Our page on the NDIS ends at a wall: you have to apply before you turn 65, and after that the pathway is aged care instead. This page is what is on the other side of that wall.
It is not a smaller version of the NDIS. It is a different system, run by a different department, with its own assessment, its own queue and its own way of charging you. And it was rebuilt very recently — so a lot of what people were told even two years ago is now wrong.
What changed on 1 November 2025
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing is blunt about it:
The new Support at Home program replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme on 1 November 2025. The Commonwealth Home Support Program will transition to the new program no earlier than 1 July 2027.
So three names are still in circulation and only some of them are live:
| Programme | Status |
|---|---|
| Support at Home | The current in-home aged care programme, since 1 November 2025 |
| Home Care Packages (HCP) | Replaced. People on packages were moved across, keeping equivalent funding |
| Short-Term Restorative Care | Replaced, by the Restorative Care Pathway inside Support at Home |
| Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) | Still running — entry-level help, transitioning no earlier than 1 July 2027 |
If you read an older guide, or a well-meaning relative tells you to “ask for a level 4 package,” that language belongs to the previous system.
First step: an assessment, not an application for money
Everything begins with My Aged Care. You apply for an aged care assessment online, or you can call 1800 200 422 (Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm, Saturday 10am to 2pm). A doctor or hospital can refer you as well.
My Aged Care sets out who qualifies for an assessment: you need care needs and you must be either aged 65 or older, an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person aged 50 or older, or homeless or at risk of homelessness and aged 50 or older.
The assessment is a face-to-face conversation about what you can and cannot do. Two things come out of it that decide everything afterwards: your funding classification, and your priority category.
Because Parkinson’s fluctuates, the timing and framing of that conversation matters. An assessor who visits at 10am, an hour after a levodopa dose, sees a different person from the one who exists at 4pm. Say so. Describe your off periodsThe swings between periods when Parkinson's medication is working ("on") and periods when its effect has worn off ("off"), which become more abrupt as the condition progresses.Learn more, your nights, and the tasks that are impossible on a bad day rather than difficult on a good one. Ask your care partner to be there, and have someone write things down — the assessment is long and fatigue is part of the condition.
The eight levels, and what they are worth
Ongoing services are funded through one of 8 classifications, assigned by your assessment. The department publishes the amounts:
| Classification | Quarterly budget | Annual amount |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | $2,752.50 | $11,010.01 |
| 2 | $4,112.84 | $16,451.35 |
| 3 | $5,634.20 | $22,536.81 |
| 4 | $7,617.13 | $30,468.51 |
| 5 | $10,182.38 | $40,729.53 |
| 6 | $12,341.32 | $49,365.27 |
| 7 | $14,915.00 | $59,660.00 |
| 8 | $20,034.28 | $80,137.12 |
Three practical notes the department attaches to that table.
Ten per cent is care management. The figures above “include 10% allocated for care management” — so the money available for hands-on services is nine-tenths of what you see.
Carry-over is limited. Budgets are allocated quarterly, and “participants can carry over unspent funds up to $1,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) to the next quarter.” You cannot bank three quiet quarters to pay for a heavy one.
A reassessment is how you move up. If your budget cannot meet your needs, the route is reassessment to a higher classification — which for a progressive condition is not a one-off conversation but something to revisit as things change.
These amounts are indexed on 1 July each year, so confirm the current figures before you plan around them.
The best news in the system, if you have Parkinson’s
Here is the sentence worth the whole page:
Participants must contribute to the cost of everyday living and independence services. However, the government pays for the full cost of clinical support services.
And the department names what those clinical services include: nursing and physiotherapy.
For a condition where physiotherapy is not a luxury — where gait, balance and falls are the things that decide whether you stay in your own house — this is the single biggest practical difference between being under 65 and over it in Australia. The Medicare arithmetic is set out in Medicare in Australia; this is the other side of it.
What you do contribute to is tiered:
| Service type | Your contribution |
|---|---|
| Clinical support (nursing, physiotherapy) | None — the government pays the full cost |
| Independence (personal care, assistive technology) | Moderate |
| Everyday living (domestic assistance, gardening) | The highest |
How much you pay inside those tiers depends on an income and assets assessment done by Services Australia. The department describes the spread: full pensioners pay the lowest contributions, and self-funded retirees who are not eligible for a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card pay the highest. There is a point worth acting on for people who receive no government payment at all — they “may be eligible for lower contribution rates,” but only if they give their financial information to Services Australia. If your income and assets match a full pensioner’s, you pay a full pensioner’s rate. Skip the paperwork and you will be charged as though you were wealthy.
Two protections sit on top:
A lifetime cap. There is a cap of $135,318.69 (current as of 1 November 2025) on contributions, shared with the non-clinical care contribution for residential aged care.
Hardship assistance. A participant “may be eligible to apply for financial hardship assistance if they can’t contribute, for reasons beyond their control.”
And for people who came from the old system, a “no worse off principle”: older people approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024 will contribute the same or less under Support at Home than they would have under the packages programme.
The queue, and the disease that jumps it
Approval is not funding. The department is explicit: funding is allocated by the Support at Home Priority System, “based on a person’s date of approval and priority category,” and your assessment sets that category as urgent, high, medium or standard. You enter the queue only if you have an approval and are “actively seeking care.”
There is one exception, and it is worth knowing precisely what it is, because it is not you:
Older people living with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) recorded during their aged care assessment will receive urgent priority access to their ongoing Support at Home and immediate priority for Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) funding. This means they will receive their full funding within one month of approval.
Parkinson’s has no equivalent priority. A named-condition fast track exists in this system, and Parkinson’s is not on it. That is not a reason to despair — it is a reason to get assessed early rather than waiting until things are bad, because the queue is ordered partly by your date of approval. Waiting to apply costs you position.
Three short-term pathways that do not wait
Not everything sits behind the ongoing-funding queue. Three short-term pathways are funded immediately on approval:
- Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme — equipment and changes to the house. This has its own priority systems, separate from the ongoing queue.
- Restorative Care Pathway — short, intensive input aimed at getting function back.
- End-of-Life Pathway.
For Parkinson’s, AT-HM is the one to raise at the assessment. Grab rails, a shower chair, a raised toilet seat, ramps, a walker — the things that quietly decide whether a fall happens. Our page on preventing falls at home is a useful list to take with you, so the assessor hears specifics rather than “some help around the house.”
The 56-day deadline nobody expects
This is the trap in the new system, and it arrives at the worst possible moment — the letter that finally says yes.
Eight weeks sounds generous until you picture the reality: the letter arrives during a hospital admission, or a bad patch, or while your care partner is coping alone. If you are approaching this point, decide in advance who chases the provider paperwork on your behalf.
What about the NDIS, if you are already in it?
If you are already an NDIS participant when you turn 65, that is a genuinely different question from the one this page answers, and the NDIA and aged care pages we could open do not settle it. Do not take a guess from a forum. Call the NDIA on 1800 800 110 and ask directly what happens to your plan, and get the answer in writing.
If you are not yet a participant and you are in your early sixties, the order is not negotiable: the NDIS closes at 65 and aged care does not open until 65. Apply to the NDIS first, because that is the door with the deadline on it.
If this applies to you
| Your situation | What to do |
|---|---|
| You are 63 or 64 | Deal with the NDIS now. Aged care will still be there; the NDIS will not |
| You were told to ask for a “level 3 package” | That language ended on 1 November 2025. Support at Home uses 8 classifications instead |
| You have an aged care assessment coming | Describe your worst hours, not your best. Have your care partner there, and ask about the AT-HM scheme by name |
| You need physiotherapy | Ask specifically about clinical support services. The government pays their full cost — there is no contribution from you |
| You receive no government payment and assume you will pay top rates | Give your income and assets information to Services Australia anyway. Matching a full pensioner’s finances gets you a full pensioner’s rate |
| You have been approved but heard nothing | Approval is not allocation. You are in a queue ordered by approval date and priority category — which is why applying early matters |
| Your allocation letter has arrived | You have 56 days to sign with a provider and start. Ask My Aged Care about the 28-day extension the moment you think you might slip |
| Your needs have grown since your assessment | Ask for a reassessment. That is the mechanism for moving to a higher classification |
| The contributions are unaffordable | Ask about financial hardship assistance, and about the lifetime cap of $135,318.69 |
| You only need a bit of help around the house | The Commonwealth Home Support Programme is the entry-level option and is still running |
This page is not medical, legal or financial advice. Programme rules, funding amounts and contribution rules were checked against Department of Health, Disability and Ageing pages in August 2026. The assessment age criteria come from an archived copy of the My Aged Care page rather than the live one, so treat those in particular as needing confirmation. Support at Home funding amounts are indexed on 1 July each year and the programme is still being rolled out — confirm current details with My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 before relying on anything here.