home and has non-financial assets of $100,000. He was approved and in a Home Care Package as at 12 September 2024. So when Support at Home begins on 1 July 2025 Muhammed’s income will be assessed and he will pay the no worse off principle contribution rates required. 

Based on the assessment of his income Muhammed’s contribution rates from 1 July 2025 will be 0% or nothing for clinical services, 2.5% for independent services and 2.5% of the price of everyday living services. In addition as you can see on the slide there Muhammed will retain the current Home Care Package lifetime cap amount currently $82,018 indexed and retain the same Home Care Package amount. So sorry. There’s two elements there I need to call out. So Muhammed will retain the current Home Care Package lifetime amount and retain the current funding level for his Home Care Package. 

I’ll now walk you through a second case study which is about Sue. So Sue was approved for a Home Care Package in March this year and will be a new participant entering Support at Home. Sue is a single part pensioner with net income of $40,000 per year including pension income of $25,260. Sue owns her home and has non-financial assets of $100,000. She was approved for home care in March this year and does therefore not qualify for the no worse off principle. When Support at Home begins on 1 July this year Sue’s income and assets will be assessed and she will pay the standard contribution rates that are required. 

Based on the assessment of her income and assets Sue’s contribution rates from 1 July 2025 will be 0% for clinical services, 9.4% for independent services and 23.7% for everyday living services. 

Similar to the previous example a lifetime cap will also apply and Sue will no longer have to pay contributions once she reaches a cap of $130,000 indexed – so a different cap because no worse off principle does not apply for Sue – in total contributions across Support at Home including any fees that she previously paid in home care. So anything will come across and contribute to that cap. 

Greg did you want me to jump forward and talk to some of the Support at Home pricing. 

Greg Pugh: 

Yeah. Sorry. I was just struggling to find my mute button. You’d think I’d be more familiar with it by now. But look that’s a really good overview and it’s good being able to break down some of those more detailed components into really practical case studies. But you’re right. We are going to keep the spotlight on you. So I think you’re going to now walk us through some of the recent pricing announcements of Support at Home including the introduction of staged price caps. 

Jasmine Snow: 

Thanks Greg. So Tom touched on this earlier but people on the call today may be aware that the Government is staging the introduction of price caps on services in the new Support at Home Program. From 1 July 2026 Government set price caps will apply. From 1 July 2025, so the first year of the program, in home aged care providers will continue to set their own prices for Support at Home services as currently occurs under the Home Care Packages Program. On the 24th of March 2025 the Department released onto their website the indicative price ranges for most Support at Home services. These indicative price ranges reflect what Home Care Package providers have reported that they intend to charge when the Support at Home Program commences from 1 July this year, not the contribution to be made by individual participants. 

The contribution to prices that an individual pays will depend on their service category and the individual’s means assessment or status as we saw in the examples I’ve just walked you through. Importantly no one will pay any contribution for clinical care services. 

In the lead up to 1 July 2025 your current Home Care Package provider will contact you to clearly explain any changes to your prices under Support at Home. As a part of this process you’ll be asked to agree to these prices when signing a new Service Agreement. You do not have to sign an agreement if you are unhappy with the prices or if you don’t understand why the prices are changing. However you do need to have an agreement in place with a provider of your choice before you are able to receive services under Support at Home. 

Under Australian Consumer Law all consumers have certain rights and protections. The Government will introduce additional consumer protections to monitor aged care prices during the transition year to ensure that providers’ prices are fair. There will be a number of protections in place for participants under the Support at Home Program. This will help you make decisions about which Support at Home provider you choose. And as you can see on the slide there those resources we’ve recently released provide guidance on price ranges as well as the consumer protections I outlined above. 

I think I’m handing back to Greg now.  

Greg Pugh: 

Jas that was a really great walkthrough. As you can see I’ve been rejoined by Craig and Pat and Tom. And I know we’re going to do a little bit of a discussion now. So over to you to give us some more detail around what supports you can offer older people if they have concerns with pricing. 

Patricia Sparrow: 

Look I think it’s really important that Jas picked up about the lifetime cap which I did want to draw out as a benefit of the program and I know people like that feature in the current system and it’s good that that’s going to be there for the other. Just on pricing before Craig speaks, we were concerned that the price caps weren’t ready and we’ve got this indicative pricing and providers setting their own pricing for the first year. We understand that we weren’t quite ready to go and we needed to make sure that we had credible pricing information and that the caps were going to be fair but we do know that that’s made people feel nervous and anxious. And Craig I think one of the important things is to talk about how people can be supported and I know we’re going to talk about hardship so that if you’re struggling to pay how you can be supported through that as well. 

Craig Gear: 

Yeah. I’ll come to the hardship a little bit later on but I think people will be able to go and have a look at those indicative prices and then if you know you’re a pensioner what percentage you might be contributing to those sorts of prices and that sort of thing as well. But if the price changes change too much there are those consumer protections that Jas was talking about. And we’re going to really be monitoring that closely – I know COTA is as well – to make sure that those changes are justifiable and they’re reasonable and we’re not pushing people I suppose into not being able to afford – financial difficulties and not being able to afford that. So have a look at those consumer protections. But we’ll also be pushing for the regulations. It’s part of one of the things that the Aged Care Transition Taskforce is actually looking at, is monitoring these processes as we move forward to make sure that it doesn’t have those unintended consequences. But I really appreciate that people are a bit anxious about this and I understand that and we’ll be here to support as well. So we’ll push for changing the regulation if that’s one of the things that needs to happen. 

As we said before you can raise it with your provider and you can say to them ‘Please can you tell me about what’s in this price? Why has it changed so much? Why is it there?’ and they should be able to explain that to you. That’s reasonable for people to do that as they go into their Service Agreement. You can also come to us. I mean our aged care advocates, they’re available on 1800 700 600. They’re free. They’re independent of the providers and the Government and they will talk to you about – step you through those points and about what’s in your agreement or how this might play out for you and your services. And so we can take those back. 

The other important aspect of this in the consumer protections is that the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission will be able to take action if the price changes are unreasonable. So I think there’s a number of things in place. It’s a change and I can understand, and not all the information is quite there yet. But you will be able to have a look at it and look at your own individual circumstances and what the implications might be for you.  

Patricia Sparrow: 

And there will be more information coming so you will get more information. That’s for sure.  

Craig Gear: 

Thanks Greg. 

Greg Pugh: 

Thanks Tom. I might see if you want to provide a comment as well. 

Tom Symondson: 

Yeah. So obviously if you ring us we will just direct you to where Craig and Pat have just mentioned, either the Commission or the Aged Care Advocacy line. So we don’t provide that support directly to people who are using services. That’s not our role or our expertise. But what we’re trying to do is make sure that providers do this as well as possible. One of the reasons that we didn’t want to see IHACPA release – sorry. That’s jargon. The people who are going to set these price caps, they’re an independent entity – come out with price caps they hadn’t properly thought through was because they might lead to people not being able to afford to provide you with the services. So we wanted to make sure they got them right, and they weren’t ready so they’ll come out next year. Providers will still set their own prices. They just won’t be able to set them above that cap. So you’ll still see different prices in different parts of the country, different prices for different types of services. You’ll be able to compare providers together and say well their price is higher than theirs. Why is that? Let’s ask. You’ll just have a cap that’s enforced from 1st of July next year that won’t exist on 1st of July this year. 

The challenge we’ve got is that this is confusing for everybody. This is confusing for people who use services. Frankly it’s pretty confusing for providers as well. It’s a complete change to the way we price. It’s a complete change to the way we kind of assess cost. And so we’re working through it as well and that’s why you’re not seeing lists of people’s prices now. That’s why you’re going to still have to wait a little while depending on your provider for them to come to you and say ‘Okay. These are the prices we’re putting forward and this is what you will have to pay from your package’ dependent on whether you’re grandfathered or not grandfathered, and that adds a whole heap of additional complexity. So I suppose what I’m saying is we are working with providers to make sure they do this as well as possible but it will be confusing. And we really do apologise for that confusion and that complexity. That’s why I said earlier be patient with us. We’re trying to be patient with Government on the complexity they’ve put on us. But ultimately we want to get there together. 

The real important point – and Pat said it, Pat or Craig. Can’t remember actually – was if you don’t understand or don’t like what you’re being told ask us. Because it might actually just be a simple matter of confusion. At the moment there are these three components of a package charge where you’ve got the care management up to 20%, package management up to 15% and then 65% for the service. That’s changing. Care management will be up to 10%, package management goes away, and so 90% of the package is now priced in this way. So it will look very different. But as far as we can we will make it as simple as possible and our role is to support providers in that process, recognising we will not get it perfectly right and as long as we’re all open with each other about that hopefully we can get through it together. 

Patricia Sparrow: 

Greg could I just make one other comment that I’m not sure has come out which is also that you’re not paying for services that you’re not receiving with the new pricing model. So while there might be some more complexity the transparency is important in that you’re only paying for the services that you receive. And I think that’s a good thing too. 

Craig Gear: 

And we had heard that people were concerned about that at the moment, that that was something they wanted changed in the new system. 

Patricia Sparrow: 

So hopefully that will be helpful. Sorry Greg. Just thought I’d jump in there. 

Greg Pugh: 

No. I think it’s an excellent point to bring to the fore. And look thank you Tom, thank you Pat, thank you Craig. Really important for people to know where they can go if they want more information or if they have any concerns. One of the things I do want to echo though, this is a big change. So it is important for people to be patient while these changes come into effect because they’re big changes but they’re big changes that are very much for the better. 

So I am now joined by Lezah Rushton. Many of you will have had the pleasure of meeting Lezah previously. As I mentioned earlier she’s the Assistant Secretary of the Assessment and Home Care Transition Branch and is instrumental in the implementation effort towards 1 July 2025. So Lezah probably no surprise for you then on what my question is going to be. Can you please walk us through the transition and what older people can expect in the lead up to 1 July 2025? 

Lezah Rushton: 

Yeah. Thanks Greg. So the Department is working on a range of resources to make them available to older people to help you navigate the journey through to 1 July 2025 and beyond that, to be able to take advantage of all the new features of the Support at Home Program. So the Department is working on a range of fact sheets which will be published on our website very shortly. These fact sheets are really short, sharp, one to two page pieces of information around the key components of the Support at Home Program to help you understand how those key components work.  

So the fact sheets will cover in detail how care management will work, how self-management will work under Support at Home. They’ll cover the new assistive technology and home modification program, give you detail around how the service list works for Support at Home, and key to the point that Pat made, that you will only be paying for services that are used, so how that works. They will cover the end of life pathway, the new restorative care arrangements, but also very clearly how the new budget construct works for Support at Home and how that ties to your assessment process which results in the level of budget that you get. 

We’re attending to provide material that is simple to Tom’s point, easy to consume, but there also is a lot of material already on our website with a great depth of detail. So we released earlier in the month the Support at Home Program Manual. It is targeted with the depth of detail for providers to understand the program but it is available to older people and their families and carers to read as well. So if you really want to get down into the depth of the detail you can go and access any of these resources. They are publicly available for people to use. We are also developing a detailed checklist which we will provide to all current Home Care Package recipients which will help you understand what you need to do over the coming months. And in a nutshell that is really to have conversations with your providers to understand what might change for you in terms of your mix of services and those prices as we move towards the 1st of July. 

We also are developing some videos. Those videos will have links on our website. We’ll make them available through the various other engagement and public forums that the Department attends to support older people as we’re working through the reform journey. The videos again take you through what you might need to do if you’re a current Home Care Package participant in moving into the new program, but also the benefits that will come and be available to you as you work through post 1 July and into Support at Home. So these materials are developed in consultation with the Council of Elders and the Transition Taskforce. So we’ll keep testing these and releasing them as we move forward. Over to you Greg. 

Greg Pugh: 

Thanks Lezah. And look before we go back to Jas I just want to pick up on one of your points. We really want to make sure people are taking information from that authoritative source of truth. As Lezah said the Support at Home Program Manual gives significant detail around what to expect from the program and how it operates. So for me that should be mandatory reading for the sector at large including older people and families. So it’s available on the Department’s website. I encourage you to jump on and have a look because it will give you the answers to some of those questions that you may have. 

So as you can see I am rejoined by Jas and Jas is going to take us through some of the changes in First Nations assessments which is a really important reform also commencing from 1 July this year. 

Jasmine Snow: 

Thanks Greg. So as Greg foreshadowed from 1 July this year we will also be introducing First Nations assessment organisations progressively to provide a culturally safe pathway for First Nations older people to access aged care. Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people are underrepresented in aged care proportionate to the population and needs. Establishing First Nations assessment organisations will give older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people the choice of a culturally safe, trauma aware and healing informed assessment.  

First Nations assessment organisations will support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people by taking a less formal yarning approach to assessments, connecting with a local community with the knowledge of local services and culture, doing face to face assessments wherever possible, welcoming the presence of the older person’s family member or advocate to be part of these meetings, allowing for multiple visits if required to ensure the building of trust and development of a relationship as part of that assessment, minimising the need for the older person to retell their story multiple times, gathering information about the older person’s health and wellbeing to understand the aged care services they need, and providing interpreting services where needed. 

So we’ve already started to update the Department’s website with information on First Nations assessments and importantly the My Aged Care Contact Centre is now able to collect the preference of First Nations assessment. 

Lastly I’d just like to highlight that we’re currently testing the approach with some existing assessment organisations with more sites to commence in July 2025 and this will be followed by a continual rollout throughout 2025-26. Thanks Greg. 

Greg Pugh: 

Thanks Jas. So I just wanted to touch quickly on some of the supports that are available to you noting that Pat and Craig and Tom have talked to these. Just we’ll go back through them quickly. If you do have any questions or you want to know what those available supports are they’re available on the slide in front of you but you can speak with your provider if you have any questions about your current package of supports. You can contact the My Aged Care Contact Centre to learn more about the program. You can sign up to the Department’s Engage newsletter and that will help keep up to date with new information and products designed to assist you in navigating some of these reforms. And you can also contact the Older Persons Advocacy Network for free and confidential advice. 

And as always if you have a complaint about your aged care services including pricing please contact the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and they will be able to investigate and if necessary take regulatory action. 

Okay. So that does just bring this webinar to about time. I trust people in the audience have found that useful. We didn’t get through everything that we wanted to get through today and that was as foreshadowed. And while we may not have answered all of your questions in full we will be publishing a frequently asked questions document after this webinar. 

So really just wanted to say a big thanks again to Pat, to Craig, to Tom, to Jas, to Lezah for forming part of the expert panel, but also for the 2,000 odd people that I can see that have taken the time out of their day to join and listen in. It is much appreciated. Very important forum to continue to understand the changes in the lead up to 1 July. And so we will wrap it there. If you do have a quick minute at the end please stick around. A short survey will pop up in your browser and it’s really just three questions and it will help to improve webinars in the future. 

So once again a big thanks for attending and we will see you at the next one. 

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