Aged care guides
Every step of arranging aged care, in plain English: the assessment, the costs, choosing a home, your rights, and care at home. Each guide lists the official sources it was checked against.
Where do I start with aged care?
With the free government aged care assessment. Request it through My Aged Care, online or on 1800 200 422: it decides which care a person can receive, and an aged care home cannot offer a permanent room without it. While you wait for it, read up on the costs and on how to judge homes. The guides below follow the order most families meet these questions in.
The steps, in order
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Get the assessment
Nothing government-funded can start without it, and it is free.
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Understand the costs
The room, the daily fees and the means test, before you look at homes.
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Find and judge homes
Star ratings are a start. The tour is where you learn the most.
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Decide how to pay, with advice
Lump sum, daily payment or a mix: the rules, and who to ask.
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Sort out decision-making early
Who can sign and decide if your parent cannot.
All guides by topic
Getting started
Where aged care begins: My Aged Care, how long each step takes, and extra help for veterans.
- How to register with My Aged Care, step by step To register with My Aged Care you apply for an assessment. How to apply online, by phone or in person, add a registered supporter and use the online account.
- Aged care waiting times in 2026: every wait, with current figures Every aged care wait in 2026, from the assessment to Support at Home funding and a room in an aged care home, with official medians and what to do meanwhile.
- Aged care for veterans and war widows: what DVA adds How veterans and war widows get aged care: My Aged Care, Veteran Cards, Veterans' Home Care, respite, fees and means tests, and DVA help in an aged care home.
The assessment
The free government assessment that every kind of subsidised aged care needs first.
- The aged care assessment (still often called ACAT), explained What the free aged care assessment is, who can have one, how to apply through My Aged Care, what happens on the day, and how long it takes in 2026.
Costs
Room prices, daily fees, the means test, the Age Pension and the family home, with current figures.
- Aged care and the Age Pension: how the two tests fit together How moving into aged care affects the Age Pension: the former home, RADs, couples apart due to illness, deeming, the SA457 and SA485 forms, and what to report.
- Selling, keeping or renting the family home: how the aged care rules treat each Do you have to sell the family home for aged care? How the home counts for care fees and the Age Pension, paying for the room while it sells, and renting.
- Aged care costs in 2026, with worked examples The room, the basic daily fee and the means-tested contributions, worked through for three typical situations.
- Every aged care fee and cap in one table A quick reference to the current government fees, caps and thresholds, each with its date and source.
- The aged care means test, step by step How Services Australia counts income and assets, how the family home is treated, and which forms to use.
- RAD or DAP: paying for the room The lump sum, the daily payment and the mix: how each works, what is refunded, and the questions to take to an adviser.
- What aged care costs, in plain English The room, the basic daily fee and the means-tested contributions, with current figures.
Choosing a home
Star ratings, staffing, tours and dementia care: how to judge an aged care home for yourself.
- Care minutes and staffing in aged care homes, explained What the 215 care minutes rule means, how each home gets its own targets, the 24/7 nurse rule, the new Staffing star rating, and how to check a home yourself.
- The stages of dementia, and how to plan care through each one The three stages of dementia in plain terms, and how to plan care through each one: help at home, respite, secure units, behaviour support and legal papers.
- What is the best aged care in Australia? There is no single best home. What the government star ratings show nationally, how to judge a home, and the highest-rated homes in our data.
- How to choose an aged care home, step by step From the assessment to signing the agreement: what to check at each step, and the red flags that should slow you down.
- Aged care tour checklist (printable) What to look for and what to ask on every tour, grouped and printable, including the questions star ratings and care minutes raise.
- Aged care star ratings explained The four sub-ratings, how the overall rating is worked out, what changed in 2025 and 2026, and what a rating cannot tell you.
Rights and decisions
Rights in care, complaints, restraint, and who decides when a person cannot.
- The Charter of Aged Care Rights is now the Statement of Rights The Charter of Aged Care Rights was replaced by the Statement of Rights on 1 November 2025. What each right means, who must follow it, and what to do if not.
- Aged care advocacy: free help from OPAN, and where complaints go How free aged care advocacy works: what OPAN and your state service do, how to get an advocate, the Elder Abuse Phone Line, and where each complaint goes.
- Who decides about aged care when a parent can no longer decide Who can decide about aged care when a parent cannot: capacity, registered supporters, enduring powers of attorney, guardianship tribunals and consent.
- Restrictive practices and chemical restraint in aged care What counts as a restrictive practice or chemical restraint in aged care, the rules homes must follow, who gives consent, and what families can ask and do.
- Enduring power of attorney, state by state What an enduring power of attorney can and cannot do, how each state names it, and why to sort it out early.
- Advance care directives in Australia How to write down care wishes so they are followed, what each state calls the document, and where to keep it.
- How to make an aged care complaint Raising it with the home, free advocacy, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission, step by step.
Care at home
Support at Home, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, and how to tell when home stops working.
- Home Care Package levels 1 to 4, and what replaced them in Support at Home How the old Home Care Package levels 1 to 4 map to Support at Home in 2026: the 8 classifications and budgets, contributions and the no worse off rule.
- The Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), explained The Commonwealth Home Support Program in 2026: who it suits, what it covers, what you pay, how to get it, and the August 2026 extension to 30 June 2029.
- Home care or an aged care home? How Support at Home and residential care compare on care, cost and safety, and the signs that home is no longer working.
About these guides
Who writes these guides?
Best Aged Care, an aged care placement service in Melbourne. We check every guide against the official pages it cites (My Aged Care, the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Services Australia and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission) and list them at the end. See how we check our facts.
Are the fee figures current?
The figures were last checked in October 2026. Government fees and thresholds change on 20 March and 20 September each year, the room payment interest rate changes every quarter, and the maximum room price changes on 1 July. Each guide shows the date its figures apply from.
Is this financial or legal advice?
No. The guides explain how the government rules work, in general terms. For a decision about paying for care, talk to a licensed financial adviser or to Services Australia's free Financial Information Service. For legal documents such as a power of attorney, talk to a lawyer, legal aid or your state's public advocate.
Do aged care homes pay to appear in your guides?
No. No home can pay to appear in our guides or our lists. We are family-paid: families pay us for our placement service, and we take no payments from aged care homes or anyone we refer you to. Reading the guides costs nothing. How we get paid.