Support at Home Service List: What’s Included and What Isn’t

What the Support at Home service list is

The service list is guidance on what Support at Home funding can be used for. It is published by the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing and applies to every registered provider, which means a service type covers the same tasks regardless of who delivers it.

That consistency is new. Under Home Care Packages, what counted as domestic assistance could vary between providers.

The service list is not the same as the assistive technology and home modifications list

Assistive technology and home modifications are funded through the separate Assistive Technology and Home Modifications Scheme, with its own list and its own approval process.

If you are looking for a piece of equipment, that is where to check.

Being on the list does not mean you are approved for it

The list tells you what can be funded under the program.

Your Notice of Decision and your support plan tell you what has been approved for you, based on your assessment. A service can be perfectly valid and still not be something you can access this year.

The three categories, and why the category matters

Every service on the list sits in one of three categories.

The category does not just describe the type of help, it determines how much you contribute towards the cost.

The same profession can appear in more than one category depending on what the service is for.

Physiotherapy delivered to treat a condition is clinical care. A supervised group exercise class to maintain function is a therapeutic service for independent living, which sits under independence.

Ask your provider which category a service will be claimed under, because it changes what you pay.

Clinical care services

Fully government funded, with no contribution from you. These services must be delivered by qualified health professionals.

Nursing

Community-based nursing care to assess, treat and monitor health conditions at home.

• Covered: wound care and dressings, injections and complex medication management, health monitoring such as blood pressure and diabetes checks, catheter, stoma and feeding tube care, and clinical palliative support at home.
• Not covered: services normally delivered by a hospital, and general personal care such as showering unless there is a specific clinical need.

Allied health and other therapeutic services

• Covered: physiotherapy, occupational therapy, podiatry, speech pathology, dietetics, and mental health support from a psychologist or social worker.
• Not covered: gym memberships, medical diagnosis by a GP, and ambulance costs.

Nutrition

• Covered: support with hydration, enteral or tube feeding, and prescribed dietary formulas.
• Not covered: the cost of the food itself, and vitamins or supplements that have not been prescribed.

Care management

• Covered: building, reviewing and updating your care plan, coordinating services across providers, and safety and risk assessments in your home.
• Not covered: administrative fees unrelated to direct care coordination.

Restorative care management

Short-term, focused support after a setback such as an illness, a fall or a hospital stay. This replaces the old Short-Term Restorative Care Programme.

• Covered: coordinating a team of professionals towards clear recovery goals, creating and reviewing a restorative care plan, and organising time-limited intensive support.
• Not covered: ongoing long-term care coordination once the restorative episode ends. That becomes standard care management.

Independence services

These attract a participant contribution scaled by your income and assets. Importantly, this is changing for personal care. See the contributions section below.

Personal care

• Covered: showering, bathing and personal hygiene, dressing and grooming, help moving around and transferring in and out of bed, non-clinical continence support, and help with self-administering medication such as opening a dose pack.
• Not covered: hairdressing, waxing and beauty treatments, clinical medication administration, and prescription medicines, which are covered by the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme.

Social support and community engagement

• Covered: accompanied trips to the shops, bank or a café, transport and support to attend clubs and seniors groups, home visits for companionship, and help using technology to stay connected with family.
• Not covered: tickets to events, and food or drinks bought during an outing.

Therapeutic services for independent living

These maintain current function rather than treat an acute condition, which is what separates them from clinical allied health.

• Covered: diversional therapy programs run by qualified therapists, remedial massage when prescribed by an allied health professional, supervised group exercise or recreation, and evidence-based therapies such as acupuncture, chiropractic, osteopathy and art therapy.
• Not covered: relaxation massage, services already funded elsewhere such as under a Chronic Disease Management Plan, and activity costs such as craft supplies or tickets.

Respite

Supervision and assistance from someone other than your usual carer, so that carer can take a break. Homage provides in-home respite care from a single hour through to overnight support.

• Covered: in-home respite, community-based and day centre respite, and cottage respite involving short overnight stays in a community setting.
• Not covered: permanent residential aged care, and residential respite funded through other programs.

Transport

• Covered: direct transport with a driver and vehicle provided by a support worker, and indirect transport such as taxi or rideshare vouchers.
• Not covered: buying, registering, fuelling or repairing a private car, driver licence costs, public transport, flights and ferries, holiday travel, and travel programs run by state or local government.

Assistive technology and home modifications

• Covered: mobility aids such as walking frames, shower chairs and wheelchairs, safety technology such as personal alarms, minor modifications such as grab rails and ramps, and complex modifications such as bathroom changes where clinically required.
• Not covered: general household goods such as furniture and whitegoods, cosmetic renovations such as painting, tiling or recarpeting, and anything not on the AT-HM Scheme list.

Higher cost items generally require clinical evidence and quotes. An occupational therapy report is often what unlocks approval.

Everyday living services

This category attracts the highest participant contribution.

Domestic assistance

• Covered: general house cleaning such as vacuuming, mopping and washing dishes, laundry and ironing, and accompanied or unaccompanied grocery shopping.
• Not covered: professional cleaning such as carpet or dry cleaning, pet care and cleaning up after pets, pest control, and the cost of the groceries themselves.

Home maintenance and repairs

The useful test here is safety. If the work removes a hazard or maintains safe access, it is far easier to justify. If it is about how the place looks, it is not funded.

• Covered: lawn mowing, pruning and clearing paths for safe access, and minor repairs such as cleaning gutters, replacing lightbulbs or fixing a broken door handle.
• Not covered: landscaping, tree removal and decorative garden beds, professional trade work such as cabinetry or recarpeting unless it is an urgent safety risk, and anything that is the responsibility of a landlord, council or insurer.

Meals

• Covered: in-home meal preparation, and delivery of pre-prepared meals such as Meals on Wheels.
• Not covered: the cost of the ingredients or the food itself, takeaway delivery fees, and meals for other people in the household.

What Support at Home does not fund

Most guides scatter exclusions through the text. It is more useful to see them together, because the question people actually arrive with is usually a negative one.

Here are the things most often assumed to be covered, why they are not, and where to look instead.

What you will contribute

Government funding does not mean everything is free. What you contribute depends on the category of the service and, for non-clinical services, on your income and assets.

• Clinical care is fully government funded. You contribute nothing towards nursing or allied health.
• Independence services attract a contribution, lowest for full pensioners and highest for self-funded retirees.
• Everyday living services attract the highest contribution of the three categories.

There are two protections worth knowing about. Contributions are capped over your lifetime, and people who were receiving or approved for a Home Care Package before 12 September 2024 are covered by grandfathering arrangements.

This means they should not pay more than they would have under the old system.

Personal care becomes fully funded from 1 October 2026

This is the most significant change for most households and it is easy to miss. From 1 October 2026, approved personal care services move into the clinical supports contribution category.

In practice that means the tasks people need most often, including showering, dressing and toileting, become fully government funded rather than attracting an independence-level contribution.

If you are currently paying a contribution on daily personal care, this should reduce your out-of-pocket costs without you needing to do anything.

It is still worth checking your next monthly statement after the change to confirm your provider has applied it correctly, and asking them to explain any line you do not recognise.

What changed from Home Care Packages

The services themselves are broadly similar. What changed is the way they are funded and controlled.

• One pool of funding became three categories with different contribution rules.
• The service list is now standardised across all providers, so the same service name means the same thing everywhere.
• Rules on buying goods and equipment are tighter. Items such as smartwatches, recliners and general tablets are much harder to justify without a clear clinical need.
• Short-Term Restorative Care has been folded in as the restorative care pathway.

If you are moving across from a package and want to understand how the transition works, our guide to Support at Home gives you a comprehensive breakdown of the changes.

How to check whether a specific service is covered

If you self-manage your Support at Home funding, you can link Homage with your registered self-managed provider and use your funding for our aged care and home care services.

We also support private clients and people waiting on government funding who need care now.

Speak with a Care Advisor about what would work for your situation.

Frequently asked questions

References