Respite in an aged care home: costs and approvals

Residential respite is a short stay in an aged care home. It gives a carer a break, helps after a hospital stay, or lets a family try out a home. It's charged very differently from a permanent place, and usually costs much less.

What your parent gets

During respite, your parent gets the same care and everyday services as permanent residents: a room, meals, laundry, activities, and help with personal and nursing care.

Getting approved

Your parent needs an aged care assessment that approves them for residential respite. In an emergency, if your parent hasn't been assessed, a home may be able to arrange an urgent assessment so they can still come in.

Approval doesn't guarantee a place. Not every home offers respite, and those that do may be full. Use the Find a provider tool on My Aged Care to search for homes offering respite, then call to check dates.

How much respite is available

Your parent can have up to nine weeks of subsidised residential respite in a financial year, counting both booked and emergency stays. More can be approved, three weeks at a time. The home applies for this.

Keep a tally of the days used. Once the nine weeks are used up, another stay isn't possible until an extension is approved.

What it costs

Charge	Respite stay
Basic daily fee	Yes, $68.93 a day, the same as for permanent residents
Means assessment	Not needed
Means-tested contributions	None
Room payment (lump sum or daily)	None. The government pays the home a supplement instead
Booking fee	May be asked for. See below
Optional extras	Only if your parent chooses them

The fees are written into a respite agreement. Read it before the stay starts.

The booking fee

A home can ask for a booking fee to hold the dates. It's the one fee a home can ask for before the stay begins. It can't be more than a week's fees, or a quarter of the fees for the whole stay if that's less. Once your parent arrives, it's taken off their daily fees, so it isn't an extra cost.

The full booking fee must be refunded if your parent cancels more than a week before the start date, or goes into hospital or dies before the stay begins. If one of those happens early in the stay (within the first week, or the first quarter of the stay if that's shorter), or the home asks your parent to leave in that time, part of the fee comes back. If you cancel later than a week before for another reason, or your parent chooses to leave early, the home doesn't have to refund it.

Extras

A home can offer optional extras through a higher everyday living fee, on the same terms as for permanent residents. Your parent doesn't have to agree to any, and they can't be a condition of the stay.

Caps, hardship and the pension

• Caps. Respite has no means-tested contributions, so a respite stay doesn't add anything towards the limits on those contributions.
• Can't afford the fee? Your parent can apply for financial hardship help. They'll need a means assessment for that.
• The pension and the family home. If your parent owns their home, a respite stay may affect when the two-year exemption for the empty home starts. On a literal reading of the pension law, a respite stay in an aged care home could start the two years, but Services Australia hasn't published a position. Check with Services Australia before relying on a date. See our guide to the two-year rule.

During the stay

There's no formal leave during respite. Your parent can spend a night away if the home agrees and the fees keep being paid. If they go into hospital during the stay, tell the home straight away.

If your parent wants to stay longer, ask the home before the current stay ends. It can arrange an extension if your parent still has days available or gets one approved.

Moving from respite to a permanent place

Some families use respite to try a home. If your parent then stays permanently, the permanent fee rules start: new agreements, a means assessment, and a room payment. Ask the home exactly which day the permanent stay starts, because that date matters for the fees and the agreements.

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