Support at Home and the Aged Care Act 2024: what providers need from software

Support at Home software has to do more than roster workers and send invoices. Under the Aged Care Act 2024, which started on 1 November 2025, providers manage quarterly budgets across eight funding classifications, set aside 10% for care management, collect contributions that depend on the service category, claim from Services Australia after delivering services, send monthly statements and record incidents under the Serious Incident Response Scheme. This guide translates those rules into software capabilities.

This post is part of our guide to healthcare software development in Australia. This article is general information, not legal advice.

What changed on 1 November 2025#

The Aged Care Act 2024 was passed on 25 November 2024 and started on 1 November 2025, replacing the Aged Care Act 1997 and related legislation. On the same day, Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. The Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) continues for now; in August 2026 the government announced that CHSP grant funding will be extended to 30 June 2029.

Three features of the new Act shape software requirements:

• A Statement of Rights. Providers must show they understand it and have practices in place so their services are compatible with it.
• Registration categories. Providers register in one or more of six categories, from home and community services to residential care. Applications for categories 4, 5 and 6 involve an audit against the strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards.
• Stronger obligations and oversight, including the Aged Care Code of Conduct, worker screening and complaints management.

Support at Home software requirements at a glance#

Classifications, pathways and quarterly budgets#

Participants receiving ongoing services are assigned one of eight funding classifications. Budgets for ongoing services are allocated quarterly, and participants can carry over unspent funds of up to A$1,000 or 10% of their quarterly budget, whichever is greater. Participants who moved from Home Care Packages may also have unspent HCP funds, which have no carryover limit.

Short-term funding works differently. According to the department's programme overview, the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme provides funding for 12 months in most cases, the Restorative Care Pathway provides up to 16 weeks of intensive allied health and nursing support, and the End-of-Life Pathway provides 12 weeks of extra support for people with three months or less to live. A participant can hold ongoing and short-term funding at once, so your software must keep separate budgets, time limits and reporting for each.

Care management and care partners#

For ongoing services, 10% is deducted from each participant's quarterly budget to fund care management; for the Restorative Care Pathway and End-of-Life Pathway, providers claim care management against the participant's budget. A staff member called a care partner must carry out care management, even if the participant self-manages.

Care plans and individualised budgets are developed with each participant, must align with their Notice of Decision and support plan, and must be reviewed regularly. The Restorative Care Pathway uses a goal plan instead of a care plan. In software terms you need care partner assignment, review reminders, versioned plans and budgets, and a record of what the participant agreed to.

Participant contributions#

Participants contribute to the cost of independence and everyday living services, while the government pays the full cost of clinical supports. A participant's contribution level depends on an income and assets assessment by Services Australia, financial hardship assistance is available, and people approved for Home Care Packages on or before 12 September 2024 contribute the same or less than they would have under the old programme.

Rules also change mid-stream. From 1 October 2026, personal care moves from the independence category to the clinical supports category, so eligible participants receive it with no out-of-pocket cost. The change does not apply to services delivered before that date. A billing system that stores contribution rules as fixed settings will get this wrong; one that ties rules to service dates will not.

Service agreements, prices and claims#

After receiving a funding allocation letter, a participant must enter a service agreement and start services within 56 days (a 28-day extension can be requested), and the agreement must be in place before or on the day services begin. The provider then notifies Services Australia within 28 days of the participant starting services.

On pricing, providers set their own prices, which must be all-inclusive, reasonable and transparent, and they must publish common prices and agree all prices with participants before charging. Price caps had been due from 1 July 2026, but on 20 May 2026 the government announced it would pause their implementation. The same announcement said providers must keep records showing what their prices include, and that the government would empower the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission to order refunds where providers are found to be overcharging and to act against providers that fail to issue monthly statements. It also encouraged providers to limit price increases to no more than two a year.

Payment happens in arrears. Providers deliver a service, then claim from Services Australia, which works out and subtracts any participant contribution and pays the balance from the participant's funding account. Providers invoice participants directly for contributions and for any extra services the participant has agreed to pay for, and must give participants a monthly statement showing services delivered, contributions paid and the remaining quarterly budget.

For software, that means a price book with history, service agreements linked to the prices a participant agreed, claims generated from delivered services rather than rosters, reconciliation of what Services Australia paid, and statements built from the same records.

Rights, supporters and complaints#

The Act's Statement of Rights covers matters such as making your own decisions, communicating your wishes, needs and preferences, and having your culture and identity respected. Older people can also have registered supporters who help them make and communicate decisions and can receive copies of their information. Providers need systems for complaints management and information disclosure.

Your software should record communication preferences and cultural needs where the care team can see them, give registered supporters the right level of access (and no more), and keep a complaints register that links to actions and outcomes.

Incidents and the Serious Incident Response Scheme#

The Serious Incident Response Scheme applies to home services, including Support at Home. It has eight types of reportable incidents, from unreasonable use of force and neglect to unexplained absence, and providers must say whether a reported incident is Priority 1 or Priority 2. Under the scheme you must also record incidents that happen, including near misses, in your incident management system.

Workers need to capture an incident on a phone in a few minutes, and managers need to classify, escalate and report it without re-typing. Link incidents to the participant's care plan so the lessons change the care.

Records, reporting and registration#

Registered providers must keep records on participants, staff and volunteers, report financial information quarterly and annually, and notify the department, Services Australia and the Commission of certain changes, including when participants start or end services. They must also meet obligations such as the Code of Conduct, worker screening and the Serious Incident Response Scheme.

If you are building a product rather than buying one, check one more regime. The Commission regulates digital platform operators: people or organisations that run an app, website or system older people can use to access government-funded aged care services. They have obligations to check and display registration and banning orders, worker screening and credentials, and those that are constitutional corporations must notify the Commission within 14 days of starting operations.

Buy, extend or build?#

Most Support at Home providers should start with a packaged aged care platform and test it hard. Ask each vendor to demonstrate, with realistic data:

1. A quarter-end carryover, including a participant with unspent HCP funds.
2. The 10% care management deduction and a care partner's review history.
3. A participant with mixed services on both sides of 1 October 2026, billed correctly.
4. A claim, a Services Australia payment that differs from the claim, and the reconciliation.
5. A monthly statement generated from the same records.
6. An incident captured on a phone and escalated as Priority 1.

If a product passes most of these, buy it and fill any gaps with integrations such as reporting, participant portals or document signing. Custom software makes sense only when your model is distinctive or the software is your product. Our comparison of off-the-shelf and custom care software sets out a decision framework that applies here too, and our vendor questions for health information cover the privacy side.

A word on what software can and cannot do#

Good software is designed to support your obligations under the Aged Care Act 2024 and the Support at Home rules. It cannot meet them for you. The rules above describe what providers must do; your software should make the right action the easy one, keep an accurate record of what happened, and adapt quickly when the rules change again.

What to do next#

If you are comparing platforms or planning integrations for Support at Home, our healthcare page explains how we work with care providers. For connecting an existing platform to reporting, portals or finance systems, see our API integration service.