Personal care providers in Victoria

Personal care under the NDIS

Personal care is paid support with the daily tasks most people do for themselves: showering, dressing, grooming, toileting and moving safely around the home. The NDIS funds it as Assistance with Self-Care Activities inside the Core Supports budget, with hourly caps set in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26. A support worker delivers it in your home, at the level of help you actually want.

It is the most requested service on Carevo, named in 855 of the 4,347 tracked inquiries (data updated 2026-06-27). Price limits for disability support workers rose 3.95 per cent on 1 July 2025, taking the standard weekday self-care cap to $70.23 an hour (NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26). For older Australians, Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025 and funds the same tasks under eight classifications (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025).

What is included in NDIS personal care services?

Personal care covers hands-on and prompted help with self-care. Day to day, a support worker helps with:

• Showering, bathing and drying, with as much or as little help as you choose
• Dressing and undressing, morning and evening routines
• Grooming: hair care, shaving, oral hygiene, nail care
• Toileting and continence aid management
• Safe transfers in and out of bed or a chair
• Help with eating and drinking at meal times
• Medication prompts at the right times

Complex needs, such as PEG feeding or severe dysphagia support, are billed under separate high-intensity items with a $75.98 weekday cap (NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26).

Which part of an NDIS plan funds personal care?

Personal care is funded from Core Supports, under the Assistance with Daily Life category. Core is flexible, so you can generally shift funds between daily life, consumables, transport and social participation.

Funding depends on your plan including it and on the support meeting the statutory NDIS support definition introduced on 3 October 2024 by the “Getting the NDIS Back on Track” changes. Providers cannot charge above the caps in the NDIS Pricing Arrangements and Price Limits 2025-26; the cost section above lists the current rates by state.

NDIS eligibility rules for personal care

Any NDIS participant whose disability affects their ability to manage self-care can ask for personal care in their plan. The planner funds it when it is reasonable and necessary, which usually means evidence of functional impact, often an occupational therapy assessment.

Becoming a participant requires applying before you turn 65, being an Australian citizen, permanent resident or protected SCV holder, and having a permanent and significant disability (NDIS, 2025). If you are over 65 and not already a participant, personal care comes through the aged care system instead.

Does Support at Home cover personal care for older people?

Yes. Personal care is a listed Support at Home service, with eight funding classifications from about $10,731 to $78,106 a year (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025).

From 1 October 2026 personal care moves into clinical supports, which carry no participant contribution. Until then a means-based contribution can apply, so check your situation with your provider or My Aged Care (1800 200 422). CHSP continues as a separate program and moves to Support at Home no earlier than 1 July 2027. Both dates are from the Department of Health and Aged Care (2025).

Four checks that separate providers

The rankings above use the methodology explained at the top of this page. Your own shortlist comes down to four checks:

Registration category. Agency-managed plans can only use providers registered with the NDIS Quality and Safeguards Commission for Assistance with Daily Personal Activities. Plan-managed and self-managed participants can also use unregistered providers, often cheaper but not audited against the NDIS Practice Standards. Check any registration claim on the Commission’s public register.

Pricing transparency. A provider should hand you a written rate schedule against the 2025-26 caps without being chased. Vague answers about weekend loadings or travel charges are a warning sign.

Response time. A missed morning shift means someone does not get out of bed. Across Carevo, 70 per cent of inquiries get a provider response within an hour, so slow communication before you sign rarely improves after.

Coverage and consistency. Ask whether the provider staffs your suburb, not just your city, and whether you get a regular worker rather than a rotating roster. With 28,004 NDIS providers listed on the platform, you do not need to accept a casual pool for intimate care.

Questions to ask a provider before signing a service agreement

1. What is your NDIS registration number and which registration groups does it cover? A good answer matches the NDIS Provider Register and covers daily personal activities.
2. Do all your support workers hold NDIS Worker Screening clearances? A good answer is yes, verifiable through the NDIS Worker Screening Database.
3. Can I see your full rate schedule, including evenings, weekends and travel? A good answer is a written schedule at or below the 2025-26 caps.
4. Who covers shifts when my regular worker is sick or on leave? A good answer is a named, briefed backup process, not “whoever is free”.
5. Can I choose the gender of my support worker for intimate care, and will that be written into the agreement? A good answer is yes to both.
6. Have you ever been subject to Commission compliance action? A good answer is a straight no, consistent with the Commission’s public compliance register, or an honest account of what changed.

Where providers are available

Personal care providers on Carevo cover 4,782 suburbs nationally, with the deepest supply in the capitals. See the city pages for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, or the suburb directory below for smaller areas. NSW alone has 9,513 listed providers. Many households pair personal care with domestic assistance from the same provider, so one worker covers both.

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 vetted NDIS and aged care providers. Carevo does not deliver care itself.