NDIS Cleaning and Domestic Assistance in Australia

Where can I find domestic assistance providers?

The ranked list above shows domestic assistance providers covering Australia, ordered by registration status, measured response speed and current coverage on the Carevo platform. The official registers behind it are the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission’s provider register for NDIS-funded help and the Find a provider tool on My Aged Care for Support at Home and CHSP services (My Aged Care, 2026). Those registers list everyone; the list above narrows them to providers that have recently responded to new client inquiries in your area.

What is domestic assistance and who is it for?

Domestic assistance is practical, in-home help with housework, laundry, shopping and meal preparation for people who cannot manage these tasks alone because of disability, illness or age-related frailty. Under the NDIS it sits within Core Supports - Assistance with Daily Life (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27); older Australians access the same kind of help through Support at Home or the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.

In practice it covers four things: cleaning (vacuuming, mopping, bathrooms and kitchens), laundry (washing, ironing and changing bed linen), shopping (accompanied or done for you), and light meal preparation. If you have heard it called NDIS cleaning, household tasks, home help for the elderly or home care cleaning, it is the same service. The NDIS calls it household tasks; domestic assistance is the name used in aged care assessments and provider agreements.

Does the NDIS pay for cleaning?

Yes. The NDIS funds cleaning as household tasks under Core Supports - Assistance with Daily Life, where the participant cannot do the work because of their disability and the support is reasonable and necessary (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27). It covers essential house cleaning the participant is not able to do themselves, such as vacuuming, mopping, bathrooms, kitchens and laundry. It is not a general cleaning entitlement.

How your plan is managed decides who you can use. NDIA-managed participants need a provider registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission. Plan-managed and self-managed participants can use registered or unregistered cleaning services. Tell providers how your plan is managed in your first message so only those who can invoice it reply.

How to choose a provider for domestic assistance

The list above is ranked using the criteria explained in the methodology above it. Check these before you commit.

Registration. Confirm NDIS registration status for NDIS-funded support, or Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission registration for Support at Home and CHSP funded services.

Carevo measures whether a provider accepts an enquiry, not when care starts or a practitioner contacts you. Confirm current capacity and a start date directly. How Carevo measures enquiry acceptance.

Pricing transparency. Ask for an hourly rate in writing, including travel time and any minimum booking length, before you agree to a start date.

Coverage. Confirm the provider actually services your suburb on the days and times you need, not just the wider region it lists.

How much does domestic assistance cost?

It depends on the funding stream, because each prices the same hour differently. Under the NDIS, domestic assistance is billed at support worker rates with a weekday daytime cap of $73.58 an hour (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27); many providers charge below the cap. Under Support at Home there is no fixed price: government caps were deferred in May 2026, so registered providers set their own hourly rates, and everyday living services carry a means-tested client contribution while clinical supports carry none (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2026).

Under CHSP the arithmetic is different again. The government subsidises the service directly and you pay a client contribution, and contribution amounts are set by each provider under its own contribution policy rather than a national fee schedule. The same fortnightly visit can carry a different contribution with two organisations in the same suburb, and providers are expected to reduce or waive contributions where paying would cause hardship. Always ask for the contribution policy in writing.

Which funding pays for domestic assistance and who qualifies?

NDIS participants fund domestic assistance under Core Supports - Assistance with Daily Life when it is reasonable and necessary for their disability (NDIS Pricing Schedule 2026-27). Older Australians access it as an everyday living service through Support at Home, or as entry-level, short-term help through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, both administered by the Department of Health and Aged Care (2025). Aged care access starts with a My Aged Care assessment through the Single Assessment System, which determines whether you receive CHSP or a Support at Home classification. Veterans with a DVA Gold or White Card can compare DVA-funded home care options instead.

What does CHSP domestic assistance include, and why is it the most used service?

Domestic assistance is the most used service type in the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025), and the reason is simple: housework is usually the first task that becomes unmanageable while everything else is still fine. A CHSP domestic assistance allocation typically funds a fortnightly visit of one to two hours covering cleaning, laundry and sometimes shopping, and it is often the first aged care service a person ever receives.

Because CHSP is entry-level, the allocation is fixed rather than flexible: you get the approved service at the approved frequency, and increasing it means going back through My Aged Care. The Commonwealth Home Support Programme continues to operate until at least 1 July 2027, so a CHSP allocation is not something you need to rush to convert (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025).

What is the difference between domestic assistance and personal care?

Domestic assistance is help with the house; personal care is hands-on help with the person: showering, dressing, grooming, toileting and medication prompts. The distinction matters at assessment, because they are separate service types in every funding program and a plan that only lists domestic assistance cannot be stretched to cover help in the bathroom. Personal care workers hold different training and screening requirements than cleaners, and most providers roster them separately.

If you are unsure which you need, describe the tasks rather than picking the label. Trouble vacuuming and changing sheets is domestic assistance; trouble getting in and out of the shower is personal care. Many households book both, and one provider can often supply both under the same agreement.

Availability

Carevo lists 34,600 providers across 8,918 suburbs nationally, including domestic assistance specialists funded through the NDIS, Support at Home and CHSP. Demand is steady: cleaning is named in 1,788 of the 9,483 tracked inquiries on the platform. Many families pair domestic assistance with personal care or a dedicated house cleaning provider when household needs go beyond one visit type, and meal preparation support covers cooking help beyond the light meal prep included here.

What domestic assistance includes, and what it does not

Providers vary, but the boundary is fairly consistent across CHSP and Support at Home, and knowing it prevents a wasted booking.

Usually included: vacuuming, mopping and general tidying, bathroom and kitchen cleaning, dishwashing, laundry including washing, hanging and folding, changing bed linen, rubbish and recycling, and basic tidying that keeps the home safe to move around in.

Usually excluded: anything requiring a ladder, moving heavy furniture, outdoor cleaning such as gutters or windows above ground level, garden work, pet care, cleaning areas of the home the client does not use, and cleaning up after other adults in the household.

Separately funded: a one-off spring or deep clean is a distinct, higher-intensity service rather than part of a routine visit. So is light gardening, and so is house cleaning for aged care where the need is broader than a weekly tidy.

The reason for the exclusions is usually work health and safety rather than cost: a worker on a ladder or shifting a wardrobe is an injury risk their employer will not accept. If a task falls outside the list, ask whether the provider has a separate handyman or deep-clean service instead of asking the support worker to do it.

Domestic assistance supply in Australia

Carevo lists 19,320 providers offering domestic assistance across 8,918 suburbs, which is 55.8 per cent of the 34,600 providers on the platform. Of those, 2,761 accept CHSP, 3,584 accept aged care package funding, 16,880 accept NDIS funding and 3,994 accept private payment.

By state, 6,385 in NSW and 5,917 in Victoria against 238 in Tasmania and 315 in the Northern Territory. It is one of the most widely offered services on the platform, so in most suburbs the constraint is scheduling rather than finding a provider at all.

How this page is compiled

The provider rankings and figures on this page come from Carevo platform records, including provider registrations, measured response times and coverage, together with the cited official sources. Carevo is an Australian platform that connects families with NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.

Funding sources and checks

Check the current NDIA pricing arrangements and Support at Home program rules for the proposed service. Funding depends on the approved support and available budget; a Carevo listing is not approval. Confirm availability and a start date directly with the provider.