Support at home providers in New South Wales

Who delivers the Support at Home program?

Support at Home services are delivered by aged care providers registered with the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission. The program replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025 (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). Once My Aged Care confirms your classification, you choose your own provider, and that choice decides how far your budget goes, because prices and administration practices differ between providers.

Government price caps were scheduled to start on 1 July 2026 but have been deferred, with no confirmed new date (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2026), so provider prices still vary widely. Carevo lists 2,619 aged-care-approved providers across 1,797 suburbs, with 468 active on the platform, and has tracked 938 care inquiries.

Four checks that separate Support at Home providers

The ranked list above is built from the methodology explained at the top of this page. Four criteria separate providers fastest:

Registration category. Under the new Aged Care Act, a provider must be registered in categories that cover every service in your plan, from domestic assistance up to nursing. Check the name and categories on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission’s public register.

Pricing transparency. Support at Home builds a 10% care management deduction into your quarterly budget and bans separate entry and exit fees, so a “package management” or “account keeping” line is a warning sign. With national price caps deferred, a written price list for every service type is the only way to compare.

Response time. Across Carevo, 70 per cent of inquiries get a provider response within an hour. A provider that is slow to answer before you sign will not get faster once you are a client.

Coverage. Ask whether the provider staffs your suburb with its own workers, including clinical staff, or relies on subcontractors. The most requested services through Carevo are personal care, domestic assistance and allied health.

Who is eligible for the Support at Home program?

You are eligible if you are 65 or older (50 or older for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) and an assessment finds you need help to keep living at home. Access starts with My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 (My Aged Care, 2025).

The assessment runs through the Single Assessment System using the Integrated Assessment Tool, and you receive a classification letter confirming one of 8 funding levels. If the classification does not match your real needs, request a reassessment through My Aged Care, and the Older Persons Advocacy Network (1800 700 600) gives free advocacy support.

What replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025?

Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025 for new entrants and existing package holders (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). Anyone on a package was transitioned automatically, with funding mapped to a classification that maintains at least the same level of support.

The old 4 package levels became 8 classification levels. Clinical care such as nursing and allied health became fully government funded. Home modifications and assistive technology moved to the separate AT-HM scheme, with up to $15,000 a year.

What are the 8 Support at Home funding levels worth?

Annual budgets run from $10,732 at Level 1 to $78,106 at Level 8, released quarterly and indexed each July (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). 10% of each quarterly budget is deducted for care management.

Your assessed classification sets the budget, not your provider, so the same dollars buy more or fewer hours depending on provider prices. To see how your level and means-tested contributions translate into real numbers before you commit, estimate your Support at Home budget.

Is clinical care free under Support at Home?

Yes. Clinical care, including nursing, physiotherapy, occupational therapy and podiatry, carries no participant contribution regardless of income or assets (Department of Health and Aged Care, 2025). Independence services attract a 5% to 50% contribution and everyday living services 17.5% to 80%, depending on your pension status.

From 1 October 2026, personal care such as showering, dressing and continence care moves into clinical supports and becomes fully government funded; until then, full pensioners pay the 5% independence rate on it. A lifetime contribution cap of $137,917.01 applies (as at 20 March 2026), and people on or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024 keep a grandfathered cap of $84,571.66.

Questions to ask a provider before signing a service agreement

1. Which registration categories does your Commission registration cover? A good answer names categories matching every service in your plan, checkable on the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission register.
2. Is the 10% care management deduction your only management charge? A good answer is yes, with no extra package or account-keeping fees.
3. Do you charge anything if I leave? A good answer is a flat no; exit fees are banned under Support at Home.
4. Can I have your full price list in writing before I sign? A good answer is a current written schedule covering every service type.
5. Do you deliver nursing and allied health with your own staff or subcontract? A good answer names the clinicians or partner organisations, not “we can arrange someone”.
6. What happens to my unspent funds each quarter? A good answer explains the rollover of $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly budget, whichever is greater.

Where providers are available

Support at Home providers on Carevo cover 1,797 suburbs, with the deepest supply in NSW. The city pages for Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth list local providers, and the suburb directory below this page covers smaller areas. Entry-level help with cleaning, meals and transport is available through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, a separate program.

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.