Support at Home – What You Need to Know from 1 November 2025

The Australian Government’s new Support at Home (SAH) program starts on 1 November 2025, replacing the current Home Care Packages (HCP) and Short-Term Restorative Care (STRC) programs.
Here’s a quick summary of what’s changing and what Careseekers users need to know:

👵 For Older Australians and Families

• New system, new classifications – Instead of HCP Levels 1–4, there’ll be 8 funding levels and several short-term pathways (Restorative Care, End-of-Life, and Assistive Tech & Home Modifications).
• Quarterly budgets – Funding will move to quarterly cycles, with some ability to roll over unspent funds.
• New service agreements – You’ll need to sign an updated agreement with your chosen provider that clearly outlines services and pricing.
• Price transparency – Providers will publish standard service prices to help you compare options.
• No worse-off guarantee – If you already receive a Home Care Package before 12 Sept 2024, your funding and contributions will not be reduced.

👩‍⚕️ For Providers and Workers on Careseekers

• Updated pricing – Providers must publish and maintain accurate, transparent pricing aligned to SAH service categories.
• New reporting cycles – Quarterly invoicing and service reporting will replace annual processes.

• Training and compliance – Providers and workers should familiarise themselves with new service definitions and care-pathway requirements.

  
  💡 How Careseekers is Supporting the Transition
  At Careseekers, we’re here to help make this transition as smooth as possible for both clients and providers.

• We’re updating our systems and dashboards to align with Support at Home service categories and funding rules.
• We’re working closely with providers to ensure that all invoices continue to be processed and paid correctly under the new system.

As Careseekers is not itself a provider, we don’t have all the answers to every Support at Home question — but we’ll keep you informed as government guidance becomes clearer and work with providers to resolve any issues quickly.