So, what is a Home Care Package? A Home Care Package can be an essential resource for remaining independent in our homes. These packages provide the necessary support to enable ageing in place, allowing you to maintain your quality of life in the comfort of familiar surroundings.
Our homes are where we feel safe, create lasting memories, and truly belong. Home Care Packages empower you to be connected to the services you need in the home you love. This approach allows you to enjoy your preferred lifestyle without moving to a retirement village or nursing home.
What does a Home Care Package help with?
Home Care Packages are designed to be flexible and tailored to meet your unique care need. Before commencing services, every new care recipient completes a care plan with their provider. This plan is essential in determining the services you need and applying them to your personal care budget.
For example, a person with mobility issues would be allocated funds for transportation services.
By creating comprehensive a care plan, your provider can ensure that their care recipients receive the services they need. Funding may be provided for:
- Personal care assistance
- Household assistance
- Meal preparation and nutrition support
- Shopping assistance
- Transport to appointments and activities
- Social activities and companionship
- Garden maintenance
- Nursing services
- Independent living aids and assistive technology
- Home modifications
- Allied health services
- Specialised support
- Behavioural support
- Advanced health support
- Constant care
- Palliative care.
Am I eligible for a Home Care Package?
Home Care Packages are designed to be accessible to you if you cannot continue to support yourself without assistance.
To be eligible, you must be:
- 65 years of age or older (50 and over for First Nations people), or
- Have a disability, dementia, or other care need.
Additionally, to be eligible for a Home Care Package you must also have:
- A medical condition
- Changes in memory or cognition
- Experienced a change in family care arrangement
- Reduced mobility
- Had a recent accident (such as a fall)
- Been admitted to hospital.
Managing your Home Care Package
Trilogy Care was established in 2020 to provide older Australians with a self-managed option for their Home Care Packages. Self-management allows you to take command of your Home Care Package, by paying less and enabling additional care hours.
With a self-managed package, you also have the flexibility to find and engage your own carers, choose services that suit your needs, and do so at a lower cost than with traditional providers.
There are now platforms available, such as Careseekers, that allow individuals to find and hire carers who align with their needs, giving them even greater control over their care arrangements. It may also be worth reviewing common aged care terms.
What is the role of Trilogy Care?
Trilogy Care is a leading provider in the self-managed Home Care Package sector. Since our foundation in 2020, our mission has been to offer a holistic and affordable self-management option for older Australians.
Our goal is to empower care recipients to receive more high-quality care while reducing costs. Through our lower fees, and self-management options, Trilogy Care has successfully enhanced the lives of many Australians.
If you are interested in how Trilogy Care can improve your quality of life, provide more care hours, and save you money, call our team on 1300 459 190 or contact us here.
What replaced the Home Care Package program
The Home Care Package program ended on 1 November 2025 and was replaced by Support at Home. If you were receiving a Home Care Package before that date, you moved across automatically at the same funding level. There was no application to complete and no reassessment required.
The two programs do the same job, funding support so you can keep living at home, but Support at Home changes how the money is organised. Maximum annual funding rose from $63,440 to $80,294 (from 1 October 2026). The four package levels became eight funding levels, which means the amount you receive can sit closer to what your assessment actually found. Separate administration and management fees were removed.
Your funding is now managed by Services Australia rather than held by your provider, and it is released in quarterly budgets rather than as one annual pool. If you do not spend everything in a quarter, you can carry over up to $1,000 or 10 per cent, whichever is greater, into the next one.
What the eight funding levels mean for you
Support at Home has eight ongoing funding levels rather than four. Your level comes from your assessment, along with a priority rating of high, medium or standard.
Alongside those eight levels there are three short-term pathways. The restorative care pathway funds up to 12 weeks of intensive support aimed at helping you regain independence after an illness or a fall. The end-of-life pathway provides up to $25,686 over three months for people with less than three months to live, so they can stay at home. The Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme provides funding in tiers, from under $500 up to $15,000 depending on your assessed need, for equipment such as walking frames and wheelchairs, or for changes to your home such as grab rails and ramps.
These pathways sit outside your ongoing funding, so using one does not reduce your quarterly budget.
What you pay, and what you do not
Under Support at Home, services fall into three categories and your contribution depends on which category a service sits in. Clinical support such as nursing and physiotherapy is fully funded by the government, and since 1 October 2026 that includes personal care such as showering and dressing, with no participant contribution. Independence support such as social support and respite carries a moderate contribution. Everyday living support such as cleaning and gardening carries a higher one.
Ten per cent of each quarterly budget is set aside for care management. Your provider claims it from an account Services Australia holds, pooled across that provider's clients, to cover coordinating and adjusting your services as your needs change.
If you were approved for a Home Care Package before 12 September 2024 and were not contributing toward the cost of your care, you are protected from contributing under Support at Home. If you were paying fees, your contribution under Support at Home will be the same amount or less. This is the "no worse off" principle, and it applies to co-contributions.
If you cannot afford your contribution, hardship assistance is available through Services Australia, and your provider can help you submit the application.
What to do if your needs change
Support at Home is built to move with you rather than lock you into the level you were first assessed at. If your situation changes, whether that is a fall, a new diagnosis, or a carer who can no longer help as much as they did, you can ask for a reassessment.
Your provider can put forward a Support Plan Review with supporting evidence. That can move you to a higher funding level, or open one of the short-term pathways if what you need is intensive help for a defined period rather than more ongoing hours.
You do not have to wait for a crisis to ask. If you are consistently running out of budget before the end of a quarter, or leaving services unbooked because you are worried about the cost, those are both reasons to have the conversation.
Your rights do not change through any of this. You keep the right to dignity, privacy, independence and choice, the right to raise concerns without penalty, and the right to leave a provider you are unhappy with.
What happens if you need to change providers
Your funding is not tied to the provider you sign with. If the relationship is not working, you can move, and the money moves with you.
The practical steps are simple. Agree an exit date with your current provider, tell them who you are moving to, and they pass your remaining budget details to the new provider within 28 days. Your new provider picks up from the exit date. No provider can charge you a fee for leaving.
If you transitioned from a Home Care Package and had unspent funds, those move with you too. The government-held portion becomes available to your new provider straight away.
The one thing worth checking before you start is the notice period in your service agreement. That is set by each provider rather than by the legislation, so it varies, and it is the only part of leaving that can hold you up.
You do not have to justify the decision to anyone, and you do not need a reason beyond wanting a different arrangement. If you are weighing it up, the useful comparison is the hourly price for the services you actually use, in dollars rather than percentages, because those prices have to include package management, administration and travel rather than charging them on top.
Your services continue until the exit date you agree, so there is no gap in care while the change goes through. If you need help working out what the move would look like in practice, a provider can walk you through it before you commit to anything.
