Support at Home Dementia Funding in Australia 2026

The Support at Home program replaced Home Care Packages on 1 November 2025, and the funding rules for dementia care changed significantly. If your parent has dementia and needs in-home support, here is exactly how the current system allocates funding.

How Dementia Affects Your Classification

Support at Home uses eight ongoing classifications, each with a quarterly budget. Assessors use the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) during a home-based evaluation to capture your parent's physical, cognitive, and social support needs.

The critical difference from the old system: there is no longer a separate Dementia and Cognition Supplement for new entrants. Under the old Home Care Packages, families received an additional daily payment on top of their package level. Under Support at Home, cognitive decline is factored directly into the classification assessment — a parent with significant dementia-related needs should be placed in a higher classification (typically Class 6, 7, or 8) that reflects the true cost of care.

Current quarterly budgets from 1 July 2026:

Unspent funds roll over: up to $1,000 or 10% of your quarterly allocation (whichever is greater) carries into the following quarter.

What Happened to the Dementia Supplement

If your parent was already receiving a Home Care Package with the Dementia and Cognition Supplement before 1 November 2025, they are grandfathered. They continue receiving a daily supplement equal to 11.5% of their equivalent daily classification rate.

The catch: if your parent undergoes a formal reassessment and accepts a new Support at Home classification, the grandfathered 11.5% supplement ceases immediately. The new classification is deemed to absorb cognitive care needs. Before agreeing to a reassessment, calculate whether the new classification budget actually exceeds the old package plus supplement.

What Support at Home Covers for Dementia

The program funds a wide range of services relevant to dementia care:

• Clinical care (nursing, allied health, occupational therapy) — fully government-subsidised, zero co-contribution
• Personal care (showering, dressing, toileting) — from 1 October 2026, this moves to the clinical supports category with zero co-contribution
• Domestic assistance (cleaning, meal preparation, laundry) — means-tested co-contribution applies
• Social support and community access — means-tested
• Respite care — both in-home and community-based
• Assistive technology and home modifications — up to $15,390 for major modifications like dementia-proofing a home (grab rails, door alarms, safe cooking modifications)

Co-Contributions and the Means Test

Your parent's contribution depends on their income and assets, assessed through a process similar to the Age Pension means test. Full pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders pay the lowest rates.

A lifetime cap protects against catastrophic costs: once cumulative co-contributions reach $135,318.69, no further fees can be charged. Grandfathered HCP transitioners retain a lower legacy cap of $84,571.66.

If your parent faces financial hardship, Form SA462 allows them to request a waiver or reduction in co-contributions through Services Australia.

Getting the Right Classification

The assessment is your chance to demonstrate the full extent of your parent's care needs. Document specific incidents — wandering episodes, forgotten medication, unsafe cooking, overnight disturbances — and share these with the assessor. Parents with dementia often present well during short visits (the "good day" effect), which can lead to an underclassification.

Request that the assessor explicitly notes cognitive and behavioural complexity in the IAT. This documentation drives the classification decision and determines the quarterly budget your parent receives.

For funding tables, means-test worksheets, and the complete classification guide, the Australian Dementia Care Support Toolkit has everything you need to navigate the current system.

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