Narrator: This video shows you how to use the new Support at Home fee estimator.
The Support at Home fee estimator helps you work out how much you will need to contribute to your care. You can also use it to plan your Support at Home budget.
To get an estimate, you will need to answer some questions about your personal and financial situation. We don't ask you for any personally identifiable information – just general details about income and assets.
Let's look at an example.
This is Narelle.
Narelle is an 81-year-old part pensioner. She and her husband Albert live in their own home.
Narelle and Albert have a combined annual income of $90,000, not including their pension. They have financial assets worth $500,000 in total, not including their home.
Narelle was assessed as eligible for a Home Care Package before 12 September 2024. She wants to know how much she might need to pay for Support at Home services.
Narelle goes to the Support at Home costs and contributions page to understand the contributions she might have to pay and how Support at Home budgets work. She then decides to use the Support at Home fee estimator.
She sees that she will need to provide some information about her finances, such as:
- her pension status
- her annual income, and annual pension income, and
- the total value of her assets, excluding her home.
To prepare, she downloads or prints the Income and assets checklist from the website to help make sure she has all the information she needs.
She finds the checklist at myagedcare.gov.au/publications/income-and-assets-checklist-support-at-home.
Now that Narelle has the information she needs, she can start answering the questions in the fee estimator.
She enters her assessment status, partner status, and pension status. She uses the amounts she put down in her Income and assets checklist to answer the questions about her finances.
Narelle then needs to answer a question about her Home Care Package status. She has low care needs and was receiving a Level 1 Home Care Package.
Based on Narelle's answers, she is shown a summary. This displays the information Narelle entered back to her. She can update any of the amounts, if needed, and even start again by selecting the 'Reset' button.
Once she has entered all the required information, Narelle is presented with an estimate of her contribution rates. These rates determine how much she will contribute towards the cost of her services.
Now she needs to add services.
She looks through the list and selects the service she wants. She can add more than one service, but she has to add them one by one.
Narelle has already researched and compared Support at Home providers in Find a provider. Based on her preferred provider's pricing list, she updates the amounts to find out how much she might need to contribute.
Narelle can now see her Support at Home budget summary. She can choose to view it as a monthly or quarterly budget.
The summary includes:
- an estimated budget breakdown by service category
- how much the government will contribute
- how much she will need to contribute, and
- how much is left in her budget to spend on other services.
Narelle can add, delete, or update services as needed.
She can now use this information to plan her finances and choose the right provider for her needs and budget.
