What can Mum’s old package money actually buy?
If your parent had unspent funds when Home Care Packages ended on 1 November 2025, that money came across with them into Support at Home — and it is one of the most misunderstood pockets of the whole transition. Ask this question in any aged care forum and you will collect three confident, contradictory answers within the hour. Here is what the rules actually say.
The two permitted uses — and the order matters
- Assistive technology & home modifications - at any time; unspent HCP funds must be used BEFORE AT-HM scheme tier funding
- Extra services (any service type) - once the entire quarterly budget for the quarter is spent
In plain terms: for equipment and home modifications, the old money is the first dollar spent — if you are getting a recliner, rails or a ramp through the AT-HM scheme, the retained funds are used before the scheme’s own tier funding — and people who came across from a package can use that old money for items on the AT-HM list even if they have not been approved for a funding tier. For extra services (more cleaning, more personal care, anything on the service list), the old money only unlocks once the quarter’s regular budget is fully spent — it tops up after, never alongside.
Four facts that settle most arguments
- Anything paid entirely from the old money costs you nothing. The Program Manual (s9.3.1.4) is explicit: no participant contributions are payable on services, products or equipment paid entirely from Commonwealth-portion HCP unspent funds. If a purchase is split — partly old money, partly the Support at Home budget — your contribution applies only to the Support at Home portion. If a statement shows a contribution on something the old money paid for, query it. The same result is in the transitional rules: where part of a service is paid from unspent package funds, your contribution is reduced by that same percentage (Aged Care (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2025, section 114).
- No cap applies to retained HCP funds. The quarterly carryover limit people mention ($1,000 or 10% of the budget) applies only to new Support at Home unspent amounts — never to the old package money.
- The funds follow the person. Change provider and the retained balance transfers — nothing is forfeited by switching.
- The OT assessment is not the barrier families fear. A prescription for AT-HM items is usually funded through the scheme itself, and assessments are treated as clinical — so the report that decides what equipment is needed should not be the out-of-pocket obstacle.
One more pocket: money that may be refundable
Old package balances often had two parts — a Commonwealth portion and a participant portion (money your parent paid in themselves, such as old fees and contributions). The participant portion works differently, and the rules are in the legislation (Aged Care Rules 2025, sections 273A-10 to 273A-20): within 70 days of the 1 November transition, the provider had to agree in writing with the participant whether it would be returned or retained — and where return was agreed, it was payable within 14 days of the agreement. If nobody ever had that conversation with your family, ask the provider in writing which portions make up the balance and what was agreed about the participant portion. Some families are owed money they have never been told about.
If the agreement was to retain it, the same Rules say what the provider may do with it: the balance is reduced by the contributions charged to you, and nothing else. And it stays yours. If you stop receiving services from that provider and any of it is left, the provider must pay you the balance within 70 days; if the person has died, it goes to their estate within 14 days of the provider being shown probate or letters of administration.
The one thing to ask your provider
Ask them to show the retained HCP balance separately from the quarterly budget on the monthly statement. Some statements blur the two together, which makes it impossible to track either — and if a provider cannot show you the split, that is worth escalating. You would not be the first to find it missing: when the department reviewed 262 statements from late 2025, unspent package funds, including the split between the Commonwealth, provider and participant portions, were among the items most often left off. (Statements themselves are an enforceable monthly requirement — see the statements guide.)
Working out the regular budget side? The estimator computes contributions and budget fit from the official schedules.
Estimate the costsRelated: your provider owes you a statement every month · personal care is contribution-free from 1 October