Can you use the Restorative Care Pathway and still wait for the ongoing package?

Yes for the waiting, and the funding never overlaps: a restorative care episode is a separate short-term classification and does not touch the ongoing quarterly budget. Holding both at the same time is where the published position is unsettled. The Support at Home program manual v4.2 says a restorative episode ends the moment an ongoing classification is approved. In the same chapter, it also says this was to be amended from February 2026 so both can be held together. As at 26 July 2026 no later version of the manual had been published resolving the two statements, so ask the assessor to confirm in writing which applies before an episode starts.

Does using assistive technology funding reduce the main package budget?

No. Funding for assistive technology and home modifications is separate from the budget for ongoing or other short-term Support at Home services, with its own tiers and its own 12-month spending period. One exception is worth knowing: someone who transitioned from a Home Care Package must draw on their Home Care Package Commonwealth unspent funds first, before the provider can claim against the AT-HM funding account.

Who should you ring first?

My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, for anything that needs an assessment or a Support Plan Review. That covers the Restorative Care Pathway, an assistive technology or home modifications tier, and an urgent referral to CHSP. Ring the provider only once funding has actually been allocated, because until then there is no provider role to play.

What happens if the 56 days run out?

The funding is withdrawn, and the person is removed from the Support at Home Priority System. It is recoverable. Rejoining means contacting My Aged Care, and the date of entry is recorded as the date of the original Support at Home approval rather than the date of rejoining. A further aged care assessment is not needed unless needs have changed.

Approved and waiting: what you can actually do now

Restorative care episode: $6,011.04
Equipment and home changes: Up to $15,000
Restorative care wait: 163 days
Deadline once funding lands: 56 days

Being approved for Support at Home and then hearing nothing for months is the ordinary experience, not a sign that a step was missed. The median wait from first applying to My Aged Care to services actually starting is 347 days.

Two funded pathways can move while an ongoing package sits in the queue, and neither one draws on the package budget. The Restorative Care Pathway funds $6,011.04 of intensive allied health and nursing over up to 16 weeks. The Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme funds up to $15,000 of equipment and home changes. Both are decided at an aged care assessment, so both have to be asked for by name. Interim access to CHSP covers the shorter emergencies (verified 26 July 2026).

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

The letter arrived, it said approved, and everyone let out a breath. Then nothing. Weeks of nothing, and the growing suspicion that some form was never sent. It usually wasn't a form. Approval and funding are two separate events in this system, and the gap between them is measured in months. What nobody says out loud at approval time is that the gap is not empty. There are things inside it with their own money and their own paperwork, and they are the ones you have to name yourself, because they are rarely offered.

What to do this week

Find the most recent and read what it says about short-term pathways. Approval for the or an tier is recorded there, and plenty of families have one already without knowing.
If neither appears on the letter, ring My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and ask for them by name. Both are decided at an aged care , so the request is for an assessment or a reassessment, not a favour from a provider.
If Support at Home services are already being delivered, the route is a instead. A provider can request one, and so can the person receiving care.
Write down what has changed since the last assessment, with dates. Falls, a hospital stay, a diagnosis, a carer who can no longer manage. Every pathway on this page is decided on assessed need, and undocumented need is invisible to the process.
Ask the GP or a hospital discharge planner for a short letter covering those facts. It is the single cheapest thing you can do to change an assessment outcome.
Diarise nothing yet for the package itself. But read the 56-day section at the bottom of this page now, so the deadline is not a surprise on the day the funding letter arrives.

The Restorative Care Pathway: the faster funded track

The Restorative Care Pathway funds a short, intensive burst of allied health and nursing aimed at getting someone back on their feet after a setback. That setback might be a fall, an illness, a hospital stay, or a sharp loss of confidence. An episode runs for up to 16 consecutive weeks and carries its own funding, $6,011.04 as at 26 July 2026, indexed each July. It is a separate short-term classification, which is the part that matters most while waiting. Using it costs nothing from the ongoing package budget, and it does not affect the place in the queue.

Faster, but not fast

Restorative care approvals are allocated funding immediately rather than waiting in the , so the pathway genuinely skips the longest part of the delay. It still is not quick. Measured across the program's first five months, restorative care commenced at a median of 163 days from first application, against 347 days for an ongoing package. The remaining wait is the assessment, not the money. Anyone promising an episode inside a fortnight is describing something the published data does not support.

Who it is for

Eligibility is decided at an aged care assessment against three suitability criteria, and all three have to be met.

A short burst would be enough. There is a demonstrated need for short-term targeted support. That support is likely to let the person keep living at home without ongoing Support at Home services, or to let them stay at their current instead of needing a higher one.
The problem is a clinical one. Intensive allied health or nursing would likely address something that benefits from several clinical professionals working together over a short period. Physiotherapy after a fall is the archetype; help with the housework is not.
The person wants to do it. The assessment looks for willingness and capacity to set goals and take part actively. This is a working pathway with a goal plan, not a delivered service.

Four things rule it out. The first is being eligible for or recently on the End-of-Life Pathway. The second is having already used two episodes or two units of funding in the past 12 months, or having finished an episode within the last 90 days. The third and fourth are receiving or being eligible for the Transition Care Programme, and being in permanent residential aged care.

How to ask for it

If there has been no assessment yet, or the last one predates the setback, ring My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and say the words "Restorative Care Pathway". If the person is in hospital now, ask the discharge planner to raise it before discharge. An in-hospital assessment captures the facts while they are still fresh and documented. If Support at Home services are already running, the route is a Support Plan Review, which the provider or the participant can request. That is the same door used to ask for extra funding inside an episode.

Asking for the pathway

For the My Aged Care call, or for the discharge planner.

"I'd like to ask about the Restorative Care Pathway for [name]. They've had [what happened, with the date], and we think a short block of allied health would help them get back to managing at home. What do we need to do to have that assessed?"

If a provider is already involved

"Please submit a Support Plan Review requesting access to the Restorative Care Pathway, and send me a copy of what you submit."

What an episode costs

Clinical supports inside an episode, which is most of what an episode is, carry no participant contribution at all. Nursing and allied health are fully funded by government for everyone. Anything in the or categories still attracts the usual contribution at whatever rate applies. Inside an episode, those services are only meant to be there in service of the clinical goals. What the contribution rates are is on the contributions page.

There is one funding rule inside an episode that is genuinely unusual, and it is worth understanding before it is spent rather than after. An ongoing budget sets aside 10% of itself for . A restorative episode has no equivalent cap. The manual says there is no specific limit or amount deducted for restorative care management, and that the share is agreed between provider and participant, and should be proportionate. Read that carefully, because it cuts both ways. No cap does not mean no cost. It means the ceiling is a conversation, and the conversation is easier to have at the start.

Before the episode starts

To the provider, in writing.

"Before we begin, please tell me in writing roughly what share of the episode budget you expect to spend on restorative care management, and how much is left for the allied health and nursing itself."

What one episode covers

How long an episode runs: Up to 16 consecutive weeks. There are no leave provisions, so the clock does not pause.
What one episode funds: $6,011.04, indexed each July. Mostly allied health and nursing.
If that is not enough: A second unit of up to $6,000 can be approved inside the same episode on written evidence, taking it to about $12,000.
How often it can be used: 2 units of funding in any 12-month period, and two separate episodes must be at least 3 months apart.
Effect on the ongoing budget: None. Restorative care funding is a separate short-term classification, not a draw on the quarterly budget.
What it costs the participant: Nothing for clinical supports such as nursing and allied health. Independence and everyday living services inside an episode attract the usual contribution.
When the funding is allocated: Immediately on approval. Restorative care approvals do not sit in the priority queue waiting for funding to free up.

Source: Support at Home program manual v4.2 (December 2025), sections 6.7.3.1 (funding amount), 6.8 (immediate allocation), 14.4 and 14.4.2 (episode length, units and additional funding), 14.5 (care management), 14.8 (no leave provisions) and 14.10 (contributions). Read from the published PDF and checked 26 July 2026.

Illustrative scenario

A hospital discharge that had somewhere to go

A composite, written to show how the pieces fit rather than to describe one family. Ray, 84, comes off a fractured wrist and three weeks in hospital much less steady than he went in. His daughter is told the ongoing package is still months away. At the discharge meeting she asks for the Restorative Care Pathway by name, and the discharge planner writes up the fall, the loss of grip strength and the fact that Ray now avoids the stairs. The assessment happens, the approval names the pathway, and the funding is allocated without joining the queue. It still takes months to reach the point of starting, because the assessment is where the wait now lives. When the episode runs, it is physiotherapy, an occupational therapy visit and a nurse, and the ongoing package keeps its place in the queue the whole time.

Still waiting, with no idea what happens next?

Tell Vera where things stand and what the last letter said. You'll come away knowing which of the five causes you're in, what to ask for, and what can start before the package does.

Talk it through with Vera

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Equipment and home changes: funding that never touches the package

The Assistive Technology and Home Modifications scheme, AT-HM, is the second pot. It pays for the things that make a house survivable: grab rails in the bathroom, internal and external handrails, ramps and stair lifts, a widened doorway, and a redesigned bathroom. On the equipment side, it also covers walking frames, wheelchairs, shower chairs, commodes and non-slip mats. It pays for the professional who prescribes them, too, and for the visit that checks they are being used safely.

It does not pay for general renovations, ordinary repairs and maintenance, household appliances, or changes to the layout of a house that are not related to assessed support needs. Anything better funded by another national or state scheme sits outside it too.

The tiers

An assessor recommends a tier for assistive technology, a tier for home modifications, or both. Someone can hold both at once. Each allocation runs for 12 months, and the money must be spent inside that window rather than merely committed.

Low

Assistive technology (up to): $500
Home modifications (up to): $500
Time to spend it: 12 months

Medium

Assistive technology (up to): $2,000
Home modifications (up to): $2,000
Time to spend it: 12 months

High

Assistive technology (up to): $15,000 or more
Home modifications (up to): $15,000
Time to spend it: 12 months

Assistive technology and home modifications funding tiers
Funding tier	Assistive technology (up to)	Home modifications (up to)	Time to spend it
Low	$500	$500	12 months
Medium	$2,000	$2,000	12 months
High	$15,000 or more	$15,000	12 months

Source: Support at Home program manual v4.2 (December 2025), sections 6.7.3.4 and 13.3. High tier assistive technology is not capped at $15,000: costs above it can be funded with evidence such as a valid prescription. High tier home modifications is capped at $15,000 per lifetime, and that period can be extended once to 24 months for complex work if evidence of progress reaches Services Australia inside the first 12. Checked 26 July 2026.

Two extensions are worth knowing about. Complex home modifications that cannot realistically be finished inside 12 months can have the funding period extended by another 12, to 24 months in total. That extension needs evidence of progress to go to Services Australia within the first year. And where an assessment identifies one of the progressive conditions named in the legislation, assistive technology funding runs for 24 months automatically, with a further 24-month extension available on request.

Is it a separate queue?

Separate funding, yes, and the manual is explicit about it. AT-HM funding is separate from the budget for ongoing or other short-term Support at Home services, with its own tiers and its own clock. A separate queue is a different claim, and the department does not publish one. What is published is how long it took in practice. In the first wait-times report, assistive technology commenced at a median of 101 days from first application and home modifications at 102 days, against 347 days for an ongoing package. That is strong evidence it moves on a different track. It is not a published timeframe, and nobody should be quoting it back as a commitment.

How to ask, and what it costs

Assessors decide AT-HM at the aged care assessment, weighing functional ability and the home environment. That makes the assessment the moment to raise it, and to make sure the assessor sees the actual bathroom. For anyone already receiving services, a Support Plan Review is the route. It is also the route to a higher tier, when the first one turns out to be too small to cover the wrap-around services.

On cost: the prescription and the wrap-around services, the delivery, the set-up, the training, the follow-up visit, all sit in the category and carry no participant contribution. The items themselves attract a contribution at the independence category rate. So the professional advice around a piece of equipment is free to the participant, and the equipment is not.

At the assessment

Say it before the assessor leaves the house.

"I'd like an assistive technology and home modifications funding tier assessed as well. Can you look at the bathroom and the front steps while you're here, and record what you see?"

Illustrative scenario

The bathroom that got done first

Another composite. Bev and her husband Tom have been waiting on Tom's ongoing package with no date in sight, and the thing keeping Bev awake is the shower: a step over a lip, nothing to hold. At the assessment she asks for a home modifications tier by name and walks the assessor into the bathroom. The Notice of Decision comes back with a tier attached. An occupational therapist prescribes, which costs them nothing, and the rails and the level entry are funded from an allocation that has never touched the package budget. The package is still in the queue. The shower is no longer the emergency it was.

What else can start now

Three shorter bridges, each covered properly on its own page. They run alongside the queue rather than instead of it.

Interim accessCHSP while you wait Entry-level help through a separate, simpler assessment. There is also a published emergency route for people waiting on a budget allocation with an urgent health or safety need.Paying yourselfWhat private care costs an hour Real hourly rates for a short private bridge, and what private health insurance does and does not cover at home.

sits across both. Support at Home participants can access additional planned respite through CHSP, including cottage respite, which is not available under Support at Home at all. An urgent cottage respite referral can be issued by ringing My Aged Care directly. The CHSP page covers which circumstances qualify and what the fees are, and the private-pay page covers residential respite as a bridge. One thing to budget for either way: the CHSP client contribution is paid out of pocket and cannot be met from a Support at Home funding allocation.

The 56-day clock, and what it really means

This one is real, it is published, and it catches families at the worst possible moment: right after the good news. Once Support at Home funding is allocated, there are 56 calendar days from the date of allocation to find a provider and accept the place by entering into a . More time can be requested from My Aged Care, in the form of a 28-day extension, taking the total to 84 calendar days.

If no service agreement is in place by then, the funding is withdrawn. The classification's funding is no longer available and no provider can deliver government-funded services against it. Note that these are calendar days, counted from the allocation date on the letter, not from the day the letter is opened.

It is recoverable, and this part is rarely explained

Missing the deadline also removes the person from the Support at Home Priority System, which sounds like starting again. It is not quite. Rejoining means ringing My Aged Care, and the date of entry is then recorded as the date of the original Support at Home approval, not the date of rejoining. A further aged care assessment is not required unless needs have changed. So the position in the queue is rebuilt from the original approval date. It is still a bad outcome and still costs months of delivery, but it is not the cliff edge it is often described as.

The counterweight matters as much as the deadline. Once funding is allocated, providers start ringing, and the 56 days give them a lever: sign now or lose it. Both halves of that are true and they do not point the same way. The clock is real, and there is no obligation to sign with whoever rings first. Provider prices differ enough to change how many hours the same budget buys, and a service agreement is the document that fixes them. Taking a week to compare three providers is well inside the window. Letting the window run out is the only genuinely irreversible move. Comparing providers has the questions to ask.

Confirming the deadline

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

"We were assigned a package on [date]. Can you confirm the deadline to sign a service agreement, and what happens if we miss it?"

If more time is needed

"We're still comparing providers. I'd like to request the 28-day extension to the service agreement deadline, and I'd like confirmation of the new date in writing."

To a provider pushing for a signature

"I understand there's a deadline and we're well inside it. Send me your price list and a draft service agreement, and I'll come back to you this week."

Deadline, extension and withdrawal rules read from the Support at Home program manual v4.2 (December 2025), section 6.9, with the provider-side obligation at section 7.4. Checked 26 July 2026.

Common questions

Can you use the Restorative Care Pathway and still wait for the ongoing package?: Yes for the waiting, and the funding never overlaps: a restorative care episode is a separate short-term classification and does not touch the ongoing quarterly budget. Holding both at the same time is where the published position is unsettled. The Support at Home program manual v4.2 says a restorative episode ends the moment an ongoing classification is approved. In the same chapter, it also says this was to be amended from February 2026 so both can be held together. As at 26 July 2026 no later version of the manual had been published resolving the two statements, so ask the assessor to confirm in writing which applies before an episode starts.
Does using assistive technology funding reduce the main package budget?: No. Funding for assistive technology and home modifications is separate from the budget for ongoing or other short-term Support at Home services, with its own tiers and its own 12-month spending period. One exception is worth knowing: someone who transitioned from a Home Care Package must draw on their Home Care Package Commonwealth unspent funds first, before the provider can claim against the AT-HM funding account.
Who should you ring first?: My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, for anything that needs an assessment or a Support Plan Review. That covers the Restorative Care Pathway, an assistive technology or home modifications tier, and an urgent referral to CHSP. Ring the provider only once funding has actually been allocated, because until then there is no provider role to play.
What happens if the 56 days run out?: The funding is withdrawn, and the person is removed from the Support at Home Priority System. It is recoverable. Rejoining means contacting My Aged Care, and the date of entry is recorded as the date of the original Support at Home approval rather than the date of rejoining. A further aged care assessment is not needed unless needs have changed.
Do assessors offer these options, or do you have to ask?: Both pathways are decided at an aged care assessment. That is where to raise them, by name, in the words the program uses: "Restorative Care Pathway" and "assistive technology and home modifications funding tier". Anyone already receiving Support at Home services asks through a Support Plan Review instead, which a provider or the participant can request.

One human thing

Waiting is not doing nothing, even when it feels exactly like doing nothing. Every pathway on this page turns on the same thing: an assessment that has the facts written down in it. That is the piece you can move this month, and it is the piece the system responds to. Nobody hands out a list of what to ask for by name. That is why so many families reach the end of the wait having been eligible for months for something they were never offered. Knowing the names is most of it.

Where to go next

Still waiting, with no idea what happens next?

Tell Vera where things stand and what the last letter said. You'll come away knowing which of the five causes you're in, what to ask for, and what can start before the package does.

Talk it through with Vera

Free. Private. No account needed.