Is personal care free under Support at Home?
Yes. On 1 October 2026 every personal care service under Support at Home moved from the independence category into clinical supports, so showering, dressing, help with eating, non-clinical continence management and help taking medication now carry no participant contribution.
If you are the one who reads Mum’s invoices, that is one line on them gone. She did not have to apply or be reassessed, though personal care does have to be approved in her support plan, with funding available.
What the government actually says
From the Department of Health’s page on the change:
From 1 October 2026, all personal care services under the Support at Home service list will move from the Independence contributions category to the Clinical Supports contribution category. This means that the Australian Government will fully fund personal care services and participants will no longer pay contributions for these services.
What it covers
- Showering and bathing
- Dressing
- Help with eating
- Non-clinical continence management
- Personal hygiene
- Help taking her own medication
The definition of personal care is unchanged, and so is the way it is delivered. Same workers, same qualifications, same service, and only the contribution changes.
The main participant contributions page now carries it too, as of its 1 October update: participants make “no contribution for clinical support services, such as nursing, physiotherapy and personal care”.
One catch worth knowing
Services delivered before 1 October still attract a contribution, even if the invoice turns up afterwards. So an October invoice covering September visits will still have a contribution on it. That is not an error.
What it does not change
Personal care is still funded from her Support at Home budget. Removing the contribution means she pays nothing out of pocket for it. It does not mean the service stops drawing down the quarterly amount she has been allocated.
Cleaning, gardening, shopping and meal preparation sit in the everyday living category and still carry the highest contributions. Transport sits under independence, at a moderate rate. Neither has moved.
So what else is already free?
Personal care joined a category that already existed, and physiotherapy has been in it since the program began. Nursing is too. So for an older person on Support at Home, clinical care has never carried a contribution. Personal care joined it on 1 October.
What to do about it
- Check the October invoice. If a personal care contribution is still appearing for services delivered from 1 October, ask the provider about it.
- Ask what else is in the support plan. Clinical care has to be in the plan to be funded, and physiotherapy is not usually offered unprompted. Worth asking who would come, and whether it would be the same person each visit.
- Do not assume the budget grew. It did not. What changed is what she contributes toward it. And for ongoing services 10% of each quarterly budget goes to care management, which is worth knowing when you are working out how many visits it holds.
The question worth asking this quarter is what clinical care is in her support plan at all, because physiotherapy has always been free of contributions too and it is rarely offered unless someone asks. What Support at Home changed for Home Care Package clients covers how to get visits started.