SA seniors fear new rules make staying at home pricier
An 84-year-old Adelaide resident tells InDaily the new package supporting South Australian seniors living in their own homes means “we’ve just got to pay more”. It comes into force this month.
Adelaide resident Barry Smith who is 84 years of age, said the new Support at Home Program that came into play on November 1 had been “very complicated”, and the new package was “not so attractive”.
“There’s been no changes in the services we receive, we’ve just got to pay more,” Smith said.
This month, the new Support at Home Program replaced the Home Care Package (HCP) Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme.
Changes were made under the Aged Care Act 2024 that responded to key recommendation from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety, aiming to strengthen Australia’s aged care system.
Under the new Support at Home Program, those eligible would pay contributions on non-clinical care services and would no longer pay a basic daily fee.
Numerous comments on the My Aged Care Australia Facebook group have raised concerns over increased service charges, one saying “all I know is a lot of us will have to decide on which essential service will have to be discarded because of the costs to us”.
Full pensioners, which makes up 75 per cent of those on packages, would expect to pay contributions of 17.5 per cent for “everyday living” services and five per cent for “independence support” services.
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The independence support services include help with showering and transport, while everyday living services include gardening, house cleaning and meal delivery.
Part pensioners could expect to pay up to 50 per cent on independence support services and up to 80 per cent on everyday living services.
According to data from the Department of Health, national median hourly rate for ‘personal care’ services is $100, while ‘domestic assistance’ is $95 and meal delivery is $15 per meal.
Department of Health and Aged Care showed more than 27,000 South Australians were receiving a home care package as of March 2025 and more than 7,000 had been assessed and were waiting for approval on an HCP.
Eighty-year-old John Hardy has recently been approved for the Support at Home package and said there had been uncertainty over the new costs.
“We were on the HCP and are pleased to be approved for the Support at Home, but we’re certainly at odds with what it’s actually going to look like,” he said.
“I find it fascinating that the providers we’ve been dealing with haven’t said anything at all about increased costs — we were hoping we could go off the individual referrals we had received in the past.”
The federal government also invested $4.3 billion in the Support at Home Program in September 2024 to “improve funding, viability and quality” of at-home and residential aged care.
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The federal government announced the “no worse off principle” which would see everyone on an HCP as of September 12, 2024, would make the same contributions when transitioned to the Support at Home Program.
However, some aged care recipient’s ineligible for the “no worse off principle” have expressed concerns over the increased costs of the new package.
“All the services have gone up in cost — our gardening used to be covered monthly and now the service will happen every two months and our meals we get delivered have also gone up each week,” Smith said.
CEO of COTA Australia, the country’s peak body for older Australians, Patricia Sparrow said while the new Aged Care Act would provide a “solid foundation to build a quality, rights-based system,” the Support at Home packages should “remain affordable and accessible”.
“No one should be priced out of essential supports or forced to make difficult choices about daily living,” Sparrow said.
“Anyone struggling with the costs must be able to access financial assistance to ensure they receive the services they need.”
“While the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority will propose pricing caps next year, the government must prioritise fairness and accessibility as providers set prices in the meantime.”
A spokesperson for the Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae declined to provide new comment and referred InDaily to a recent ABC interview.
“We want every single older person across Australia to be able to access safe, dignified, and high-quality aged care services,” Rae told ABC’s 7:30
“Means-tested co-payments are a critical component of ensuring both the sustainability and the equitability of the system.”
“We have systems in place to ensure that if people aren’t in a position to make a co-contribution or that their circumstances evolve, that there’s not an interruption to the continuity of their care,” he said.
