The Aged Care Act 2024: what changed for older people and families

When did the Aged Care Act 2024 start?

The Aged Care Act 2024 started on 1 November 2025. It was first meant to begin on 1 July 2025, but the government delayed it by four months after the sector and experts advised that more time would reduce disruption. It replaced the Aged Care Act 1997 and the law that set up the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

If your parent was already receiving care before that date, the care itself did not stop. What changed were the rules behind it: the names of things, how rights are written down, who can help the older person with decisions, how fees work for new residents and how providers are checked.

The table below sets out the main swaps. Old terms still turn up in letters, websites and conversations, so it helps to know both.

What rights does the new Aged Care Act give older people?

The new Act puts the older person's rights at the centre of the law through a Statement of Rights, which replaced the Charter of Aged Care Rights on 1 November 2025. Registered providers must act in a way that is consistent with it. It covers choice, safety, privacy, communication, complaints, advocacy and staying connected to people who matter.

In plain terms, the Statement of Rights says the older person has the right to:

• Make their own decisions about their care, services and money, and have those decisions respected.
• Fair access to an assessment and to palliative and end-of-life care.
• Safe, good quality care, free from abuse, neglect, coercion and exploitation.
• Have their privacy respected and personal information protected.
• Communicate in their preferred language or way, with access to interpreters.
• Complain without fear of reprisal, and be supported by an advocate or another person they choose.
• Stay connected with family, friends and community, and for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, with Country and Island Home.

The practical use for a family is as a reference point. If a home or home care provider makes a decision for your parent without asking them, or restricts visitors without a clear reason, the Statement of Rights is the standard to point to. Our guide to complaints and your rights in aged care explains how to raise it and what the Statement does not guarantee.

What is a registered supporter in aged care?

A registered supporter is a trusted family member or friend, chosen by the older person, who helps them make and communicate their own decisions about aged care. The role replaced regular and authorised representatives on 1 November 2025. Being a registered supporter does not give you authority to make decisions for your parent.

This is the supported decision-making idea at the heart of the new Act. A supporter can receive information, talk to My Aged Care and providers, and help the older person weigh up options. A supporter must act in line with the older person's will and preferences, and cannot stop them from getting information, making decisions or speaking to anyone directly. An older person can have more than one supporter.

Representatives who were active in My Aged Care on 31 October 2025 became registered supporters automatically from 1 November 2025, unless they opted out. If you were already helping a parent through My Aged Care, check their record to confirm you are still listed.

For more on setting up and using an account, see how My Aged Care works and how to act for a parent.

How do you get aged care under the new Act?

Everyone still starts at My Aged Care and has one aged care assessment through the Single Assessment System, which is now built into the Act. The same assessment pathway covers help at home and entry to an aged care home. For care at home, Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care on 1 November 2025.

The Single Assessment System brought the old separate assessment services (ACAT and RAS) into one workforce before the Act began, so your parent should only have to tell their story once. If their needs change, they can be reassessed without switching assessment organisation. Our guide on how to get an aged care assessment walks through the process.

Support at Home has eight ongoing classifications, each with a quarterly budget. Clinical care has no participant contribution, while independence and everyday living services attract means-tested contributions. There are also short-term pathways for restorative care, assistive technology and home modifications, and the End-of-Life Pathway. The Support at Home guide covers the funding levels and what the older person pays.

People who were assessed as eligible for a Home Care Package before the new Act began receive Support at Home funding equivalent to their assessed package level. The Home Care Packages guide explains what happened to existing packages. The Commonwealth Home Support Program continues for now, as covered in our CHSP guide.

What changed for aged care home fees?

People who first enter an aged care home on or after 1 November 2025 pay under new fee arrangements. Everyone still pays the basic daily fee. The means-tested care fee was replaced by a means-tested hotelling contribution and a non-clinical care contribution, and providers now keep part of a refundable accommodation deposit (RAD) each year.

• Hotelling contribution: a means-tested contribution towards everyday living costs such as meals, cleaning and laundry, paid on top of the basic daily fee. Services Australia tells the resident whether they need to pay it.
• Non-clinical care contribution: a means-tested contribution towards personal care, such as help with bathing and mobility. Residents who pay the maximum hotelling contribution may also need to pay it, and daily and lifetime caps apply.
• RAD retention: the provider keeps 2% of a lump sum deposit per year, for up to five years. That amount is not refunded when the resident leaves.
• Daily accommodation payments: a DAP now rises with indexation on 20 March and 20 September each year.
• Higher everyday living fee: an optional fee for everyday living services, such as meals or entertainment, that are of a higher standard than, or extra to, what the home must provide. It cannot be charged for accommodation or used to secure a room. It is agreed individually after entry, with a 28 day cooling-off period and a review at least once a year.

Clinical care, such as nursing, is still funded by the government. For how the pieces add up, see what aged care costs. For the deposit decision and how retention changes the trade-off, see RAD or DAP.

Are people already in care affected by the new fees?

Mostly no. Under the no worse off principle, a person who was in permanent residential care on or before 31 October 2025 keeps their existing fee arrangements unless they choose to opt in to the new ones. The same choice applies to people who were receiving or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024.

Three details matter:

• Opting in to the new arrangements is permanent. Once the change has happened, it cannot be reversed.
• A break in care of more than 28 consecutive days, not counting approved leave, can move a resident onto the new accommodation arrangements when they re-enter care. Their fee arrangements stay the same.
• Someone covered because of a Home Care Package on 12 September 2024 who later moves into an aged care home can stay on the pre-November 2025 residential fee arrangements.

If you are weighing up whether to opt in, get the fee estimate from Services Australia in writing first. Opting in changes both what is paid and what is refunded later, so it is worth independent financial advice before signing anything.

How are aged care providers registered and checked now?

Every organisation delivering government-funded aged care must now be a registered provider, registered in one or more of six categories. Providers in categories 4, 5 and 6, which cover personal care, nursing and residential care, must meet the seven strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards and are audited against them. All providers must follow the Aged Care Code of Conduct.

For a family, the category tells you how closely a provider is checked. A gardening or transport service in category 1 is not audited against the Quality Standards in the same way as an aged care home. The guide to the strengthened Quality Standards explains what each standard expects, and questions to ask a provider helps you test it in person.

What can families do when aged care goes wrong?

The new Act gives older people and families more protection when care fails. Providers have a legal duty to do what is reasonably practicable to avoid harming the health and safety of the people they care for. Anyone can make a protected whistleblower disclosure. The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission has stronger powers to investigate, direct and ban.

• Statutory duty and compensation: registered providers carry a duty they cannot hand to someone else, and their leaders must use due diligence to make sure it is met. If a breach causes serious injury or illness to an older person, a court can order compensation. This sits alongside other personal injury options.
• Whistleblower protections: older people, families, carers, advocates and workers can report a suspected breach of aged care law to the Commission, the Department, the provider, the police or an independent advocate. Reports can be anonymous, and the law protects people from punishment, threats and victimisation for speaking up.
• Commission powers: the Commission can enter sites and investigate, issue notices requiring action, and make banning orders that stop or limit a current or former provider, responsible person or aged care worker from delivering funded care. It keeps a register of banning orders and can make it public.
• Complaints: complaints go to the Commission, which now has a Complaints Commissioner. Providers must also have their own system for resolving complaints.

For free, independent help to raise a problem, call the Older Persons Advocacy Network on 1800 700 600. Our who to call page lists the right number for each kind of problem.

What are the Aged Care Rules 2025?

The Aged Care Rules 2025 are the detailed legal instrument made under the Aged Care Act 2024. The Act sets the framework, and the Rules fill in how it works in practice: the service list, the Quality Standards and Code of Conduct, assessment and eligibility, provider registration, and fees and subsidies. The Rules can be amended over time.

This matters because many of the specifics families ask about, such as what a Support at Home service covers or exactly how a fee is calculated, sit in the Rules rather than the Act. The Rules were registered on 24 September 2025 and have been updated several times since, so figures and details can change during the year. When a provider quotes a rule to you, ask which version and where it is set out. The Department's plain-language Guide to aged care law and the Federal Register of Legislation both hold current versions.

Frequently asked