Equipment and home modifications: the rules that protect you
In her July 2026 National Press Club address, the outgoing Inspector-General of Aged Care told the story of a woman whose GP prescribed a $50 pair of crutches — and whose pathway to them ran through an occupational therapy assessment costing around $1,800 and a three-month wait. Equipment limbo is real, and it is where good assessments go to stall. But the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme also contains a set of protections most families never hear about — caps on charges, an agree-before-spend rule, and a way retained package funds make the whole thing cost nothing. Here is the map.
How the money works
- AT-HM has its own budget, separate from the quarterly services budget — funded in tiers (low, medium, high) according to assessed need.
- The item is one cost; the pathway is another. The equipment or modification itself attracts your independence contribution rate — but the prescription and wrap-around services are clinical, so 0% contribution for everyone. The OT report that decides what you need should never be the out-of-pocket obstacle.
- Retained Home Care Package funds go first — and make it free. If you transitioned with unspent HCP funds, the rules require the Commonwealth-held portion to be used before AT-HM tier funding — and anything paid entirely from those Commonwealth unspent funds attracts no contribution at all. For transitioned families with a balance, equipment is often literally free. (Full rules: the unspent funds guide.)
- High-tier home modifications are capped at $15,000 per lifetime (supplements excluded), with a 12-month window to spend — extendable to 24 months for complex work if progress is evidenced to Services Australia within the first year. And participants assessed with specified progressive conditions automatically receive 24 months of assistive technology funding access to keep pace with changing needs — extendable on application by a further 24 months (48 in total).
The two caps on admin charges — check every invoice
Providers can charge for administration and coordination of AT-HM — but the Manual caps it hard:
- Assistive technology: admin/coordination capped at 10% of the item cost or $500 — whichever is lower.
- Home modifications: capped at 15% of the cost or $1,500 — whichever is lower.
So a $3,000 recliner can carry at most $300 of administration; a $2,000 bathroom rail job at most $300. An invoice with a “service loading”, “sourcing fee” or “coordination charge” above those lines is worth a written query — and so is one that was never agreed in advance, because:
The agree-before-spend rule
The Manual is explicit: all AT-HM costs must be agreed and documented between the provider and the participant before committing to the funds being spent — they can be agreed progressively as a job unfolds, but never after the fact. A buried clause in a service agreement signed months ago is not per-purchase agreement. If a charge appears that you never agreed to in writing for that purchase, the written question is simple: “Please provide the documented agreement, made before the funds were committed, for the administration charge on invoice [X], as required by the Program Manual.”
If the equipment itself is stuck
Prescribed but waiting? Ask the provider in writing for the order status and a date; if the delay is the assessment pathway, ask whether the item qualifies for a lower-tier or interim solution while the paperwork runs. OPAN’s free advocates (1800 700 600) chase equipment delays, and pricing or charging problems can go to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission (1800 951 822) — see the escalation ladder.
Working out the services side too? The estimator computes contributions and budget fit from the official schedules.
Estimate the costsRelated: what unspent Home Care Package funds can buy · which services cost you what