The aged care room, priced every way you can pay, before you sign

It is an assistant built for this one subject that has been given your report and answers questions about it in plain English, quoting your own figures back to you. You do not have to use it: it sits behind one button and nothing in the report is held back if you never open it. It is never told your name, email address or account, and it explains rather than advises.

Everyone pays a standard daily fee of $68.93 a day, set at 85% of the single pension, so it is the same for everybody. After that it depends on your money: above the means test limits you also pay up to $22.15 a day towards daily living costs and up to $109.45 a day towards care, and then the room on top. A pensioner with modest savings may pay little more than the daily fee; somebody paying a full market price for a room can go well past $85,000 a year.

It depends on what your money would otherwise earn against the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate of 8.51%. Both are lawful and both are offered, and the aged care home has no duty to tell you which is cheaper for you. A lump sum also loses 2% a year to retention but can lift the Age Pension. This calculator prices both, and every combination of the two, on your own figures.

A RAD is one big refundable lump sum for the room, and a DAP is the same room paid for day by day instead. The DAP is the room price times the government's set rate, now 8.51%, divided by 365. A RAD is paid back when the resident leaves or dies, less a deduction of 2% a year for up to five years under the rules from 1 November 2025. You can also pay part of each.

You have 28 days from moving in to tell the aged care home how you want to pay: a lump sum, a daily payment, or a mix of both. Say nothing and you are put on the daily payment in full, which is usually the dearest option. You can change your mind within those 28 days. After that, changes are by agreement with the home only.

Yes, the balance comes back, but it is usually less than was paid. The home keeps 2% a year for up to five years under the rules from 1 November 2025, plus any daily payments or fees you agreed to have drawn from it. The balance must be refunded within 14 days of leaving, or within 14 days of the home being shown probate or letters of administration. The Commonwealth guarantees it if the home fails.

Often not. The former home is counted in the aged care means test at a capped $219,858 and no more. Sell it and the proceeds count in full, which can raise the fees. Against that, a refundable deposit is exempt for the Age Pension, so converting counted assets into one can lift the pension. The two effects pull against each other and the winner changes household by household.

Yes, but only up to a cap. The former home is counted in the aged care means test at no more than $219,858, however much it is worth. For the Age Pension it is ignored for the first two years after moving in, then counted in full, which can cut a part pension overnight. Selling it turns it into cash that counts in full for aged care fees.

Yes, but only on one fee. The non-clinical care contribution has a lifetime cap of $140,652.80, shared with Support at Home, and a separate four year cap. The caps never cover the basic daily fee, the hotelling contribution or the room itself, so those keep going for the whole stay. Every cap rises on 20 March and 20 September each year.

Because the arithmetic is the part most families are missing, and arithmetic scales. An accredited aged care adviser typically charges from $3,500 for a statement of advice, which includes a personal recommendation this service is not licensed to make and does not attempt.

Yes, the estimate is free, with no card and no sign up. It tells you whether the government helps pay, which fees apply to you, and roughly what a day costs. The full report, which prices and ranks every way to pay, is a single payment. Nothing renews and nothing expires, and if it does not fit your situation you can ask for a full refund within 14 days.

No. This is an information service: it applies the published rules to the figures you enter and shows what they produce, with every working visible. It ranks options on one stated arithmetic measure and does not recommend one. Whether the money is available at all, and what else it would have to come from, are not in that measure.

Support at Home, from 1 November 2025. It has eight ongoing classifications with annual budgets from $11,010 to $80,137. Clinical care is fully government funded, independence services attract 5% to 50%, and everyday living services 17.5% to 80%. Since 1 October 2026 personal care is free as well. Anyone who had or was approved for a package on or before 12 September 2024 is protected by the no worse off principle.