Who this is for: older Australians receiving (or applying for) aged care at home, and the adult children helping them navigate it Reading time: about 6 minutes In one line: Home Care Packages are gone, the new program is different in ways that matter, and technology support has a real place in it.
If you or a parent receive aged care support at home, the paperwork changed underneath you on 1 November 2025. The Home Care Package program, with its familiar Levels 1 to 4, was replaced by a new program called Support at Home. If your folder at home still says "Home Care Package Level 2", do not worry. Nobody lost their funding. But the way the money works has changed, and understanding the new shape helps you get more out of it, including for technology.
This guide is the plain-English version. As always with government programs, the rules are still settling, so treat this as a map rather than a contract, and confirm specifics with your provider.
What changed, in brief
The levels are gone. Instead of four package levels, Support at Home uses a larger number of funding classifications, which means funding can be matched more closely to your assessed needs.
Budgets are quarterly. Rather than an annual package, your funding now arrives as a quarterly budget. This changes the rhythm of planning. Supports are spread across the year rather than saved up, and unspent funds do not accumulate the way some people managed them under the old program.
Contributions changed. Under the new rules, what you pay depends on the type of service, not just your means. Clinical care, such as nursing and allied health, is fully government-funded for everyone. Services that support your independence attract a means-tested contribution. Everyday living services, such as cleaning and gardening, attract the highest contributions. The logic: the closer a service sits to health care, the less you pay.
Assistive technology got its own pathway. This is the big one for our corner of the world, so it gets its own section.
The AT-HM pathway
Support at Home includes a separate funding stream called the Assistive Technology and Home Modifications pathway, with its own budget that sits outside your quarterly service funds. It exists because under the old program, saving up a package for equipment or home modifications could take years. Now there is dedicated funding, in tiers based on need, for equipment, aids, and modifications, generally to be used within twelve months of approval.
What does that mean in practice? If an occupational therapist or other assessor identifies that you need equipment to stay safe and independent, the funding for that equipment no longer has to cannibalise your weekly services. Equipment and support can both happen.
Where technology support fits
Now the part we know best. There are two distinct ways technology shows up in Support at Home, and they flow through different doors.
Equipment flows through AT-HM. Aids and equipment recommended through assessment belong in the AT-HM pathway. If part of what you need is a thing, that is the door it goes through.
Support and training flow through your services budget. Help setting up, learning, and confidently using technology is a service, not a thing. Support that builds your independence is squarely what the program's independence category exists for, and technology is increasingly how independence happens in practice: video calls that keep you connected, motion lighting that prevents night-time falls, a voice assistant that handles reminders, a tablet you can actually use. Training and setup that make those work for you can be included in your support plan where they connect to your assessed needs and goals.
A worked example. Marjorie, 84, wants to stay in her own home, and her family wants to know she is safe at night. Through AT-HM, equipment like a personal alarm might be funded. Through her services budget, a provider can fund support to set up motion-activated lighting, get her tablet working for weekly video calls with her daughter in Brisbane, and train her until she is confident, with written notes left behind. Two doors, one outcome: Marjorie stays home, connected, and safer.
How to actually make this happen
- Start with your provider or care partner. Your support plan is managed through your provider, so the conversation starts there. Ask directly: "Can technology support and training be included in my plan?"
- Frame it as independence and safety, because that is what it is. "I want to stay connected to my family and be safer moving around at night" lands better than "I want help with my iPad", even though they may be the same request.
- If you are told no, ask why. The program is new, providers are interpreting it at different speeds, and a first no is sometimes a "we haven't worked that out yet". Asking what would be claimable, and under which category, moves the conversation forward.
- Keep equipment and support requests distinct. Knowing that things go through AT-HM and services go through the quarterly budget makes you a clearer advocate for yourself.
If you are on the waiting list, or paying privately
Demand for the program is high and assessment can take time. Technology support is one of the few parts of this picture you can simply arrange privately in the meantime, often for less than people expect, and often funded by adult children who would rather pay for a parent's independence than worry from a distance. The work is identical either way, and nothing about starting privately affects your place in any queue.
The short version
Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages in November 2025. Budgets are quarterly, clinical care is free, independence services attract a means-tested contribution, and equipment has its own AT-HM pathway. Technology support and training belong in the independence conversation, and the way in is a direct question to your provider.
Gray Matter Solutions provides exactly this kind of support across Sydney's Northern Beaches, North Shore, and Inner West, and we are happy to talk directly with your provider about what we do and how it fits your plan.
Not sure where to start? Start with the free call. Email phil@graymatter.team or visit graymatter.team.
This guide is general information based on the program as it stands in mid 2026, not financial or aged care advice. Rules are still settling; always confirm specifics with your provider or My Aged Care. Gray Matter Solutions Pty Ltd, ABN 24 678 904 231.
Want a hand with this?
Gray Matter Solutions provides patient, in-home technology support across the Northern Beaches, North Shore, and Inner West of Sydney. The easiest way to start is a free 15-minute call.