What questions do they ask at an ACAT assessment?

The exact questions are not published, but the topics are. The Support at Home Program Manual names nine areas the assessment considers: level of function, physical and personal health, home and personal safety, cognitive capacity and psychosocial circumstance, and family and community support. It also covers carer responsibilities and sustainability of caring, goals and preferences, support considerations, and level of complexity and risk of vulnerability. The manual notes that list is not exhaustive.

Can you fail an aged care assessment?

It is not a test and there is no pass mark. The outcome is a decision about eligibility, and everyone assessed receives one in writing. You can be found not eligible for the services you hoped for, or approved at a lower level than expected. The outcome letter has to set out the reasons and the evidence, and it has to tell you how to seek a review, which is a right you are entitled to use.

How much does an ACAT assessment cost?

Nothing. The assessment is free, and it was free under the old ACAT arrangements too. Nobody should ever charge for arranging one, and no organisation needs to be paid to refer you. If a service offers to fast-track an assessment for a fee, that is not a government service.

Is there an ACAT assessment form to download?

No. There is no ACAT form to print and post. You apply through My Aged Care online or by phone on 1800 200 422, and the assessment organisation arranges the visit. The assessor uses their own tool during the conversation, the Integrated Assessment Tool, and you never see it as a form.

How long does an aged care assessment take?

The government does not publish how long the visit itself takes, and we will not guess at it. What is published is the wait to get one: across January to March 2026 the national median from referral to assessment was 25 days. Plan for the visit to be unhurried rather than quick, and have someone else there.

Who is eligible for an aged care needs assessment?

It is generally for people aged 65 and over, or 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral from a doctor. You can apply for yourself, or someone can apply for you with your permission.

Is it still called an ACAT assessment?

No. Aged Care Assessment Teams were merged into the Single Assessment System on 9 December 2024, and the Aged Care Act 2024 calls it an aged care needs assessment. Plenty of websites, and some state health services, still say ACAT. If someone says it to you, they mean this assessment.

What is the difference between ACAT and My Aged Care?

My Aged Care is the front door: you ring them, and they arrange things. ACAT was one of the teams that did the assessing. So they were never alternatives. Today you still start with My Aged Care, and an assessor from an assessment organisation does the visit.

What are the ACAT levels?

There were never any ACAT levels. The levels belong to the funding, not to the assessment. Support at Home has eight classification levels, and the assessment produces the scores that decide which one applies.

Can you get an urgent assessment?

Yes. Say plainly on the first call if the situation is unsafe or someone is in hospital. Urgency is settled at the triage stage, before an assessor is even allocated, so it matters that the hard facts are said out loud at the start rather than played down.

How do you get reassessed if things get worse?

You ask for a Support Plan Review. Either you or the provider can request one when needs, goals or circumstances change, or when a service you need was never on the plan. It is the proper route for changing what is approved, and not every change needs a full review.

ACAT assessment: what happens, what they ask, and how to book one

Called now: Aged care needs assessment
Median wait to be assessed: 25 days
Cost: $0
Where to start: 1800 200 422

An ACAT assessment is now called an aged care needs assessment. An assessor visits the home, talks through how daily life is going, and the letter that follows names a Support at Home funding level from 1 to 8. The assessment is free, you arrange it through My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, and across January to March 2026 the national median wait from referral to assessment was 25 days.

Every figure on this page checked 26 July 2026, next check due 30 September 2026.

You have probably been told to "get an done" by someone who has not checked the name in a while. That is fine. It is still the word almost everyone uses, including some state health services, and the thing behind it has not gone anywhere. This page is about the thing behind it: what actually happens at the visit, what gets asked, and how to get one booked.

What happens at an ACAT assessment?

Someone comes to the house and has a long conversation about how daily life is going. That is the whole of it. There is no exam, no scoring you can see, and nothing to revise for. The assessor asks about washing and cooking and sleeping and falls, and writes down what they hear.

What surprises most families is that it is not one conversation but three, and the person who visits is not the person who decides.

The triage call

Who you deal with: A Triage Delegate at the assessment organisation, by phone
What it settles: Whether there is an assessment at all, which kind it will be, and how urgent it is treated as being

The assessment

Who you deal with: An aged care needs assessor, in person at home
What it settles: What is needed and what the goals are, written up as a draft support plan and a recommendation

The decision

Who you deal with: An Assessment Delegate, who you never meet
What it settles: Whether it is approved, which classification level, and which priority category

The three stages of an aged care needs assessment, and what each one settles
Stage	Who you deal with	What it settles
The triage call	A Triage Delegate at the assessment organisation, by phone	Whether there is an assessment at all, which kind it will be, and how urgent it is treated as being
The assessment	An aged care needs assessor, in person at home	What is needed and what the goals are, written up as a draft support plan and a recommendation
The decision	An Assessment Delegate, who you never meet	Whether it is approved, which classification level, and which priority category

Source: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, sections 6.3, 6.4 and 6.6. Verified 26 July 2026.

Where it happens, and who can be there

The assessment is done in person, at home. Before starting, the assessor asks whether the person being assessed agrees to have the assessment, and may ask permission to talk to the people who support them. Anyone can choose to have a family member or friend present, and it is worth doing: the person being assessed is often the last to describe how much has changed.

If an interpreter is needed, tell the assessment organisation before the visit rather than on the day.

What to have ready

A Medicare card, and one other form of ID such as a driver licence, healthcare card, passport or DVA card.
Medical information: referrals, reports from doctors, and the contact details of anyone involved in care.
A list of medications, including the ones bought over the counter.
Any questions worth asking on the day, such as what is available locally and what the waiting times are.
A support person, if one can be there. A registered supporter, a family member, a trusted friend or partner, or an appointed decision-maker.

How long the visit takes

No government page publishes how long the assessment itself runs, and we will not guess at a number. What can be said honestly: it covers nine broad areas of someone's life, so treat it as an unhurried morning rather than a quick form-filling appointment, and do not book anything tight afterwards.

Sources: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, sections 6.3 and 6.4 (December 2025.). Support at Home: a guide for older people, families and carers ("Assessments are done in person, at your own home"). Preparing for your assessment, My Aged Care. Checked 26 July 2026.

The questions they ask

This is the part everyone wants a list for, and most websites simply invent one. Here is the honest position. The government does not publish the questions, and it does not publish the scoring behind them. What it does publish is the nine areas the assessment considers, in the Support at Home Program Manual, along with its own caveat that the nine are not an exhaustive list.

Family, community engagement and support
Who is around, who helps, and how connected to other people daily life still is.
Carer responsibilities and sustainability of caring
What the people doing the caring are actually carrying, and whether it can keep going at that level.
Level of function
How the everyday things are going: washing, dressing, cooking, moving around the house, getting out of it.
Physical and personal health
Conditions, medications, pain, continence, sleep, appetite, and how any of it has changed.
Home and personal safety
Falls, the stairs, the bathroom, the stove, wandering, and anything that has already gone wrong.
Goals, motivations and preferences
What the person wants their life to look like, and what they want to keep doing themselves.
Support considerations
What help is already in place, paid or unpaid, and what has been tried before.
Level of complexity and risk of vulnerability
Whether several things are going wrong at once, and whether that leaves the person exposed.
Cognitive capacity and psychosocial circumstance
Memory, judgement, mood, isolation, grief, and anything affecting the ability to decide things.

The nine element names are transcribed from the diagram in Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, section 6.4, page 46 (December 2025.). The plain-English lines under them are ours. Checked 26 July 2026.

Notice the second one. Carer responsibilities and sustainability of caring is an assessment element in its own right. The assessment is not only about the person receiving care. What the people around them are carrying, and whether that can keep going, is something the assessor is meant to record.

What is not published, and why it matters

The assessor uses the Integrated Assessment Tool, which includes several validated screening tools that are mandatory to complete. Out of it come three scored things, and the law sets the exact combination that produces each funding level:

. How much the person being assessed can manage on their own, day to day.
. How much of what they need is already being covered, including by family and by help already in place.
. A yes or no on whether other things are making the situation harder, such as living alone or a carer who is struggling.

The numbers behind those scores are not public. The Rules publish the response options but not the values attached to them, which means nobody can honestly tell you "say this and you will get level 5". Anyone who does is guessing, and they are guessing with your family's care.

The one thing worth knowing before the visit

Wherever the Rules offer the same two scores with and without significant compounding factors, the compounding-factors branch lands exactly one classification level higher. That holds right across the table, with no exceptions.

This is not a loophole and it is not something to game. It is a reason not to understate. If the person being assessed lives alone, if the carer is running on empty, if there have been falls nobody wrote down, those things belong in the conversation. Families routinely leave them out, partly from pride and partly because the good days are easier to talk about, and the omission is worth a level.

If describing the hard days feels disloyal

Say this at the start of the visit, in front of the person being assessed. It gives everyone permission to be accurate.

I want to be honest about the harder days rather than the good ones, because I understand that's what this is for. It isn't a criticism of how anyone is coping.

Sources: the three scored inputs and the classification table, Aged Care Rules 2025, section 81-10 (Compilation No. 8) (Volume 1, Chapter 2, Part 3, Division 3, Subdivision B, s 81-10, table at pp 132-134. Compilation date 1 July 2026, registered 21 July 2026.). The Integrated Assessment Tool and its mandatory screening tools, Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, section 6.4. Verified 2026-07-25.

Working out what any of this actually means for you?

Tell Vera what's happening at home and where things stand with My Aged Care. You'll come away with a plan for the next fortnight, in plain English.

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How to get an aged care assessment

Everything starts at , whatever the assessment is called locally. There are four ways in, and they all land in the same place.

Call 1800 200 422. Staff can answer questions and complete the application over the phone. This is the route to take if the situation is complicated or urgent, because you can explain it in your own words.
Apply online. The Apply for an Assessment form on the My Aged Care website takes around 10 to 15 minutes and needs a Medicare card. You can complete it for yourself or on behalf of someone else.
Ask a GP, another health professional, or the hospital. They can make the referral on someone's behalf, with consent. If a hospital discharge is coming up, this is the fastest lever available, and it is worth asking for by name before discharge rather than after.
Book an Aged Care Specialist Officer. An ACSO at a centre can check eligibility, help with registration and make the referral, face to face. Call 1800 227 475.

Who can apply

Generally people aged 65 and over, or 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. No diagnosis is needed and no doctor's referral is required. The usual triggers are a change in what someone can do or remember, a new diagnosis or reduced mobility, a change in who is available to help, or a recent fall or hospital admission.

During the screening questions, older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can say they would prefer their assessment to be done by an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander assessment organisation. Those organisations began a phased rollout from August 2025 and cover some regions rather than all of them, so it is worth asking what is available locally rather than assuming.

What happens after you apply

The application goes to an assessment organisation covering that area. A Triage Delegate reviews it, speaks with the older person, and settles three things: whether they are eligible for an assessment, whether it will be a home support assessment or a comprehensive one, and how urgent it is. Only then is it allocated to an assessor.

That distinction matters. A home support assessment is the shorter one, for entry-level help like cleaning or transport, which is the pathway. A comprehensive assessment is the longer one, and it is the pathway that leads to a level. If ongoing care at home is what you are after, say so on the first call.

Sources: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, section 6.3 (December 2025.). How to apply for an assessment, My Aged Care. Support at Home: a guide for older people, families and carers (ACSO details). Checked 26 July 2026.

What the outcome letter means

Everyone assessed gets a decision in writing. It is called a , and its formal title on the page is "Outcome of your application for government-funded aged care services". It arrives with a alongside it.

The Notice of Decision names the approved services, the , any assistive technology and home modifications funding tier, and any short-term pathways. It also has to set out the reasons and evidence behind the decision, and the rights of review if you want to query or dispute it. The support plan carries the detail: the assessed needs, the goals, the approved services, the , and a date for a .

Two things families routinely miss. The first is that approval is itemised: a service that is not on the support plan is not funded, however obvious it seems that it should be. The second is that . Approval means a level exists. It does not mean the money is available or that care can start.

What each of the 8 levels is worth The classification named on the letter, what it funds a year, and how the three scores decide it.Approved, but nothing is happening The gap between approval and services starting, and what can be done inside it.

Source: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, sections 6.5 and 6.6 (December 2025.). Checked 26 July 2026.

How long does an ACAT assessment take to get?

There are two waits here and they get confused constantly, usually to families' cost. One is the wait to be assessed. The other is the wait, after approval, for funding to be released so care can actually start. They are different lengths by an order of magnitude.

The wait to be assessed

Across January to March 2026, the national median wait from referral to assessment was 25 days. In that quarter 133,359 aged care needs assessments were completed, and 98,606 referrals were still on hand at 31 March 2026. A median means half of people waited longer than that.

In the meantime, My Aged Care's own guidance is that an assessment organisation will make contact within two to six weeks. If nothing has been heard after two weeks, ring the assessment organisation directly rather than waiting politely. Progress can also be checked in a My Aged Care online account.

The wait after the assessment

The review that determines eligibility can take up to two weeks. The outcome letter is usually sent within two to six weeks of the assessment.

The other wait, which is the long one

For people who started an ongoing Support at Home package between November 2025 and March 2026, the median wait from first applying to My Aged Care to services actually beginning was 347 days, a little over eleven months. The 25-day assessment wait sits inside that figure rather than adding to it: the bulk of the eleven months comes afterwards, in the .

What the long wait is made of, and what can start before the package does

Sources: assessment median and volumes from Preparing for your assessment, My Aged Care (January to March 2026 figures). Package median from the Aged Care Act 2024 Wait Times Report (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, published May 2026, covering 1 November 2025 to 31 March 2026.). Contact and outcome-letter timeframes from What happens after an assessment, My Aged Care. Checked 26 July 2026.

Does the assessment differ by state?

The process does not. Since 9 December 2024 there has been one national assessment workforce, and the Aged Care Act 2024 and its Rules set one national process, one set of scored inputs and one set of eight funding levels. Wherever you live, you start on the same number, answer the same screening questions and are assessed against the same nine areas.

What genuinely varies is who turns up. Assessments are delivered across 22 service areas, each made up of a number of Aged Care Planning Regions, and the department contracts assessment organisations to cover them. So the organisation that visits a house in regional Victoria is a different employer from the one that visits in western Sydney, even though both are doing the same assessment under the same rules. The department publishes a searchable list of assessment organisations by service area, region, state and territory.

Waiting times vary by region too. The published median of 25 days is a national figure. We have not found a verified state-by-state breakdown of the assessment wait, so treat local timing as a question to put to the assessment organisation when the visit is booked.

ACAT assessment NSW

NSW's Aged Care Assessment Teams were run through the state health system, which is why the term is still so widely used there. Today an assessment in NSW is arranged through My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and carried out by whichever assessment organisation holds the contract for that service area. The process, the scoring and the levels are the national ones.

ACAS and ACAT assessment Victoria

Victoria called its teams ACAS, the Aged Care Assessment Service, rather than ACAT. Some Victorian health services still use that name on their own pages today. It refers to the same assessment, arranged the same way, on the same phone number.

Queensland, WA, SA, Tasmania, ACT and NT

Same answer everywhere: one national process, a locally contracted assessment organisation, and the same starting point on 1800 200 422. A number of state health services have not updated their own web pages, so you may still find "ACAT" on an official-looking state site. It is not a different service and it is not a separate queue.

Sources: Single Assessment System assessment organisations by service area, region, state and territory, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Single Assessment System workforce, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Page last updated 4 June 2025. Checked 26 July 2026.

ACAT, RAS and ACAS: what happened to the old names

Until December 2024 there were two separate groups doing aged care assessments. Aged Care Assessment Teams, known as ACATs, handled the more complex assessments. The Regional Assessment Service handled the simpler ones. In Victoria the teams were called ACAS.

On 9 December 2024 they were brought together and replaced by one national workforce, the Single Assessment System, which also absorbed the independent AN-ACC assessors. The department's own instruction was that references to ACAT, RAS, AN-ACC and the rest be replaced with "assessment organisation", and that the people doing the visits be called aged care assessors.

The law caught up a year later. The Aged Care Act 2024 commenced on 1 November 2025 and does not use the word ACAT anywhere. It calls the visit an aged care needs assessment and the person doing it an approved needs assessor.

None of which has reached page one of a search result. The term is still taught as current by much of the provider sector, and it is still printed on some state health pages. If someone tells you to book an ACAT, they are not out of date about the thing, only about its name.

And there were never any "ACAT levels"

Searching for them is frustrating because they do not exist and never did. Levels belong to the funding, not to the assessment. The assessment records what someone needs; the level follows from the scores. Under there were four levels. Under Support at Home there are eight.

See the eight levels and what each one is worth

Sources: Single Assessment System workforce, Department of Health, Disability and Ageing. Page last updated 4 June 2025. Aged Care Act 2024 (compilation C2026C00301). Section 7 (Dictionary) defines "aged care needs assessment" and "approved needs assessor". Neither "ACAT" nor "Aged Care Assessment Team" appears anywhere in the compiled Act. Checked 26 July 2026.

Common questions

What questions do they ask at an ACAT assessment?: The exact questions are not published, but the topics are. The Support at Home Program Manual names nine areas the assessment considers: level of function, physical and personal health, home and personal safety, cognitive capacity and psychosocial circumstance, and family and community support. It also covers carer responsibilities and sustainability of caring, goals and preferences, support considerations, and level of complexity and risk of vulnerability. The manual notes that list is not exhaustive.
Can you fail an aged care assessment?: It is not a test and there is no pass mark. The outcome is a decision about eligibility, and everyone assessed receives one in writing. You can be found not eligible for the services you hoped for, or approved at a lower level than expected. The outcome letter has to set out the reasons and the evidence, and it has to tell you how to seek a review, which is a right you are entitled to use.
How much does an ACAT assessment cost?: Nothing. The assessment is free, and it was free under the old ACAT arrangements too. Nobody should ever charge for arranging one, and no organisation needs to be paid to refer you. If a service offers to fast-track an assessment for a fee, that is not a government service.
Is there an ACAT assessment form to download?: No. There is no ACAT form to print and post. You apply through My Aged Care online or by phone on 1800 200 422, and the assessment organisation arranges the visit. The assessor uses their own tool during the conversation, the Integrated Assessment Tool, and you never see it as a form.
How long does an aged care assessment take?: The government does not publish how long the visit itself takes, and we will not guess at it. What is published is the wait to get one: across January to March 2026 the national median from referral to assessment was 25 days. Plan for the visit to be unhurried rather than quick, and have someone else there.
Who is eligible for an aged care needs assessment?: It is generally for people aged 65 and over, or 50 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people. You do not need a diagnosis or a referral from a doctor. You can apply for yourself, or someone can apply for you with your permission.
Is it still called an ACAT assessment?: No. Aged Care Assessment Teams were merged into the Single Assessment System on 9 December 2024, and the Aged Care Act 2024 calls it an aged care needs assessment. Plenty of websites, and some state health services, still say ACAT. If someone says it to you, they mean this assessment.
What is the difference between ACAT and My Aged Care?: My Aged Care is the front door: you ring them, and they arrange things. ACAT was one of the teams that did the assessing. So they were never alternatives. Today you still start with My Aged Care, and an assessor from an assessment organisation does the visit.
What are the ACAT levels?: There were never any ACAT levels. The levels belong to the funding, not to the assessment. Support at Home has eight classification levels, and the assessment produces the scores that decide which one applies.
Can you get an urgent assessment?: Yes. Say plainly on the first call if the situation is unsafe or someone is in hospital. Urgency is settled at the triage stage, before an assessor is even allocated, so it matters that the hard facts are said out loud at the start rather than played down.
How do you get reassessed if things get worse?: You ask for a Support Plan Review. Either you or the provider can request one when needs, goals or circumstances change, or when a service you need was never on the plan. It is the proper route for changing what is approved, and not every change needs a full review.

One human thing

Most people walk into this visit worrying they will say the wrong thing. There is no wrong thing. The only real mistake is the quiet one families make out of loyalty: describing the good week instead of the bad month, so that nobody looks like they are failing. Say the whole of it. That is what the assessor is there for, and it is the kindest thing you can do for everyone in the house.

Where to go next

Working out what any of this actually means for you?

Tell Vera what's happening at home and where things stand with My Aged Care. You'll come away with a plan for the next fortnight, in plain English.

Talk it through with Vera

Free. Private. No account needed.