How to register with My Aged Care, step by step

What registering with My Aged Care actually means

My Aged Care is the Australian Government's entry point to all government-funded aged care. It is a phone line and a website. It does not deliver care itself, and it does not choose a provider for you.

There is no separate registration form. You register by applying for an aged care assessment. When you apply, My Aged Care creates a personal record for the person, with an Aged Care ID: the letters AC followed by 8 digits. Every later step hangs off that record, from the assessment and the decision letter to the referral codes you give providers.

Three different organisations are involved, in this order:

• My Aged Care takes the application and keeps the record.
• An assessment organisation phones to check eligibility and urgency (this call is called triage), then sends an assessor to work out what care the person can receive. Many hospitals and GPs still call this the ACAT assessment.
• Providers deliver the care: help at home, respite, or a room in an aged care home. You choose them after approval.

Behind the scenes the steps are: registration, a short screening questionnaire, a triage phone call, the assessment, approval, allocation of funding or a place, and then services start. The government's Wait Times Report sets out the same pathway.

Source: My Aged Care: how to contact My Aged Care

Before you apply: check eligibility and gather three things

To qualify for an assessment, a person needs help with some everyday tasks and must be 65 or older, or an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander person aged 50 or older, or 50 or older and homeless or at risk of homelessness. If you are unsure, My Aged Care has an online requirements checker.

Have these ready:

• the person's Medicare card, and yours if you want to be registered as their supporter at the same time
• contact details, including who the assessment organisation should ring to arrange the visit
• 15 to 20 minutes, ideally sitting together, because the person needs to give consent.

It also helps to jot down how they are managing at home, what help they already get from family or services, and what would make life easier. The application asks about health, daily life, current support and goals, and My Aged Care keeps the answers so they do not have to be repeated at the assessment.

Source: My Aged Care: apply for an assessment online

Three ways to apply

Online

The online form has three parts. Part A (about 10 minutes) checks age and needs. Part B (about 5 minutes) takes personal and contact details, needs the Medicare card, and asks who the assessment organisation should contact. Part C (optional, about 5 minutes) requests a registered supporter. You can complete it for yourself, or for a family member or friend with their permission. One form covers every type of care: help at home, short-term care, an aged care home and end-of-life care.

By phone

Call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 10am to 2pm (closed Sundays and national public holidays). Staff complete the application with you, and a family member can join the call. From overseas, dial +61 2 6289 1555 (Monday to Friday 8:30am to 5:30pm AEST) and ask for My Aged Care.

For an interpreter, call the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 and ask them to call 1800 200 422. For an Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander language, call 1800 200 422 and ask for an interpreter. People who are deaf, Deafblind or hard of hearing can contact My Aged Care through Deaf Connect or the National Relay Service.

In person

Book an appointment with an Aged Care Specialist Officer at a Services Australia centre on 1800 227 475 (Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm). Appointments cost nothing. The officer can check eligibility, make the referral for an assessment, help register a supporter, upload documents and explain costs. If you would like to talk in your own language, say so when you book.

Through a doctor or hospital

A GP, another health professional or a hospital can also refer the person, with their consent. If the person is in hospital, ask the hospital staff to arrange the assessment before discharge.

Source: My Aged Care: how to apply for an assessment

Setting yourself up as a registered supporter

A family member, friend or carer can help with the application, or speak for the person, as long as the person gives permission at the time. For an ongoing role, the person can register you as their registered supporter. A registered supporter can:

• talk with My Aged Care, assessors and providers about the person's aged care
• support them to make decisions about assessments, referrals and everyday care
• ask for, see and update information about them, including through your own Online Account.

A registered supporter does not get power to make decisions for the person. The role is to help them make and communicate their own decisions, in line with their will and preferences. The person can still receive information and decide for themselves, and nobody can be pressured into registering a supporter. A person can have more than one.

How to set it up

Both of you need your Medicare card and contact details. The options:

1. Complete the optional Part C of the online application, with both of you in the same room.
2. Call 1800 200 422 together. This route does not suit you if the supporter has a conflict of interest to declare, needs to provide legal documents, or cannot be on the call at the same time.
3. Fill in the Registration of a Supporter form together (online with e-signatures, or printed), then upload it to the Online Account, take it to a Services Australia centre, upload it through Healthdirect, post it to My Aged Care at PO Box 1237, Runaway Bay QLD 4216, or hand it to the assessor.
4. Ask the assessor at the assessment, or an Aged Care Specialist Officer, with the supporter present.

If your parent cannot consent

If you hold an active enduring power of attorney, guardianship or similar legal authority, you may be able to register without their consent. You need to provide proof of that authority, and if it only takes effect once the person has lost capacity, possibly medical evidence as well. The documents differ by state, so check the rules where your parent lives. A statutory declaration is no longer enough. My Aged Care cannot give anyone decision-making power, or change an appointed decision-maker's powers. See powers of attorney and guardianship.

Were you a representative before November 2025?

Regular and authorised representatives who were active in My Aged Care on 31 October 2025 became registered supporters automatically on 1 November 2025, unless someone opted out. Representative requests that had been pending for more than 30 days lapsed by 31 October 2025, so call 1800 200 422 if yours was one of them.

Source: My Aged Care: registering a supporter

The My Aged Care Online Account

Once a person has applied, they have an Online Account, reached through myGov. Registered supporters get their own account too, and can see the person's information from it if they were registered with the person's consent or as their active appointed decision-maker.

In the account you can:

• find the Aged Care ID, which My Aged Care recommends having on hand whenever you contact them
• track the application and see past assessments
• read letters, including the Notice of Decision, and view the support plan
• find or reactivate referral codes to give providers
• update contact details and sign up for SMS and email notifications
• switch Support at Home between "seeking services" and "not seeking services"
• request or remove registered supporters and upload documents.

Linking the account to myGov

1. Make sure the person has applied for an assessment. If you are not sure, call 1800 200 422 to check.
2. Sign in to myGov, or create a myGov account.
3. Choose "My Aged Care" from the list of services and follow the prompts. You say whether you are looking for care or supporting someone, identify yourself (the Aged Care ID or Medicare number work best), and confirm your contact details.

You only link it once. After that, the My Aged Care tile appears on your myGov home page.

The Online Account is not the same as My Health Record. If the person agrees, the assessor or My Aged Care can also add the support plan to My Health Record so doctors can see it.

Source: My Aged Care: access your information online

What happens after you apply

1. My Aged Care posts a welcome pack explaining the next steps.
2. An assessment organisation rings to confirm the person's needs and book the assessment. My Aged Care says this usually happens within 2 to 6 weeks. The national median from referral to assessment was 26 days in April to June 2026.
3. The assessment usually happens in person at home, or wherever the person is living, including hospital. Some are done at other locations, by telehealth or over the phone. Read how the assessment works.
4. The assessment organisation decides, which can take up to 2 weeks, and sends a Notice of Decision with the support plan and a referral code for each approved service.
5. You contact providers. Commonwealth Home Support Program services start when a local provider has capacity. Support at Home funding is released through a priority system. A place in an aged care home is assigned once the person is approved, and the wait is for a room that suits.

If the decision has not arrived 2 weeks after the assessment, call the assessment organisation (their details are on your letters), check the Online Account, or call 1800 200 422.

If you disagree with the decision, talk to the assessment organisation first. You can then ask the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing for an internal review, at no charge, within 28 days of receiving the Notice of Decision.

If the person's needs change while you wait, tell the assessment organisation or My Aged Care. Once services have started, you can ask for a Support Plan Review at any time.

Source: My Aged Care: receiving your assessment outcome

If care is needed urgently

Do not wait for the usual process if someone is unsafe.

• Medical emergency: call 000.
• The carer suddenly cannot cope (illness, death or another emergency): call Carer Gateway on 1800 422 737 for emergency respite at home, in the community or in an aged care home.
• Ongoing care is needed now: call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and explain the urgency. Some services are available on a short-term basis before or without an assessment.
• Leaving hospital: ask the hospital staff to arrange the assessment before discharge, and ask about transition care, which offers up to 12 weeks of short-term care after a hospital stay.

An aged care home can also take someone in an emergency before they have been assessed. The home must then help lodge an application for emergency care within 5 calendar days, so the assessment can follow (Department of Health, Disability and Ageing).

If a hospital is pressing for a discharge date, our page on urgent and hospital discharge help explains the options.

Source: My Aged Care: what to do if you need help urgently

Staying safe, and help with the process

My Aged Care will never contact you through social media or messaging apps such as WhatsApp, and will never ask for bank details. If someone claiming to be from My Aged Care does either, hang up and call 1800 200 422 to check.

Help that costs nothing

• Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN): 1800 700 600, Monday to Friday 8am to 8pm and Saturday 10am to 4pm. An advocate can help you apply and, with consent, speak to My Aged Care for the person.
• Elder Care Support: workers who guide older Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and their families through each step, and can attend the assessment.
• Care finders: for people who have no family, friend or carer they are comfortable getting help from.
• Financial Information Service (Services Australia): information on aged care costs at no charge. Call 132 300 and say "Financial Information Service".

If you pay for help

Private navigation and placement services charge for their work, paid either by the family or by the aged care provider chosen, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission does not regulate them. We are one of these services: families pay us a fixed price and homes pay us nothing. My Aged Care suggests asking any paid service:

• what it charges, what you get for it, and who pays
• whether its payment arrangements or partnerships limit which providers it suggests
• what experience it has, and how you can complain if you are unhappy.

Keep bank details and passwords private, take your time over any contract, and think carefully before letting a private business act for the person in My Aged Care.

Source: My Aged Care: fee-paying aged care navigation and placement services (tip sheet)