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THE NEW SUPPORT AT HOME PROGRAM: WHAT IT MEANS IF YOU'RE NAVIGATING BOTH NDIS AND AGED CARE
Something changed in Australian aged care on 1 November 2025 that a lot of families are still catching up with. The Home Care Packages that helped older Australians stay in their own homes no longer exist. They've been replaced by the Support at Home Program. For most families, this is a significant shift. For families where someone has both disability and ageing-related needs, the questions it raises are bigger.
What Is Support at Home?
Support at Home is the Australian Government's new program for older people who want to remain living at home. It launched on 1 November 2025, replacing the Home Care Packages Program (Levels 1 to 4) and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme. The Commonwealth Home Support Program is expected to transition separately, no earlier than 1 July 2027.
The new program uses a classification-based approach. When an older person is assessed as eligible through My Aged Care, they may be assigned one of eight funding classifications based on their needs. The intent is to create a more personalised, flexible funding model that better reflects what someone actually needs to stay safely and comfortably at home.
What If You or Someone You Support Is on the NDIS?
This is where families often find themselves with questions that are harder to answer, and where getting good guidance matters.
Generally speaking, a person can remain on the NDIS after turning 65 if they became a participant before their 65th birthday. But there is an important nuance. If that person starts accessing permanent home care services through the aged care system, including Support at Home, they would typically need to leave the NDIS. Under current NDIS guidelines, receiving permanent home care services and remaining on the NDIS at the same time is generally not possible.
What this means in practice is that some families face a choice: stay on the NDIS or transition to aged care. It is not always an easy call. The right direction may depend on the person's disability-related needs, their age, what their current NDIS plan funds and what level of support they might receive under Support at Home. Every situation is different, and the decision can have long-term implications.
There can also be a waiting period involved. Someone leaving the NDIS to access aged care may not receive ongoing Support at Home funding immediately. Wait times do exist, though the government has indicated these may reduce over coming years.
Who Funds What?
One of the most common questions families ask is this: if someone has both NDIS funding and aged care needs, which system covers what?
The answer is that it depends on the situation. As a general principle, the NDIS funds disability-related supports while the aged care system funds supports related to ageing. But in practice, the line between those two things is not always obvious, particularly for services like personal care, meal preparation or community access. These can sit differently depending on a person's individual circumstances.
This is exactly why having the right people around you matters. A Support Coordinator or Plan Manager can help you understand the NDIS side of things. For the aged care side, an assessor through My Aged Care is the right starting point. We would always encourage families to seek that expert, individualised advice.
How YTSS and Trilogy Care Can Help
Yours Truly Support Services has been working with people across Melbourne's western and northern suburbs for years, including people who sit at this intersection of disability and ageing. Many of our participants and their families have navigated exactly these kinds of questions, often at a time when things already feel uncertain.
We also work closely with Trilogy Care, a registered Support at Home provider, which means we can support clients across both systems in a more coordinated way. If someone in western and northern sububrs is receiving NDIS support through YTSS and needs aged care support at home, Trilogy Care can help with the transition of supports, depending on the person's circumstances and eligibility.
If you have questions about what Support at Home may mean for you or someone in your family, we're happy to have that conversation.
Yours Truly Support Services. Local. Consistent. Caring. Ready when you are. Call us on 1300 009 010 or email info@ytsservices.com.au.
Let's Explore Your Options Together
We'd love to chat. Get in touch by phone, email, or through our contact form. Our friendly Support Advisors can make a plan with you, based on your own goals and abilities.
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We recognise the objectives of the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. We also acknowledge the traditional custodians of country throughout Australia, and their continuing connection to land, sea and community. We pay our respects to them and their cultures, and to elders past and present.
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