Key points

  • Clinical care is 0% for everyone, full pensioner through to self-funded retiree, no exceptions
  • Independence services run from 5% (full pensioner) up to 50% (self-funded retiree, no card)
  • Everyday living services run from 17.5% (full pensioner) up to 80% (self-funded retiree, no card)
  • Part pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders sit on a means-tested sliding scale between those bounds, not on a fixed percentage
  • Services Australia sets your rate using an income and assets test similar to the Age Pension test
  • From 1 October 2026, personal care moves into clinical supports and is fully government funded for everyone
  • Your lifetime contributions are capped at $135,318.69 (as at 1 November 2025, indexed twice a year)
  • People in the “no worse off” cohort keep the lower Home Care Package cap of $86,185.23 and pay the same or less

Who this guide is for

Most Support at Home cost guides are written for full pensioners. If you are a full pensioner, that detail lives in our Support at Home for full pensioners guide, and the full national price list lives in our Support at Home prices guide. This post is for everyone else: part pensioners, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card (CSHC) holders, and self-funded retirees with no card.

The reason you need a separate guide is simple. Full pensioners pay one fixed rate per service band. You probably do not. If you have income or assets above the full pension thresholds, your Support at Home contribution is worked out individually by Services Australia, and the published “5% to 50%” and “17.5% to 80%” ranges are bounds, not your number. This guide explains where you land and why.

The master comparison table

Here is what each persona pays across the three service categories.

Service categoryFull pensionerPart pensionerCSHC holderSelf-funded (no card)
Clinical care (nursing, allied health)0%0%0%0%
Independence services (assistive tech, home mods)5%sliding scale, 5% to 50%sliding scale, 5% to 50%50%
Everyday living (cleaning, meals, gardening, transport)17.5%sliding scale, 17.5% to 80%sliding scale, 17.5% to 80%80%

Source: Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and My Aged Care.

Read the two middle columns carefully. The part pensioner and CSHC holder rates are not fixed numbers. They are sliding scales. The percentages shown are the floor and ceiling of the range you sit inside. Where you land depends on your assessed means, not on which label applies to you. Two part pensioners with different incomes and assets can pay different rates.

Only the outer two columns are fixed. A full pensioner always pays 5% and 17.5%. A self-funded retiree with no concession card always pays the maximum, 50% and 80%. Everyone in between is assessed individually.

The one constant for all four personas is clinical care at 0%. Nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, dietetics, and other allied health are free regardless of your income or assets. If your care plan is heavy on clinical support, your persona barely matters for that part of the bill.

Which bucket am I in?

Your contribution band is keyed to your pension status and your concession card. Here is how to read your own position.

Full pensioner

You receive the maximum rate of Age Pension and your income and assets are below the full pension thresholds. You pay the floor of every band: 0%, 5%, 17.5%. This guide is not really for you, see Support at Home for full pensioners instead.

Part pensioner

You receive some Age Pension, but a reduced amount, because your income or assets are above the full pension thresholds but below the cut-off where the pension stops entirely. You sit on the sliding scale. A part pensioner near the full pension end pays close to 5% and 17.5%. A part pensioner near the cut-off, where the pension is nearly gone, pays closer to 50% and 80%. Your exact rate comes from your Services Australia means assessment.

Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holder

This is the line most people get wrong, so it is worth spelling out.

A CSHC is for people of Age Pension age who do not receive the Age Pension, usually because their income or assets are too high, but whose income is still within the card’s income test limits. Holding the card does not, by itself, fix your Support at Home rate. There is no “CSHC discount rate.”

What the card tells the system is roughly where your income sits. CSHC holders have failed the pension income or assets test, so they are not full or part pensioners, but they have passed the card’s own income test, so they are not at the very top of the income range either. In practice that usually places a CSHC holder on the sliding scale somewhere between a part pensioner and a self-funded retiree with no card. Your actual rate still comes from a Services Australia means assessment that looks at income and assets, the same test that produces a part pensioner’s rate. The card is a signpost to your income position, not a flat discount.

If you hold a CSHC and assume you will pay the self-funded maximum, you may be overestimating your costs. If you assume the card alone gets you the full pensioner rate, you may be underestimating them. Get the assessment.

Self-funded retiree with no card

You do not receive the Age Pension and you do not hold a Commonwealth Seniors Health Card, generally because your income or assets are above both the pension thresholds and the card’s income limits. You pay the ceiling of every band: 0% for clinical, 50% for independence, 80% for everyday living. These are fixed, so your costs are the most predictable of the four personas, they are just the highest contribution rates.

How the assessment works

For the two middle personas, Services Australia carries out a means assessment using an income and assets test similar to the Age Pension test. It looks at your assessable income and assessable assets. Your principal home is generally excluded while you or your partner live in it. The result is your individual contribution rate within the independence and everyday living bands.

Carevo does not run this assessment and does not set fees. To check your own position before you choose a provider, you can use our Support at Home calculator and our aged care means test calculator. Both are estimators, your binding rate comes from Services Australia.

Worked examples by persona

These are illustrative, to show how the same care plan lands differently across personas. They are not quotes. Service prices vary by provider and region, and the middle-band rates are individual assessments.

Assume a similar week of care for each person: 2 hours of domestic cleaning at $95/hr ($190, everyday living), one home modification job of $400 across the year (independence), one nursing visit at $150/hr (clinical), and one physiotherapy session at $185/hr (clinical).

Margaret, part pensioner near the full pension end

Margaret has modest savings above the full pension assets threshold, so she receives a part pension but sits near the lower end of the scale.

  • Cleaning ($190 everyday living): her assessed rate is near the floor, say around 20%, so roughly $38
  • Home modification ($400 independence): near the floor, say around 8%, so roughly $32 across the year
  • Nursing and physiotherapy (clinical): $0

Margaret’s everyday living contribution is only a little above a full pensioner’s. Her actual percentages come from her assessment.

David, Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holder

David has self-funded income within the CSHC limits but no Age Pension. His assessment places him mid-scale.

  • Cleaning ($190 everyday living): a mid-scale rate, say around 45%, so roughly $86
  • Home modification ($400 independence): mid-scale, say around 28%, so roughly $112 across the year
  • Nursing and physiotherapy (clinical): $0

David pays more than Margaret on the same services because his assessed means are higher, even though clinical care still costs him nothing. His card did not set these rates, his means assessment did.

Susan, self-funded retiree with no card

Susan’s income and assets are above the CSHC limits, so she pays the fixed ceiling.

  • Cleaning ($190 everyday living): 80%, so $152
  • Home modification ($400 independence): 50%, so $200 across the year
  • Nursing and physiotherapy (clinical): $0

Susan’s rates are not a sliding scale, they are the maximum. Her costs are the highest of the three, but also the most predictable, and her clinical care is still free.

The pattern across all three: clinical care is identical (free), and the gap between personas comes entirely from the two means-tested bands.

The 1 October 2026 personal care change

One change affects every persona on this page. From 1 October 2026, personal care moves into clinical supports and becomes fully government funded for everyone.

Personal care means showering, dressing, grooming, non-clinical continence support, eating, hygiene, and help self-administering medication. Until 1 October 2026 these sit in the independence band and attract a contribution, which for a self-funded retiree can be up to 50%. From that date they cost nothing, the same as nursing and allied health, regardless of your income or assets.

This matters most for self-funded retirees and CSHC holders with high personal care needs, because they are the ones currently paying the most for it. If a large part of your plan is daily showering and dressing help, your out-of-pocket costs drop noticeably from 1 October 2026.

The lifetime contribution cap

There is a ceiling on the total you will ever contribute. The lifetime contribution cap is $135,318.69 (as at 1 November 2025). It is indexed twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September, so the figure rises over time. Once your cumulative contributions reach the cap, you pay nothing further for the rest of your life in the program.

The cap counts your contributions to independence and everyday living services. Clinical care has no contribution, so it never counts towards the cap. The cap applies across providers, so switching providers does not reset it.

For self-funded retirees and CSHC holders this cap matters more than it does for full pensioners. You pay higher rates per service, so you reach the cap faster. If you receive care over many years at the top of the bands, the cap is a real limit on your total exposure.

The “no worse off” cohort

If you were on, or approved for, a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024, a separate protection applies. You keep the older Home Care Package lifetime cap of $86,185.23, which is lower, and you are guaranteed to pay the same or less than you would have under the old Home Care Package arrangements. The new rates cannot leave you worse off.

This cohort is worth flagging for part pensioners and self-funded retirees in particular, because the new percentage bands could otherwise raise their costs. If you fall in this cohort, your provider should apply the lower of the two calculations automatically. For the detail, see our guide to the “no worse off” principle.

How to confirm your own rate

  1. Check your pension and card status. Confirm with Services Australia (Centrelink) on 132 300 or through myGov whether you are a part pensioner, a CSHC holder, or neither.
  2. Request or check your means assessment. Your aged care means assessment letter from Services Australia confirms your assessed contribution position. If you do not have one, or it is out of date, request a new assessment.
  3. Estimate before you commit. Use the Support at Home calculator and the aged care means test calculator to get a working estimate of your rate and budget.
  4. Check your invoices. Your provider must itemise each service, its cost, the government subsidy, and your contribution. Confirm the clinical lines show 0% and the middle-band percentages match your assessment.
  5. Raise discrepancies. Query your provider first. If unresolved, contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 or the Older Persons Advocacy Network on 1800 700 600.

To keep this focused on part pensioners, CSHC holders, and self-funded retirees: the full set of fixed full pensioner rates and worked full pensioner examples are in Support at Home for full pensioners, and the complete national price list by service is in Support at Home prices. The cap protections for transitioning Home Care Package recipients are covered in the “no worse off” principle.

How Carevo can help

Carevo is a connection platform. We connect older Australians with vetted aged care providers, and we help you compare them on pricing, service mix, and availability before you commit. We do not deliver care, set provider fees, or carry out your means assessment, that assessment is done by Services Australia.

Where Carevo helps a part pensioner, CSHC holder, or self-funded retiree is in finding a provider with transparent pricing and clear itemised invoices, so you can see exactly which services sit in which band and check the percentages against your assessment. When you are paying up to 50% or 80% on the middle bands, even small differences in a provider’s hourly rate change your out-of-pocket cost meaningfully.

Call 1800 953 253 to compare Support at Home providers through Carevo, or read our complete guide to the Support at Home Program.