What are aged care supplements?

November 10th 2023

If you’re a Home Care Package recipient, you can receive aged care supplements if you are eligible for more support.

Supplements assist in covering the cost of meeting specific care needs. The Government includes the supplement amounts in your subsidy. (Learn more about Home Care Packages in our previous post.)

You can see the full list of aged care supplements here.

Below are the supplements available in relation to Home Care Packages:

Dementia and cognition
Enteral feeding
Oxygen
Top-up
Veterans
Hardship
Viability

Dementia and cognition supplement

This supplement helps with the cost of caring for people with moderate to severe cognitive impairment from dementia or other conditions.

A diagnosis of dementia alone is not sufficient, as a person with dementia may not be moderately or severely cognitively impaired.

Care recipients must score 10 or higher on the Psychogeriatric Assessment Scales (PAS) to be eligible for the supplement.

There are other culturally sensitive assessment tools used to assess Culturally and Linguistically Diverse (CALD) and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander care recipients.

The assessments need to be carried out by a health practitioner. The care recipient’s eligibility for the supplement need not be reassessed if their package level changes or if they move to another provider. More details here.

Enteral feeding supplement

This supplement supports care recipients who have a medical need for enteral feeding.

Enteral feeding is where an individual gets nutrients through a tube in their nose, stomach or small intestine. The supplement is not payable for dietary formulas that are taken orally, used as food supplements, or administered in addition to food by mouth.

The enteral feeding supplement does not carry across providers. If you change providers, your new provider will need to assist in making a new application even though you have previously been approved to receive the supplement.

More details here.

Oxygen supplement

This supports care recipients who have a medical need for continual oxygen therapy.

Care recipients who have a long-term medical need for continuous oxygen are eligible for this supplement.

This does not cover oxygen needed for emergency or for short-term illnesses, such as bronchitis.

Like enteral feeding, the oxygen supplement also does not carry across providers.

Top-up supplement

This supplement tops up the dementia and cognition supplement for people who received an EACH-D package before 1 August 2013.

EACH-D stands for Extended Aged Care at Home & Dementia, intended to be provided to frail older Australians.

EACH-D recipients transitioning to Home Care Packages would have transferred to a home care level 4 package plus dementia and cognition supplement.

This supplement ensures any change in funding levels does not disadvantage those people under the HCP.

This supplement is automatically paid out and does not require you to apply.

Veterans supplement

This supplement helps with the cost of caring for veterans with a mental health condition related to their service.

In home care, if the care recipient is eligible for both the dementia and cognition supplement and the veterans’ supplement, you will only receive the veterans’ supplement.

The Department of Veterans’ Affairs and Services Australia will match information to check eligibility.

Other Supplements

Hardship supplement

This supplement helps care recipients who:

are in financial hardship
cannot pay their aged care fees and charges because of circumstances beyond their control.

If approved, the Government will pay for some or all of their aged care fees and charges.

Under Home Care Package, the care recipient eligible for this supplement can receive help with paying the basic daily fee and the income-tested care fee.