What changed on 1 November 2025

The Aged Care Act 2024 passed Parliament on 25 November 2024. Without a proclamation, it would have started on 1 July 2025. On 4 June 2025, the government announced a brief deferral, and a proclamation signed on 26 June 2025 fixed the start date as 1 November 2025. On the same day, the Support at Home program replaced the Home Care Packages Program.

The Act puts a Statement of Rights for older people at the centre of the system. For families, the most visible changes are to aged care home fees. This guide covers those changes.

Figures are as at 20 September 2026 and are indexed regularly.

1. The means-tested care fee was replaced by two contributions

For people entering care from 1 November 2025, the old means-tested care fee no longer applies. Instead, depending on the means assessment, residents may pay:

• Hotelling contribution: up to $22.15 a day, on top of the basic daily fee, towards everyday living costs such as meals, cleaning and laundry. There's no annual or lifetime cap.
• Non-clinical care contribution (NCCC): up to $109.45 a day, towards care that isn't clinical, such as bathing, mobility assistance and lifestyle activities. It applies only to people who pay the full hotelling contribution.

The basic daily fee ($68.93 a day, 85% of the single basic Age Pension) continues. The government continues to fund clinical care, such as nursing.

2. A lifetime cap on the non-clinical care contribution

The NCCC stops once a person has paid $140,652.80 in total, or has paid it for 4 years (the days don't have to be in a row), whichever comes first. Contributions paid under Support at Home, and income-tested fees paid for home care before 1 November 2025, count towards the dollar cap but not the 4 years.

3. Retention on refundable deposits

For people entering from 1 November 2025, a home keeps 2% a year of a refundable accommodation deposit (RAD) or contribution (RAC), calculated daily, for up to 5 years. The amount kept isn't refunded, and the home can't ask for a top-up. Before, a RAD was refunded in full, less any agreed deductions.

4. Daily accommodation payments are indexed

Daily accommodation payments (DAPs) are now indexed twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September, using a published index number. RADs aren't indexed.

5. No 28-day deadline to choose how to pay

Before, new residents had 28 days to choose how to pay for their room, and 6 months to pay a lump sum. Now there's no set deadline. Daily payments apply until the full amount is paid as a lump sum, and a lump sum can be paid after the means assessment is finalised.

6. A new optional "higher everyday living fee"

The higher everyday living fee replaces the old "extra service" and "additional service" fees for new agreements. It's for optional higher-standard services, set out in a written agreement. It can't be agreed or charged before your parent enters care, and it can't be a condition of entry or of getting a room. There's a 28-day cooling-off period after agreeing to it, and the agreement is reviewed each year.

7. Reporting changes within 28 days

Residents must now report changes to their income, assets and circumstances to Services Australia within 28 days.

What didn't change

• The means test itself. The types of income and assets counted, and the treatment of the family home, are the same as before.
• The basic daily fee and the low-means support for accommodation costs.
• Refunds and protection. Lump sums are still refunded within set times, and the Accommodation Payment Guarantee Scheme still applies.

Who stays on the old rules (grandfathering)

• People already in an aged care home before 1 November 2025 keep their existing fee arrangements, including the means-tested care fee with its annual and lifetime caps ($37,055.98 and $88,934.57 as at 20 September 2026). Their arrangements change only if they choose to opt in to the new arrangements. Opting in can't be reversed, residents may pay more, and the government says it's important to get financial advice first.
• People in care before 1 November 2025 who leave for more than 28 days and then re-enter may find their arrangements change.
• The "no worse off" principle. People who were receiving a Home Care Package, or were approved and waiting for one, on 12 September 2024 pay fees under the 1 July 2014 arrangements if they later move into an aged care home. However, retention can still apply to a lump sum if they enter an aged care home for the first time after 31 October 2025.
• Existing extra service and additional service agreements made before 1 November 2025 could continue for 12 months only, until 31 October 2026. No new ones can be made. From 1 November 2026, those fees can no longer be charged. A resident who wants to keep receiving higher-standard services needs a higher everyday living fee agreement. Residents who were getting higher-standard services free of charge before 1 November 2025 (not under an extra or additional service agreement) can't be charged a higher everyday living fee for them, under a rule that starts on 1 November 2026. (Source: Aged Care (Consequential and Transitional Provisions) Rules 2025, sections 145–146.)

How to tell which rules apply

Services Australia's fee advice letter sets out which fees apply. The official My Aged Care fee estimator lets you choose the arrangements. The Aged Care Costs calculator uses the 1 November 2025 rules for new entrants and shows the date of the rates it uses.

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