The End-of-Life Pathway: care at home in the last months
If someone you love has been told they have months, not years, and they want to be at home, Support at Home has a separate pathway for exactly this. It is called the End-of-Life Pathway. It gives a larger budget than any ongoing classification, it is not means-tested to get in, and it is meant to move quickly. Many families have never heard of it, and time matters more here than anywhere else in the system. This page sets out what the rules say, in the order you are likely to need it.
Who qualifies
The Aged Care Rules (section 81-15) set three conditions. All three must be met.
- A prognosis of three months or less to live. This comes from a doctor (a GP or a specialist) or a nurse practitioner.
- An AKPS score of 40 or less. The Australian-modified Karnofsky Performance Status is one number, given by the clinician, for how much a person can still do for themselves. 100 is full health. 40 broadly means in bed more than half the time. The clinician works this out; you do not need to.
- They have not had this pathway before. A person can have one episode of the End-of-Life Pathway.
The evidence goes on one document, the End-of-Life Pathway Form, which the doctor or nurse practitioner completes and signs. It is on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing website. Nothing can be approved until that form is in.
How to get it quickly
The route depends on whether the person already receives Support at Home.
- Already on Support at Home: ask the provider’s care partner to request an urgent Support Plan Review and to upload the signed form with it. If the provider is slow, you can ring My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and ask for the review yourself. The Manual suggests staying with the current provider where they can deliver what is needed, because changing provider at this point risks delay.
- Not on Support at Home yet: there are three ways in, and you can use whichever is fastest for you. The doctor can complete the form and send a referral directly, which triggers an assessment. You can apply online for an assessment through My Aged Care. Or you can ring My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, or go to a Services Australia service centre, and ask for access to the End-of-Life Pathway. In each case the assessor needs the signed form.
Two rules work in your favour once it is approved. Funding for this pathway is allocated immediately, with no wait in the priority queue. And it is always a full place: the 60% interim funding that many people on ongoing services start on does not apply to the End-of-Life Pathway.
What it provides
- A one-off budget of $25,736.76. That is the figure from 1 October 2026: the Rules set $306.39 a day for 84 days. You will often see it written as “$25,000”, which is the round figure the Manual uses. It is the highest funding per day of anything in Support at Home.
- 12 weeks of funding, with 16 weeks to use it. The pathway is built around 12 weeks. If the person is still at home after that and money remains, it can keep being used up to the 16-week mark. That extension is automatic; no review is needed for it.
- Services from the normal Support at Home list, as approved in the assessment: personal care, nursing, domestic help, meals, respite and so on.
- Equipment, if approved. Assistive technology (a pressure mattress, a hospital bed, a shower chair) can be funded on top through the equipment scheme. Home modifications are not available on this pathway, unless one was already under way.
- It sits beside palliative care; it does not replace it. Palliative care nursing and medicines usually come through your state or territory health system. This budget is for the aged care side: the extra hands at home. The provider’s care partner is required to coordinate with the doctor and the palliative care team.
One thing to understand before saying yes: for someone already on Support at Home, the End-of-Life Pathway replaces their ongoing classification while it runs. The old classification is not lost. It goes inactive and can be switched back on. But money left unspent in the End-of-Life budget does not carry over if the person later returns to ongoing services.
What it costs
The same contribution rules apply as for ongoing Support at Home (Manual, section 15.7). In practice, for most of what this pathway is used for, that means little or nothing:
- Nursing and other clinical care: $0, for everyone.
- Personal care: $0, for everyone, since 1 October 2026 — here is that change.
- Other independence services (respite, transport, equipment) and everyday living services (cleaning, meals, gardening) carry your usual rate: from 5% and 17.5% for a full pensioner up to 50% and 80% for a self-funded retiree. If you were in the home care system on 12 September 2024, the lower protected rates apply.
If even that is out of reach, ask Services Australia about financial hardship help straight away; our hardship guide sets out how the application works. And if there is unspent money from an old Home Care Package, it can be used once the End-of-Life budget runs out, up to the 16-week mark.
One thing to watch on the statement
On ongoing services, care management is fixed at 10% of the budget. On the End-of-Life Pathway there is no 10% set-aside and no cap: the provider claims care management straight from the budget, as it is used. The Manual’s reason is fair, because coordinating with doctors and palliative care teams takes real time. But it also says claims are expected to be “proportionate and in the best interests of the participant” (section 15.5). So ask at the start how care management will be charged, and look for it on the monthly statement. Every dollar of it comes out of the same $25,737.
If more time is needed
Some people live longer than the prognosis. The rules allow for that.
- Up to week 16: keep using what is left of the budget.
- From week 12: the provider can request a Support Plan Review to move to an ongoing classification. For someone who was on Support at Home before, that restores their previous classification. For someone new, the assessor will have set an inactive ongoing classification at the start, ready to be used. If the old level is no longer enough, ask for the review to be marked urgent.
- Timing matters. Approval of that review ends the End-of-Life Pathway automatically, and with it any unspent End-of-Life funding. The Manual recommends starting the review around week 12 or 13, not earlier (section 15.8).
A change is coming on 8 March 2027. Rules already made extend the pathway for people who outlive the first 12 weeks: the maximum period goes from 112 days to 168 days (24 weeks), and a second amount equal to the first is added 84 days in. It also covers anyone whose pathway started in the 111 days before 8 March 2027. Until that date, the 16-week limit above is the rule.
Five questions for the provider
- “Can you deliver the End-of-Life Pathway, and how soon can services start once it is approved?”
- “Will you request the urgent Support Plan Review today, and upload the signed form?”
- “How will care management be charged, and roughly how much of the budget do you expect it to use?”
- “Who is the care partner, and have they spoken to our doctor and the palliative care team?”
- “What happens at week 12 if we still need you?”
People who can help, free
- My Aged Care: 1800 200 422, to request an assessment or an urgent review.
- OPAN advocates: 1800 700 600, if a provider or the system is not moving and you need someone in your corner.
- Your state or territory palliative care organisation (Palliative Care Victoria, Palliative Care NSW and so on), for the health side of care at home.
- Translating and Interpreting Service: 131 450, free, for any of these calls.
Related: when a provider is not moving · equipment at home · using old package funds