Registering a supporter

You can call My Aged Care with your prospective supporter to request to register a supporter relationship. You both will need your Medicare number and personal details at hand. 

This method may not work for you if your prospective supporter:

If any of these circumstances apply, you can still call My Aged Care for more information about the role of a registered supporter, but you may not be able to request to be or have a registered supporter on the call.

You can fill out a supporter registration form online together with your prospective supporter. You will need to sign the form online using the e-signature option.

Once completed, you can download your form and submit it by:

• uploading the form to your My Aged Care Online Account, or
• visiting a Services Australia service centre for face-to-face help to upload your form, or
• asking an assessor for face-to-face help to upload your form during an assessment, or
• uploading the form through Healthdirect, or
• printing the form and sending it to My Aged Care by post (My Aged Care, PO Box 1237, Runaway Bay, Queensland, 4216)

This method may work if:

This method may not work for you if:

You can request to register a supporter relationship in the ‘Support networks’ section of your Online Account. Information on how to do this is available in Your Online Account Guide: Support networks.

You will only have an Online Account if you’re already registered with My Aged Care.

This method may work for you if you or your prospective supporter has an Online Account and:

If you have an Online Account but your prospective supporter doesn’t, they will need to complete their part of the hard copy form, sign it and submit it as outlined below.

If you’d prefer a hard copy form, you can download it, fill it out with your prospective supporter, sign it, and then:

• upload the completed form to your My Aged Care Online Account, or
• visit a Services Australia service centre for face-to-face help to upload your form, or
• upload the completed form through Healthdirect
• print the form and send it to My Aged Care by post, or
• an assessor to help upload your form during an assessment.

This method may work for you if:

Before you can access Australian Government-subsidised aged care services, you need to apply for an assessment. If you haven’t done that yet, you can use our online application form. It takes 15 to 20 minutes to complete, including requesting to register a supporter relationship, if you want one.

You and your prospective supporter will need to provide your Medicare number and personal details. Your application will be reviewed before your supporter relationship can be verified and registered. Once the review is complete, you will be notified of the outcome of your request to register a supporter.

If your assessment has been arranged and hasn’t happened yet, you can ask your assessor to help you request to register a supporter during your assessment. It’s helpful to speak to the person you would like to register as your supporter in advance and ask them to be with you at your assessment.

If you and your prospective supporter have completed and signed the online or hard copy registration form, you can also bring a printed copy to your assessment and ask the assessor for face-to-face help to upload your form.

You can book an appointment with an Aged Care Specialist Officer (ACSO) by calling the Services Australia Aged Care line on 1800 227 475 or by visiting a Services Australia service centre. Once you've booked your appointment, the ACSO can support you either in person (at select Services Australia centres) or through video chat, if you have a myGov account. 

It’s helpful to speak to the person you would like to register as your supporter in advance and ask them to be with you at your ACSO appointment. 

If you and your prospective supporter have completed and signed the online or hard copy registration form, you can also bring a printed copy to your appointment and ask the ACSO for face-to-face help to upload your form. 

Registered supporters can support you by talking to assessors, aged care providers, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission and My Aged Care.

Registered supporters must act in line with the will and preferences of the older person they support.

Having a registered supporter does not stop you from being able to receive information, make decisions, or communicate directly with others. You can keep requesting, receiving and communicating information and making decisions.

As part of supporting you to make and communicate your own decisions, a registered supporter also has duties to uphold. They must:

• act in a way that promotes your will, preferences and personal, cultural and social wellbeing
• support you only as much as needed for you to make your own decisions
• do their best to help you maintain your ability to make your own decisions
• declare and avoid, or manage, conflicts of interest
• ensure they know and understand their duties; this includes any consequences for non-compliance.

When performing these duties, registered supporters must act honestly, diligently, and in good faith.

What can’t a registered supporter do? 

Becoming a registered supporter does not provide a person with decision-making authority for you. Their role is to support you to make your own decisions.

Registered supporters must not pressure or force older people to do anything, including making decisions. Older people also cannot be pressured or forced to agree to register a supporter.

That person can be a family member, friend, carer, or anyone else that you trust. They must be able to comply with the duties of registered supporters. You can also have more than one registered supporter.

Some registered supporters also have guardianship, enduring power of attorney or similar legal authority. These people are appointed decision-makers and can make decisions on your behalf under Commonwealth state or territory arrangements. They can only make decisions in line with their active, legal authority.

Most supporter relationships are registered with the consent of both the older person and prospective supporter. If you and the older person both provide consent, there is no need to provide any legal or medical documents. You both only need to complete the application process using one of the methods outlined in the section above about the different pathways to register a supporter.

If you already have an active guardianship, enduring power of attorney or similar legal authority for an older person, you may be considered an active, appointed decision-maker for them. If so, you can become a registered supporter without their consent. To do this, you need to provide proof of your decision-making authority for the older person. This is likely to be legal documentation.

Your legal authority could become active only when the older person has lost decision-making capacity. In this instance, you may also need to provide medical evidence about the decision-making ability of the older person you want to support, to show your authority is active.

In short, the documents you may need can vary depending on where you are and the type of decision-making authority you have. It’s important that you check the requirements in the state or territory where the older person lives, and specific to your circumstances.

Learn more about appointed decision-makers and how they can support an older person.

It’s possible to have more than one registered supporter. There are several pathways you can use to register a supporter, as outlined in the section above.

More information on how to manage your registered supporter relationships in your Online Account is available in Your Online Account Guide: Support networks.

You can make a declaration at any time to the System Governor in writing using Part E of the hard copy registration form.