Home Care Packages: what happened and what replaced them

Can you still get a Home Care Package?

Not as a new applicant. Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program on 1 November 2025, along with the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. CHSP was not replaced and continues separately.

If you are applying now, you are applying for Support at Home. See Support at Home explained.

If you already had a package

The news here is better than most people expect.

Existing recipients transitioned automatically on 1 November 2025. No new assessment was required simply because the programme changed. They moved to transitioned HCP classifications 1 to 4, which preserve equivalent funding.

The no worse off principle protects contribution rates for people who were receiving, or had been approved for, a package on or before 12 September 2024. Someone who paid no income tested care fee under their package will not be asked to pay contributions under Support at Home.

What the transitioned levels are worth

There is no official conversion table

This one is worth being firm about, because invented crosswalks are circulating.

The eight Support at Home classifications are a finer grained assessment scale. They are not a renaming of the four old levels. There is no official government table saying HCP Level 2 equals Classification 3, or anything like it.

Existing recipients received separate transitioned classifications, shown above. New applicants are assessed directly under the eight classification system. Any table claiming a one to one mapping is not from the Department.

So how much is a Level 4 package now?

For someone who transitioned from the old programme, the transitioned Level 4 equivalent is $65,415.91 a year as at 1 July 2026.

That is not something a new applicant can apply for. A new applicant is assessed for one of the eight Support at Home classifications, where the highest is $80,137.12 a year.

Frequently asked