How much does Support at Home cost in 2026?
The short answer: it depends on three things — your pension status, which services you use, and your provider’s prices. Clinical care (like nursing) costs you $0.00 regardless. For everything else, you pay a percentage of each service’s price and the government pays the rest.
A worked example
Take a common plan: 3 hours of personal care, 2 hours of domestic assistance and 1 hour of nursing each week, at the median prices providers reported to government — $640.00 worth of services weekly. A full pensioner pays $48.25 of that; the government pays $591.75.
Your own plan will differ — which is the point of the free estimator: enter your services and see your number in about two minutes.
Contribution rates by pension status
These are the rates for people entering Support at Home from 1 November 2025 (different, protected rates apply if you were in home care, or approved for it, on or before 12 September 2024 — see how the systems compare).
| Status | Clinical | Independence | Everyday living |
|---|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | 0% | 5% | 17.5% |
| Part pensioner | 0% | 5% to 50% | 17.5% to 80% |
| Seniors Health Card holder | 0% | 5% to 50% | 17.5% to 80% |
| Self-funded (no card) | 0% | 50% | 80% |
Where a range is shown, Services Australia sets your exact rate from income and assets — here’s how that works. And from 1 October 2026, personal care becomes fully government funded for everyone.
Quarterly budgets by classification
Your assessed classification sets how much the government holds for your services each quarter (10% of it funds care management, at no contribution to you):
| Classification | Quarterly budget |
|---|---|
| Classification 1 | $2,753 |
| Classification 2 | $4,113 |
| Classification 3 | $5,634 |
| Classification 4 | $7,617 |
| Classification 5 | $10,182 |
| Classification 6 | $12,341 |
| Classification 7 | $14,915 |
| Classification 8 | $20,034 |
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