Transitioning from HCP and CHSP to Support at Home

On 1 November 2025, the Home Care Packages (HCP) program was replaced by the Support at Home (SAH) program under the Aged Care Act 2024. For the roughly 300,000 Australians receiving home-based aged care — and the providers who deliver it — this was the most significant structural change to home care funding in over a decade. But the transition is not a single event. Providers who delivered HCP services are now operating under SAH, while providers delivering Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) services continue under the old framework until at least July 2027. The result is that many home care providers are managing a complex mix of grandfathered HCP clients, new SAH entrants, and CHSP recipients — each with different funding rules, contribution structures, and reporting requirements. This guide walks through what changed, what was preserved, and what providers need to do now to manage the transition effectively.

The structural differences between HCP and SAH are substantial — this was not a rebrand with minor tweaks. The most visible change is the move from 4 package levels to 8 classification levels, providing more granular funding aligned to assessed need. Where HCP Level 1 through Level 4 created broad bands that often left clients either over-funded or under-funded, SAH's 8 levels allow the Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) to match funding more precisely to individual circumstances.

Funding is no longer a single pooled balance. Under HCP, the annual package amount accumulated as a running balance that could be spent flexibly across the year — or even carried indefinitely. SAH replaces this with quarterly budget allocations: each quarter, the client receives one-quarter of their annual budget, and unspent funds are subject to a carry-over cap of the greater of $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly allocation. Anything above the cap is returned to the Commonwealth.

The contribution model changed fundamentally. HCP used a basic daily fee (17.5% of the single basic Age Pension rate) plus an income-tested care fee — both charged as flat daily amounts regardless of which services were delivered. SAH retains the basic daily fee but replaces the income-tested care fee with per-service contributions calculated as a percentage of the cost of each individual service, varying by service category and the client's means-testing group.

SAH also introduced mandatory wellness goals in every care plan — a requirement that had no direct equivalent under HCP. Providers must now document measurable, time-bound goals and demonstrate that services are directed toward maintaining or improving independence, not simply maintaining the status quo. For the full SAH framework, see our Support at Home program guide.

Existing HCP clients were not left behind. On 1 November 2025, all active HCP recipients were automatically transitioned to SAH with grandfathered entitlements designed to ensure no one was financially worse off under the new program.

The most significant protection is the lower lifetime contribution cap. New SAH entrants face a lifetime contribution cap of $135,319 (as at 1 July 2025, subject to annual indexation). Grandfathered clients — those who transitioned from an active Home Care Package — have a lifetime cap of $84,572 (as at 1 July 2025). This lower figure recognises that transitioned clients may have already paid contributions under HCP and protects them from bearing the same total lifetime liability as someone entering the system fresh.

Unspent HCP funds were carried over to each client's new SAH budget. If a client had an accumulated balance under their Home Care Package, that balance transferred to SAH and was made available for service delivery under the new quarterly budget structure. This was critical for clients who had been saving funds for planned services such as home modifications or assistive technology — they did not lose access to money that had already been allocated to them.

Grandfathered clients were mapped to the closest equivalent SAH classification level based on their existing HCP level and assessed needs. A former HCP Level 4 client was not automatically placed at SAH Level 8 — the mapping considered the client's ACAT assessment and actual support requirements.

For providers, the grandfathered cohort creates a specific tracking obligation. You need to know which clients are grandfathered (subject to the $84,572 lifetime cap) versus which are new SAH entrants (subject to the $135,319 cap). Applying the wrong cap means either overcharging a grandfathered client or failing to collect the correct contribution from a new entrant — both of which create compliance and financial reconciliation issues.

The shift from HCP's cumulative balance to SAH's quarterly budget structure is arguably the change with the biggest day-to-day operational impact for providers and their finance teams.

Under HCP, providers managed a single running balance per client. Unspent funds accumulated over time, and there was significant flexibility in when and how services were delivered across the year. Some clients built up large unspent balances — sometimes tens of thousands of dollars — that sat in provider-held accounts.

SAH's quarterly model works differently. The annual budget is divided into 4 equal quarterly allocations aligned with the financial year (Q1: July–September, Q2: October–December, Q3: January–March, Q4: April–June). Services delivered during the quarter are drawn from that quarter's allocation. The carry-over cap — the greater of $1,000 or 10% of the quarterly allocation — means that significant underspend results in funds being returned to the Commonwealth rather than accumulating in the client's balance. For a Level 4 client with a quarterly allocation of approximately $7,424, the carry-over cap is $1,000 (since 10% of $7,424 is only $742). Any unspent amount above $1,000 at quarter-end is forfeited.

The contribution model adds another layer of complexity. Instead of a flat daily fee that was the same regardless of services delivered, SAH calculates contributions per service across 3 categories: Clinical and Therapeutic (0% across all means-testing groups), Independence (5% to 50% depending on means testing), and Everyday Living (17.5% to 80% depending on means testing). Every service delivered must be correctly categorised, the client's means-testing group applied, and the contribution calculated individually.

For finance staff, this means billing processes built for HCP's daily-fee model are no longer fit for purpose. Each service delivery event generates a contribution calculation, a budget deduction, and a line item on the client statement. The volume of financial transactions per client has increased dramatically, and manual calculation is neither practical nor safe from a compliance perspective. For a detailed breakdown of contribution rates, caps, and hardship provisions, see our guide on Support at Home contributions explained.

The Commonwealth Home Support Programme has not yet transitioned to Support at Home. The government has confirmed that CHSP will move to SAH no earlier than 1 July 2027 — and the final date may be later depending on sector readiness and the outcomes of ongoing policy consultation.

This means CHSP providers continue to operate under the existing framework: block-funded grants, minimal and largely discretionary client contributions, and activity-based reporting. But the fact that the transition has not happened yet does not mean CHSP providers should wait to prepare.

When CHSP does transition, the shift will be substantial. CHSP's block-funding model — where providers receive a grant and deliver services within that envelope — will almost certainly be replaced by individual client budgets similar to the current SAH model. Client contributions, which are currently minimal under CHSP, will likely move to the per-service model already in place for SAH. Reporting requirements will shift from activity-based output reporting to individual client-level acquittal.

What CHSP providers should do now. Start mapping your service catalogue to SAH's 3 categories (Clinical and Therapeutic, Independence, Everyday Living) — understanding how your services will be categorised helps you model the financial impact before the transition date is confirmed. Review your client management systems: if your current systems are built for block-grant management and cannot handle individual client budgets, quarterly allocations, and per-service billing, start planning for a system change now rather than when the transition date is announced. Begin educating staff and clients — the shift from block-funded services to individual budgets with per-service contributions will be a significant change for CHSP recipients, many of whom currently pay little or nothing. Early, clear communication reduces anxiety and complaints when the transition occurs. And engage with your sector peak bodies and the Department of Health and Aged Care for updates on transition timing and design details.

For providers who delivered HCP services and are now operating under SAH — particularly those who also deliver CHSP — the operational complexity of managing multiple funding models simultaneously is real and ongoing.

Dual-system management. Your organisation may now have grandfathered HCP-to-SAH clients (with lower lifetime caps and carried-over balances), new SAH entrants (with higher lifetime caps and no legacy balances), and CHSP clients (still on block-funded grants with different reporting). Each group has different contribution rules, different budget structures, and different reporting requirements. Your systems and processes must handle all three correctly — manual workarounds and parallel spreadsheets introduce error and create audit risk.

Staff training. Frontline care coordinators need to understand the differences between funding streams at an operational level. A coordinator managing a mixed caseload must know which clients are subject to quarterly budget limits, which have grandfathered caps, and which are still on CHSP arrangements. This is not information that can sit solely with the finance team — it directly affects care planning decisions, service scheduling, and how coordinators communicate with clients about their funding.

Client communication. Clients who transitioned from HCP may be confused by quarterly budget statements, per-service contribution breakdowns, and carry-over rules that did not exist under their former package. Investing in clear, plain-language communication about how their funding works under SAH — and what has been preserved through grandfathering — reduces complaints and builds trust. Budget statements should clearly show the quarterly allocation, services delivered, contributions charged, budget remaining, and projected carry-over position.

Financial reconciliation. With per-service billing replacing flat daily fees, the volume of financial data your organisation processes has increased substantially. Quarterly budget reconciliation, carry-over calculations, lifetime cap tracking across two different cap thresholds, and client statement generation must all be accurate and timely. Errors compound quickly when you are processing hundreds of individual service transactions per client per quarter — and the consequences of getting contribution calculations wrong include both overcharging clients and undercollecting revenue.

Statura Care is purpose-built to manage exactly this transition complexity. The platform handles HCP grandfathered clients, new SAH entrants, and CHSP recipients within a single system — so your team does not need to switch between tools or maintain parallel spreadsheets to track different funding streams.

For grandfathered clients, Statura Care tracks the lower lifetime contribution cap ($84,572) separately from new entrants ($135,319), monitors carried-over HCP balances within the SAH quarterly budget structure, and alerts care coordinators when a grandfathered client is approaching their cap threshold. The platform distinguishes grandfathered and new-entrant clients throughout — from contribution calculations to budget dashboards to client statements.

For SAH budget management, the platform provides real-time quarterly budget tracking with automatic carry-over cap calculations, per-service contribution calculations across all 3 categories and means-testing groups, projected end-of-quarter budget positions, and overspend and underspend alerts that help care coordinators plan service delivery proactively rather than discovering budget issues after the quarter has closed.

For CHSP services, the platform continues to support block-grant tracking and activity-based reporting while your CHSP clients remain on the current framework — and will support their transition to SAH when that occurs.

Automatic contribution calculations remove the manual burden and compliance risk of per-service billing. Every service delivered is categorised, the client's means-testing tier is applied, the contribution is calculated, the budget is updated, and the lifetime cap is tracked — without manual intervention. Wellness goal tracking ensures every care plan meets SAH's mandatory requirements, with structured fields for goal description, baseline, target outcome, and review scheduling.

The Support at Home module and SAH Contributions and Claims are part of Statura Care's 35-module aged care compliance platform — built for the Aged Care Act 2024 and the realities of managing home care through Australia's biggest funding reform in a generation.