Home Care Package Level 1: what it's worth under Support at Home (and the hours it buys now)

Quarterly budget: $2,818
Annual budget: $11,272
Sits between: Level 1 and Level 2
Unspent HCP funds: Carried over in full

A Home Care Package Level 1 is now a Support at Home budget of $2,818 a quarter, about $11,272 a year, indexed 1 July 2026. That budget buys roughly 1.5 to 2 hours a week of everyday help, or 1 to 1.5 of nursing and clinical care, or 0.5 to 1 of allied health. Or any mix, from one budget. Self-managed at platform rates, everyday help stretches to about 3.0 hours a week.

At published full-service weekday rates, after the standard 10% care management fee. Not a quote.

Every figure on this page checked 22 July 2026.

Because nobody explained the change in plain words. The package your family spent months securing still exists, and the dollars carried across, but the name changed, the budget cycle changed and the contribution rules changed, all at once. The confusion is built into the system, not into your family. This page is the plain-language version, with the traps marked.

Your package

Level 1·$2,753 a quarter

about $11,010 a year

Confused? Let your letter do the talking.

Upload the My Aged Care letter or a photo of it, and Vera reads it and tells you the level and what it means.

Used once to read your level, then discarded straight away. We never store it or log what's in it.

A Level 1 package buys roughly

1.5 to 2 hours a week of everyday help
1 to 1.5 hours a week of nursing and clinical care
0.5 to 1 hours a week of allied health

Or any mix, from one budget.

At published full-service weekday rates, after the standard 10% care management fee. Not a quote. Care management cap: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, section 8.9 (care management account).

Which rate should we use?

Shown against the published range across every provider we track. Pick your provider, or enter a rate you've been quoted, for a figure specific to you.

See how the big providers compare

An example week

Adjust it to match your plan

Available services depend on what is in your approved plan.

Everyday help

Personal care, domestic help, social support, respite, nursing assistants

1.5hours a week

This week

1.5hours a week

a visit or two most weeks

Nursing and clinical care

Enrolled and registered nursing, allied health assistants

≈ one nurse visit a week

0.0hours a week

Allied health professionals

Physiotherapy, occupational therapy and other allied health professionals

0.0hours a week

about $180 of $191 a week

This week is fully allocated.

This calculator is here to give you a feel for what a package can buy. It is an estimate built from providers' published prices, not advice or a quote. Rates and rules change, and your own agreement is what counts. Check the numbers with your provider or My Aged Care before you rely on them.

Evenings and weekends cost more

These figures are weekday daytime. Providers load: Evening about +3-25% · Saturday +21-51% · Sunday +44-76% · Public holidays +86-150%.

Allied health is mostly weekday-only.

Not getting the hours these numbers say you should?

Tell Vera what the package is and what it currently buys. You'll come away with a plan for getting more from the same budget, whether that's a conversation with the provider or a change.

Talk it through with Vera

Free. Private. No account needed.

A few things worth knowing

Short visits usually cost more than a pro-rata slice of the minimum visit length.
Some providers blend Saturday and Sunday into one weekend rate rather than pricing them separately.
Overnight respite is often priced as a flat block, not an hourly rate.

Rate sources: Department of Health, Funding classifications for Support at Home · Support at Home program classifications and budgets (PDF) . Individual provider and tier rates carry their own verified dates alongside each figure above. Budgets verified against the Department of Health on 2026-07-22; budgets index every 1 July, rates re-verified each January and July.

This calculator opens on the closest current Support at Home level (Level 1). Use the "I'm on an old Home Care Package" link under the level buttons to switch it to your exact transitioned Level 1 budget.

What does "transitioned" mean for a Level 1 package?

Your Level 1 budget carried straight across into , at the same dollar value: $2,818 a quarter, $11,272 a year. That sits between the ongoing Level 1 ($11,010 a year) and Level 2 ($16,451 a year) levels, but it isn't one of the 8 ongoing . It's the legacy Level 1 allocation, kept whole under the new program.

means your parent was already in the Home Care Package system when Support at Home replaced it on 1 November 2025. The move happened automatically, with no new assessment, and the dollars stayed the same.

What changed is everything around those dollars. The now arrives as one amount every three months, instead of building up bit by bit each month. Services are grouped into three types: , , and . Contributions are worked out service by service now, instead of as one flat fee.

If your parent has a reassessment later, they move onto one of the 8 ongoing Support at Home levels, and the Level 1 label retires.

What Level 1 used to mean

Under the Home Care Packages program, the government described a Level 1 package in a single line: "Supports people with basic care needs."

Those were the government's own words, not a provider's. They stayed the same from 2015 until the program closed.

It is in the past tense because the program closed on 31 October 2025. Support at Home has 8 ongoing levels, and the government publishes no needs label for any of them. A level now comes out of the scores an assessor records in an , not out of a description of care needs.

So there is no new level that means "basic care needs". Nobody can tell you which of the 8 your parent would be given without a reassessment. What each of the 8 levels is worth in money is published, though, and you can see all of them.

What each of the 8 current levels is worth →

Descriptor quoted from the Home Care Packages Programme Operational Manual: a guide for home care providers (Department of Health and Ageing). Section 2.1 "Package levels", updated December 2015. Describes a program that closed on 31 October 2025. Verified 2026-07-25, when the department's own copy of the manual was no longer online, so there is nothing live to link to. Corroborated against My Aged Care's Home Care Packages page, whose wording matched from July 2019 to the day the program closed.

What does "no worse off" mean under Support at Home?

When the government moved everyone across, it promised that people already in the system would be because of the change. We haven't been able to verify the official wording for that promise, so here is what it means in practice.

This one is worth reading twice, because the rule is broader than most people expect. If, on or before 12 September 2024, your parent was receiving a Home Care Package, waiting on the national priority queue for one, or already assessed as eligible for one, they are covered by this protection.

Families who are covered pay the grandfathered rates below, not the standard means-tested rates. Grandfathered full pensioners pay nothing at all. Part pensioners and Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holders pay between 0% and 25%, depending on their income. Self-funded retirees without a card pay a flat 25%, with a fortnightly cap on the total amount payable.

People who joined the system after 12 September 2024 still transitioned, but they pay the standard rates.

Full pensioner (grandfathered, no worse off)

Clinical supports: 0%
Independence: 0%
Everyday living: 0%

Part pensioner or CSHC holder (grandfathered, no worse off)

Clinical supports: 0%
Independence: 0%-25%
Everyday living: 0%-25%

Self-funded (grandfathered, no worse off)

Clinical supports: 0%
Independence: 25%
Everyday living: 25%

Grandfathered "no worse off" contribution rates by means-tested band
Band	Clinical supports	Independence	Everyday living
Full pensioner (grandfathered, no worse off)	0%	0%	0%
Part pensioner or CSHC holder (grandfathered, no worse off)	0%	0%-25%	0%-25%
Self-funded (grandfathered, no worse off)	0%	25%	25%

Grandfathered bands apply to participants who, on or before 12 September 2024, were receiving a Home Care Package, on the national priority queue, or assessed as eligible for one (Support at Home Program Manual, section 9.4.1). Some bands carry a fortnightly cap, determined by income, on the total amount payable. See contribution rates for the full picture, including the standard (non-grandfathered) bands.

What happens to unspent funds when you transition?

Any your parent had in their Home Care Package on transition day moved across into their Support at Home balance, on top of the ongoing quarterly budget. Carryover works differently under the new program, and there's a limit on how much rolls over each quarter. It's worth knowing that limit before you plan around a large balance.

Read the full unspent funds rules →

Three things that trip families up at Level 1

1. Approved doesn't mean released
An approval letter is not services. Approval puts your parent in the national priority queue, and nothing is delivered until the package is released and a provider starts delivering it. If your family is waiting on a move up from Level 1, the same rule applies to the new classification: approved starts the wait, released ends it.
2. The silent opt-out
records whether an approval is opted in to the national priority queue, and an opted-out approval just sits there. At least one family we've helped found their parent recorded as opted out without anyone in the family knowing. One call to My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 confirms the opt-in status. The exact words to use are further down this page.
3. Confirm it in dollars
Some supports on top of an old package may be treated differently under a new classification. Families ask about this most often for the dementia supplement. Before you agree to any move or reassessment, get the treatment confirmed in dollars, in writing. A verbal reassurance is not enough.
The dollar confirmation
Before agreeing to any move or reassessment.
"Please confirm, in dollars, the current annual value of [name]'s grandfathered arrangement versus the proposed new classification, including all supplements."

The steps that matter

Check the letter and the opt-in status before anything else. Find the most recent My Aged Care letter, and confirm the classification and the dollar figure it states. Or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, and ask directly whether your parent is opted in to the national priority system.
If a move to a new classification is on the table, ask for the dollar comparison in writing, using the script above. Never agree to a move without seeing the numbers first.
If needs have risen, get the reassessment right. Describe a bad day, and be specific about what has changed. Ask for the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme by name if your parent needs any equipment or rails. After a fall, a hospital stay or a sharp decline, ask for the Restorative Care Pathway by name too.
Know which wait you're actually in. Release timeframes depend on the priority category the assessor recorded. If things have got worse since the assessment, you can ask for the priority to be looked at again. See the real wait times.
Keep the existing services running until the new arrangement actually starts. Nothing gets switched off on your say-so in the meantime.

Words to have ready

For the call to My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, the opt-in check, word for word:

The opt-in check

For the call to My Aged Care (1800 200 422).

"Can you confirm [name] is opted in to the national priority system, what priority category they're in, and the expected release timeframe?"

You're allowed to ask money questions this bluntly. It's what the system expects of people who know how it works, and now that's you.

Level 1 against the other legacy levels

Quarterly budget: $2,818
Annual budget: $11,272
Hours a week, self-managed: ~3.0
Hours a week, published full-service: ~1.4-2.0

Quarterly budget: $4,955
Annual budget: $19,822
Hours a week, self-managed: ~5.2
Hours a week, published full-service: ~2.5-3.5

Quarterly budget: $10,787
Annual budget: $43,149
Hours a week, self-managed: ~11.3
Hours a week, published full-service: ~5.5-7.7

Quarterly budget: $16,354
Annual budget: $65,416
Hours a week, self-managed: ~17.2
Hours a week, published full-service: ~8.4-11.7

Home Care Package Level 1 against the other legacy levels
HCP level	Quarterly budget	Annual budget	Hours a week, self-managed	Hours a week, published full-service
1	$2,818	$11,272	~3.0	~1.4-2.0
2	$4,955	$19,822	~5.2	~2.5-3.5
3	$10,787	$43,149	~11.3	~5.5-7.7
4	$16,354	$65,416	~17.2	~8.4-11.7

Self-managed is weekday personal care at platform rates. Published full-service is the range across the providers compared on the hours calculator. Both are after 10% care management, over 52 weeks. A baseline for comparison, not a quote.

Common questions

What's the difference between a Level 1 and a Level 2 home care package?

Under transitioned Support at Home funding, a Level 1 home care package is worth $2,818 a quarter (about $11,272 a year) and a Level 2 is worth $4,955 a quarter (about $19,822 a year). The difference buys roughly 1.1 more hours of care a week at published full-service weekday rates.

What is the highest home care package?

Level 4 is the highest of the four legacy Home Care Package levels, now transitioned into Support at Home at $16,354 a quarter (about $65,416 a year). Support at Home itself has 8 ongoing levels, and a reassessment can move someone beyond Level 4, up to $80,137 a year at Level 8.

What is the wait time for Level 1 home care package?

There is no single published figure for a Level 1 package. Release from the national priority queue depends mainly on the priority category the assessor recorded, from urgent through to standard, not on the level alone. The verified current timeframes, category by category, live on our wait times page. See the real wait times →

One human thing

You don't have to hold all of this in your head. Two scripts and one phone number cover most of it, and the rest can wait until it's actually needed.

Budgets sourced from Department of Health, Funding classifications for Support at Home · Support at Home program classifications and budgets (PDF) , verified 2026-07-22. Budgets index every 1 July.

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.