Can I keep my support workers if I switch providers?

It is the question that stops most people from changing providers, and it is usually the first one asked on the phone. You are unhappy with your provider. The fees do not add up, the roster keeps changing, or nobody returns your calls. But the person who arrives on a Tuesday morning knows how you take your tea, knows which knee is the bad one, and knows not to move the photo on the hall table. Losing them feels like too high a price for fixing everything else.

The short answer is that you do not have to lose them. Whether you can keep your workers depends less on the provider you are leaving and more on the type of arrangement you move to.

Your funding follows you, not your provider

Under Support at Home, your funding is managed by Services Australia rather than held by your provider. That is a meaningful change from how the Home Care Package program worked, and it matters here.

Because the money is attached to you, it moves when you move. You are not asking a provider to release something of theirs. You are redirecting something of yours. That includes any unspent Home Care Package funds you carried across into Support at Home, which stay with you subject to the carryover rules under the new model rather than being kept by the provider you leave.

You can read more about how the funding sits in quarterly budgets on our Support at Home page.

The part that decides whether your workers can stay

There are two broad ways to run a Support at Home package, and they behave very differently on this question.

With a fully coordinated service, your provider arranges the workers and the services for you. They hold the relationships with the people who visit. If you leave that provider, you are generally leaving their roster too, because the workers are engaged through them.

With self-management, you choose your own workers and service providers. You decide who comes into your home, and you can negotiate your own rates with them. Your provider handles the admin in the background: paying the invoices, running the compliance checks, keeping the records straight.

That second arrangement is what makes keeping your workers possible. If the person who visits you is someone you chose rather than someone you were assigned, there is nothing structural stopping them from continuing when your package moves.

If you are weighing the two up, we have written a plain comparison of self-managed and fully managed home care.

What your worker has to meet

Keeping a worker is not automatic, and it would be unfair to suggest otherwise. There are requirements, and they exist to protect you.

A worker or service provider continuing with you needs to meet compliance requirements. In practice that means current insurance, a police check, and the qualifications relevant to the support they provide. At Trilogy Care we confirm those before services start, check insurances and police checks, and review services against the Support at Home rules as they continue. Regular audits keep that current rather than treating it as a one-off tick at sign-up.

For most people this is a paperwork exercise rather than an obstacle. If your worker is already delivering aged care support, they will usually have what is needed. If they are an independent worker who has been operating informally, there may be a gap to close first, and it is better to find that out before you switch than after.

Our article on what qualifications your carers need goes through this in more detail.

What actually happens to the invoices

This is the part people find hardest to picture, so it is worth being concrete.

Once you are self-managing with Trilogy Care, your workers or their agencies send their invoices to us. You approve the services you received. We pay them from your Support at Home budget, and we run payment cycles daily rather than monthly, so your workers are not left waiting. Eligible reimbursements are handled the same way.

You do not need to be confident with technology for this to work. Invoices can come by email, your workers can send them to us directly, or a family member can help. Nobody is expected to manage a spreadsheet.

What it costs, plainly

Under Support at Home, Services Australia sets aside 10 per cent of your quarterly budget for care management. That covers coordinating and adjusting your services as your needs change. That pool is held by Services Australia rather than by your provider, so unused care management funding is not absorbed by the provider.

Trilogy Care applies a 10 per cent self-management loading, and it applies only to the services you actually use. That covers paying your invoices using Trilogy funds, administering your account, and meeting the Support at Home standards and rules. Under the old Home Care Package program, fees were charged against the full value of your package regardless of how much of it you used, so the basis has changed.

The pricing page lets you apply this to your own funding level and see the numbers in dollars rather than percentages.

Fees and notice periods at the provider you are leaving

Trilogy Care does not charge exit fees and does not require a notice period. If you decide we are not right for you, you can leave.

Other providers set their own terms, and those terms are in the agreement you signed rather than in the legislation. Before you start a switch, it is worth reading that agreement for any notice period or exit fee. You are not required to stay with a provider you disagree with, and all of your rights remain in place regardless: dignity, privacy, independence, choice, and the right to raise concerns without penalty.

How to start without committing to anything

If you want to test whether your workers can come with you, the order that works best is this.

First, ask your current workers whether they would continue with you if your package moved. Most will say yes. They are usually as invested in the relationship as you are.

Second, check what insurance and checks they hold. If something is missing, you will know early.

Third, talk to a provider about whether they support self-management and what their fee structure looks like in dollars against your funding level, not as a percentage.

Only then does it make sense to give notice anywhere.

Our 5 steps to switch article walks through the sequence, and how to compare Support at Home providers sets out what to ask before you decide.

The honest summary

Changing providers does not have to mean changing the people who come to your door, but it is not automatic either. It depends on moving to an arrangement where you choose your own workers, and on those workers meeting the compliance requirements that protect you.

If you want to know whether your specific workers can continue, that is a five minute phone call rather than a form. Call 1300 459 190 and we will tell you straight, including if the answer is no.