Support at Home Level 6: how many hours does it buy?
- Everyday help hours a week
- 5.5 to 9
- Care management cap
- 10%
At published full-service weekday rates, after care management.
The most a provider can allocate to managing the package.
A Level 6 Support at Home package is $12,341 a quarter (about $49,365 a year), indexed 1 July 2026. A Level 6 package buys roughly 5.5 to 9 hours a week of everyday help, or 4 to 6.5 of nursing and clinical care, or 3 to 5 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.
Every figure on this page checked 26 July 2026, next check due 20 September 2026.
The range is not a rounding error. It comes from three very differently priced things a package can buy: everyday help, nursing and clinical care, and allied health. Who is charging matters just as much, because published rates for the same service sit a long way apart.
What this looks like in a week
At a typical published rate, a Level 6 budget covers about 7 hours a week of everyday help. The published range is 5.5 to 9 hours a week. Providers charge genuinely different amounts for the same service, so the same budget buys different amounts of care depending on who you choose. You can see how far apart their rates sit.
With the full 10% allocation set aside, a Level 6 budget comes to about $854.40 a week to spend on services. That is the figure every week below is set against, and it is the cautious end of it: 10% is a cap, so a provider that allocates less leaves more.
Read all of that as a typical price, not a typical week. Nothing published ties a funding level to a set list of services, or to a number of visits. How the hours get arranged is worked out in the , not decided by the level.
These are weeks that families ask us to price. Nothing published says a level should contain any of them. Each one is costed at published provider rates and then set against what this budget covers, so you can see where the week you have in mind lands.
An hour of personal care every day
- Hours a week
- 7
- What it costs
- $847 a week$679 to $945 across providers
- Against a Level 6 budget
- Just inside this budget, about $7 a week spare
Weekday personal care, a weekly nurse and a clean
- Hours a week
- 7.5
- What it costs
- $938 a week$764 to $1,085 across providers
- Against a Level 6 budget
- About $84 a week more than this budget covers
An hour morning and an hour evening, every day
- Hours a week
- 14
- What it costs
- $1,694 a week$1,358 to $1,890 across providers
- Against a Level 6 budget
- About $840 a week more than this budget covers
| A week like this | Hours a week | What it costs | Against a Level 6 budget |
|---|---|---|---|
| An hour of personal care every day | 7 | $847 a week$679 to $945 across providers | Just inside this budget, about $7 a week spare |
| Weekday personal care, a weekly nurse and a clean | 7.5 | $938 a week$764 to $1,085 across providers | About $84 a week more than this budget covers |
| An hour morning and an hour evening, every day | 14 | $1,694 a week$1,358 to $1,890 across providers | About $840 a week more than this budget covers |
Costed at the weekday rates published by the providers on our provider comparison page: the middle figure is the median published rate, the range under it is the cheapest and the dearest. Budgets from the Department of Health. Arithmetic on published numbers, not a quote. Care management cap: Support at Home Program Manual v4.2, section 8.9 (care management account). Verified 24 July 2026.
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.
What would you pay out of pocket at Level 6?
A Support at Home is a percentage of what gets spent, and the percentage is set by income and by the kind of service, never by the level. So a bigger budget spent in full means more dollars at the same rate. At Level 6, on a budget spent 90% on everyday help and 10% on nursing and clinical care, a full pensioner would pay roughly $1,999 to $6,998 a year and a self funded retiree roughly $19,993 to $31,989.
This is money invoiced on top. It does not come out of the budget, and it does not reduce the hours the budget buys.
Full pensioner
- Per quarter
- $500 to $1,749
- Per year
- $1,999 to $6,998
Part pensioner or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holder
- Per quarter
- $500 to $7,997
- Per year
- $1,999 to $31,989
Self-funded
- Per quarter
- $4,998 to $7,997
- Per year
- $19,993 to $31,989
| Income band | Per quarter | Per year |
|---|---|---|
| Full pensioner | $500 to $1,749 | $1,999 to $6,998 |
| Part pensioner or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card holder | $500 to $7,997 | $1,999 to $31,989 |
| Self-funded | $4,998 to $7,997 | $19,993 to $31,989 |
Contribution rates from the Support at Home program manual, version 4.2 (December 2025), section 9. Budget from the Department of Health. Verified 26 July 2026.
These figures assume the same mix at every level. Nine tenths of the budget goes to everyday help and one tenth to nursing and clinical care, after the care management allocation is set aside. The mix is an assumption, not an entitlement, and nothing published ties a level to a mix. It is held identical across all eight levels on purpose, so the only reason the numbers differ from level to level is the size of the budget.
Why the hourly rate is not in this
A contribution is a percentage of what gets spent, and the spend here is a share of the budget. So what a provider charges an hour cancels out of the arithmetic entirely. That is why these figures carry no "at published rates" hedge, unlike the week costs above.
Care management is free, at every level
Care management is left out of the working. It sits in the clinical supports category, where the contribution rate is nil in every income band, so putting it back would not change the figure.
Every row is a span rather than one number. Everyday help covers two categories charged at different rates, independence services and everyday living services, and which of the two an hour falls into depends on what was delivered. The part pension figure is a range because two separate things are unknown at once. Which category the spending fell into, and where an income sits on the sliding scale between the two rates. The bottom of the range is the rate a full pensioner pays. The top is the rate a self funded retiree pays. Nothing published says where inside that span a particular income lands.
One thing to check before you use any of these figures. If the first approval for a package was on or before 12 September 2024, the grandfathered rates apply instead, and they are much lower.
Contribution rates by income band, including the grandfathered ones →What is different about a Level 6 budget
Every rule below applies at every level. What each one comes to in dollars does not, and these are the figures they produce at Level 6.
Unspent money carries over, up to $1,234.13
carries over into the next quarter, but only up to a cap. The cap is the higher of $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly budget. At Level 6 that 10% comes to $1,234.13, so the cap is $1,234.13.
From Level 5 up the percentage arm of the rule wins, so a bigger budget carries more than a smaller one.
Support at Home program manual, version 4.2, section 9.7.1.
What an empty quarter costs at Level 6
Services can be paused for a hospital stay, transition care, residential respite or personal reasons, and the quarterly budget keeps being credited while they are. But only the carryover cap survives into the next quarter.
At Level 6 that means a quarter with nothing delivered costs about $11,107: $12,341 arrives, $1,234.13 carries, and the rest goes back.
Support at Home program manual, version 4.2, section 12.2.
A letter can show less than this
If a letter names a smaller figure than the published Level 6 budget, that is probably , which the department also calls the minimum service offer. It is 60% of the classification total, so about $7,405 a quarter instead of $12,341.
This is not something Level 6 does, and no level is exempt from it. It applies when demand for Support at Home is running ahead of what can be allocated in full.
Services start on it, and the remaining 40% is allocated when funding becomes available and confirmed by a second letter. Full funding goes out straight away to anyone in the urgent priority category, or approved for the restorative or end of life pathways.
Support at Home program manual, version 4.2, section 6.8.1.
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 VeraFree. Private. No account needed.
How your level was decided
Your level is not chosen from a description of what someone can or cannot do. It is worked out from three things the assessor scores, and the law sets the exact combination that produces each level.
The three are a , a , and a yes or no on . Here they are in the law's words and then in plain ones.
Home support functional independence score
How much the person being assessed can manage on their own day to day, scored by the assessor.
Home support needs met score
How much of what they need is already being covered, including by family and by help they already receive.
Significant compounding factors
A yes or no on whether other things are making the situation harder, such as living alone or a carer who is struggling.
Why this level and not another
There are two ways to arrive at Level 6. So two people on the same level can look quite different.
- With other things making it harder. More of what the person being assessed needs is already being covered.
- Without them. Less of what they need is being covered.
The score for how they manage day to day is the same on both routes.
What changed from Level 5
Level 6 is the first level with both routes inside the lowest functional independence band. Nothing about that score separates it from Level 7 or Level 8. What separates its own two routes is the needs met band, 29 to 36 on one and 23 to 28 on the other, and whether compounding factors were recorded.
Worth checking
One missing note is worth a whole level
Take the same two scores. With other things making it harder, they give Level 6. Without, they give Level 5. That holds at every step of the scale, with no exceptions.
So the written record matters as much as the need. If nobody wrote down what makes the situation harder, the level lands one step lower. That is not a judgement call. It is what the law's table does.
Things like living alone, or a carer who is struggling, count here. If that is true in your situation and it was never written down, that is a concrete reason to ask for a new assessment.
The assessment counts the help you already give
Here is the part families are almost never told. What is already being done for the person being assessed goes into the score, and that includes what the family does.
Take two people who manage day to day about equally well. The one with more of their needs already covered is classified lower. The law's table works that way at every level.
This is not a reason to do less. It is a reason to make sure the assessor hears all of it. What is not covered. What only happens because someone in the family does it. And what goes wrong on the bad days.
This is why a level is not something to argue about with a provider. A provider can't change it, because a provider didn't set it. The came out of those three scores, so the way to move it is a new . How long the change then takes depends on the priority category the assessor records.
How priority categories decide the wait →There is one thing we still can't tell you, and nor can anyone else. The exact wording of the criteria is below. It says which scores produce which level. It does not say what those scores mean in daily life, and nobody publishes that link. No government document says what a Level 6 package is meant to buy, or how many hours it should come to. So a page that gives you one figure for the hours a level buys, and calls it a fact, is guessing. The hours on this page are worked out from the budget and published provider rates, and the calculator shows that working.
The exact wording in the Rules
This is what the law sets out for Level 6. The numbers are assessment scores. They are not hours, and not dollars.
One way in
- Home support functional independence score
- 0-24
- Home support needs met score
- 29-36
- Significant compounding factors
- Yes
The other way in
- Home support functional independence score
- 0-24
- Home support needs met score
- 23-28
- Significant compounding factors
- No
Set out in Aged Care Rules 2025, section 81-10 (Compilation No. 8), at s 81-10(1) item 7, pp 133-134. 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. Verified 2026-07-25.
Level 6 against the other levels
| Level | Annual budget | Hours a week, self-managed | Hours a week, published full-service |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | $11,010 | ~2.9 | ~1.4-2.0 |
| 2 | $16,451 | ~4.3 | ~2.1-2.9 |
| 3 | $22,537 | ~5.9 | ~2.9-4.0 |
| 4 | $30,469 | ~8.0 | ~3.9-5.4 |
| 5 | $40,730 | ~10.7 | ~5.2-7.3 |
| 6 | $49,365 | ~13.0 | ~6.3-8.8 |
| 7 | $59,660 | ~15.7 | ~7.6-10.6 |
| 8 | $80,137 | ~21.1 | ~10.3-14.3 |
Self-managed is weekday personal care at platform rates. Published full-service is the range across the providers compared on this page. Both are after 10% care management, over 52 weeks. A baseline for comparison, not a quote.
Common questions
Does anything change in how we are managed at Level 6?
Possibly, depending on the provider. The program manual gives an example of a provider choosing to appoint a clinically qualified for everyone on the End-of-Life Pathway, or for everyone at classification level 6 or higher. A clinically qualified care partner holds a university level health qualification such as nursing, social work or physiotherapy. Read it as what it is. It is an example of a staffing choice a provider might make, not a rule and not an entitlement. It is still worth asking your provider what they do.
How much of a Level 6 budget is actually ours to spend?
Ninety per cent. Ten per cent of the quarterly budget, about $1,234 at Level 6, goes to care management, and it does not stay attached to you. It is pooled at the service delivery branch and shared across everyone the provider supports there. A higher classification puts more dollars into that pool. It does not buy a guaranteed share of it, and the manual says explicitly that care management hours should not be allocated solely on classification.
Things have got worse, but the level did not move. Why not?
Because one of the three scores has already bottomed out. From Level 6 up, every route in the Rules sits in the lowest functional independence band. Once someone is scored inside that band, being scored lower still cannot lift the classification on its own, because there is nowhere lower to go. What can move it is the second score, which is how much of the need is already covered, and a compounding factors finding. So a reassessment argued on decline alone may not be the one to ask for.
Can the classification go down at the next assessment?
We will not guess at this one. The only place the department says a classification cannot be reduced is at the end of a restorative care episode, and that statement is written for that situation alone. Outside it, nothing published says a reassessment can only go up. If someone tells you a level can never be reduced, ask them where it says so.
How much more does Level 6 buy than Level 5?
About 21% more money, from $40,730 to $49,365 a year. At a typical published rate that adds about 1 hour a week of everyday help, taking it from about 6 to about 7. Those hours are worked out from the budget and published provider rates, not from any government figure, because no government figure exists.
Where to go next
- What is the Support at Home program? The whole map: levels, budgets, what a package pays for, and what to check first.
- Compare providers See how far apart published rates sit, and what that does to the hours a budget buys.
- Contribution rates What you pay on top of the package, by income band and service category.
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 VeraFree. Private. No account needed.