Support at Home claiming is how registered providers get paid for in-home aged care. After you deliver a service, you claim it from Services Australia through the Aged Care Provider Portal or business-to-government software, one line for each service on each date, and Services Australia pays the government share from the client's budget. For ongoing services you have up to 60 days after each quarter ends, so July to September 2026 services must be claimed by 29 November 2026.

The claim is the easy bit. The work piles up around it, from checking shifts against care plans to sending every client a monthly statement.

The short version: you choose how often you claim, but only one claim can wait for approval at a time. Keep evidence of every visit. In May 2026 the government announced it would pause the implementation of price caps. Every client gets a monthly statement by the end of the following month, even in a month with no services.

How does Support at Home claiming work?

Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program and the Short-Term Restorative Care Programme on 1 November 2025, according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing's Support at Home program page. The department says participants, and Services Australia says care recipients. I'll say clients.

Services Australia holds each client's funding and pays you in arrears, after the service is delivered. You can only claim a service that's in the client's Notice of Decision (the letter listing what they're approved for), agreed in their care plan, covered by your registration and already delivered while they were in your care.

The department's provider payment arrangements page (updated 24 August 2026) says Services Australia expects to process and pay a claim within 7 days. It takes the government share and the client's contribution off their budget, pays you the government share and confirms the contribution to invoice.

Portal or software: where do claims go?

Services Australia's Support at Home page for providers lists two ways to claim. One is the Aged Care Provider Portal (ACPP), its website for claims and budgets. The other is business-to-government (B2G) software from an independent developer, which sends claims straight from your system.

The portal needs an individual PRODA account, the government's login for providers, according to Services Australia's Support at Home claiming page (updated 11 August 2026). There you create invoices, attach documents where an item asks for them, submit, then claim. Items go in one at a time or by CSV, with no quotation marks and no commas or symbols in the amount column.

Support at Home claiming codes are in the Transition to Support at Home eKit, which you download from Services Australia's Support at Home invoicing page (updated 14 September 2026). It has sample CSV files, a guide to every field and a list of claiming errors.

If you'd rather claim from software, Services Australia's list of software for aged care online claiming, updated 21 October 2026, shows 29 developers with Support at Home claiming, including Brevity and CareMaster Global. It says the list isn't complete and doesn't endorse anyone. NDIS claims use a different file and portal, covered in our NDIS bulk upload guide.

What does each claim line need?

The department's Support at Home program manual is at version 4.4 (September 2026), and Chapter 16 covers claiming. Each claim line is one service on one date, so three house cleans in October means three lines.

Most services are claimed by the hour, in 15-minute steps written as decimals, so 15 minutes is 0.25, and you can't claim more time than you spent. Claim the agreed price for the units delivered even if it runs past the budget. Services Australia only pays up to what's left, and you can't add the shortfall to a later claim unless a system error caused it.

You don't upload evidence for most claims, but you must be able to show the price was agreed and the service happened, for example with care notes, worker sign-in records or a QR code sign-in at the client's home. Quoted messages below come from the eKit's errors list.

StepWhat you needWhere it goes wrong
1. Record the client's entryThe entry recorded in the ACPP when care starts"Care recipient ... is not in the care of service provider" (missing entry or wrong dates)
2. Check the service is approvedThe service in the Notice of Decision and care plan, and your registration"... is not approved for [funding source] on [date]"
3. Build each lineOne service, one date, its service ID, quantity in 0.25-hour steps, the agreed priceSeveral visits lumped into one line, or time rounded past what was delivered
4. Choose the funding sourceOngoing, care management, assistive technology, home modifications or a short-term pathway"Service ... and funding source ... is not valid on [date]"
5. Upload and submitA clean CSV or B2G software, plus documents for items marked Requires informationSymbols in the amount column, or "Service delivery date cannot be in future"
6. ClaimSubmitted invoicesOne claim a day at most, and nothing new until the last one is approved
7. Invoice contributionsThe amounts Services Australia confirmsA contribution charged on nursing, or on personal care delivered from 1 October 2026, which carry none
8. Fix a mistakeThe amend option in the ACPPOnce claimed, only the funding source, quantity and price per unit can change

When do you have to claim?

For ongoing services, the payment arrangements page gives you up to 60 days after each quarter ends.

Services delivered inClaim by
January to March30 May
April to June29 August
July to September29 November
October to December28 February

Care management claims for any quarter must be finalised within 60 days of the financial year ending, which is 29 August. Short-term pathways, assistive technology and home modifications get 60 days after the episode or allocation period ends. When a client exits, you have 60 days from the exit date.

Since December 2025 you can choose how often you claim for ongoing services, from daily to quarterly, as long as it's before the deadline. Once you submit a claim, though, you can't submit another until Services Australia approves it. You can keep loading invoices while you wait.

For claims submitted after 26 June 2026, the department says Services Australia no longer puts late claims on hold. You still give a reason, and portal users can't upload late-claim evidence any more, so keep it on file.

How do care management and contributions fit in?

Each client on ongoing services has one of 8 funding classifications and a quarterly budget, according to the department's funding classifications page (updated 6 October 2026). Care management is funded differently from direct services. Services Australia takes 10% off each client's quarterly budget, pools it across your service delivery branch and credits it to your care management account on the first day of each quarter. Care management claims come out of that account, and clients don't contribute to it.

Every client needs at least one direct care management activity a month, such as a call or a meeting, according to the department's care management page. Its care management funding page adds that rostering, staff training and compliance can't be claimed as care management.

Contributions depend on the service type and the client's income and assets. The department's participant contributions page (updated 1 October 2026) says clinical supports such as nursing and personal care carry none, independence services such as transport carry a moderate one, and everyday living services such as cleaning carry the highest. Personal care only joined the clinical category on 1 October 2026, according to the department's personal care contribution change page (updated 21 August 2026). Personal care delivered before that date still carries a contribution, even if you claim after it, so check your invoice templates.

You collect contributions yourself, only after the service is delivered, and record them in the client's budget and monthly statement.

What has to go on the monthly statement?

The department's monthly statements page (updated 1 June 2026) says each client's statement covers the previous calendar month. It shows the funding available at the start of the month, every service delivered including cancellations and no-shows, and the funding left at the end. Each service needs its date, price, hours or units, the government subsidy and the client's contribution. Care management hours, total contributions paid and any adjustments or refunds go on too.

It's due by the last day of the following month, so October's statement is due by 30 November, even if you delivered nothing that month. It must be in plain language, and the department publishes a template.

In May 2026 the government said the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission would be able to act against providers who choose not to issue statements. If your software can't produce them, the department says to fix it promptly and give clients the information another way.

Are there Support at Home price caps yet?

No. If you've read that caps start on 1 July 2026, that's out of date. The department's 20 May 2026 announcement says the government would pause the implementation of price caps. The minister's media release the day before said caps are deferred until the government has "greater confidence in the stability of the market". The program manual (section 10.4) now says capped pricing has been deferred and the government will consider advice from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority when it sets caps.

What still applies, from the department's prices page (updated 27 May 2026):

  • Prices must be reasonable, meaning based on what it costs you to deliver the service. Admin and travel sit inside the price, never as separate fees.
  • You publish your most frequently charged price for each service on My Aged Care and your website, and review it at least every 2 months.
  • You give notice of changes within 30 days through the My Aged Care Service and Support Portal, which is separate from the ACPP you claim in.

If you also run NDIS services, the Fair Work Commission's 11 September 2026 decision starts an interim pay increase on 1 December 2026 for home care employees doing disability care under Schedule E of the SCHADS Award. Staff on other schedules, such as Schedule B, move to the new classification structure on 1 October 2027. Our guide to the SCHADS award changes in December 2026 covers what to update.

Worked example: a 30-client provider's month-end

Say a home care provider in Ballarat has 30 Support at Home clients, 14 support workers, two care partners (the staff who do care management) and an office manager. Their rostering app claims NDIS but not Support at Home, contributions go through Xero and budgets live in a spreadsheet. This business is made up.

  1. On 3 November the office manager exports October's completed shifts and converts them to 0.25-hour steps.
  2. She checks each line against the care plan and holds back two cleans for a client who isn't approved for cleaning.
  3. She splits the lines by funding source: ongoing services, the care management account for the care partners' monthly calls, and assistive technology for a shower chair.
  4. She uploads the CSV. The portal rejects six lines: four for a client whose entry date was keyed in wrong, and two that a typo put in the future. She fixes them and claims.
  5. Until that claim is approved she can't lodge another, so a missed shift she finds the next day goes in the next claim. She also checks every July to September line is in before the 29 November deadline.
  6. When the payment arrives, she matches the payment statement to the claim and raises contribution invoices in Xero from the confirmed amounts.
  7. Then come 30 monthly statements for October, due by 30 November. Each lists every visit, including two no-shows, with the subsidy, the contribution and the care management hours.
  8. Last, she updates the budget spreadsheet. Three clients have used more than half their October to December budget, so their care partners need to call them.

Each visit gets typed into four places: the roster, the claim file, Xero and the statement, and every retype risks the errors in the table above.

If your month-end looks like this, book a free call and I'll show you where your data gets retyped and what I'd connect first.

What can you automate, and when is software enough?

Keep judgement calls, like whether a service fits a care plan, with people. The copying and checking can be automated:

  • Completed shifts turned into claim lines, with a check before upload for missing entry records, services outside the care plan, wrong prices and future dates. Our NDIS rostering and Xero guide shows the same idea for NDIS.
  • A running budget for each client, with an alert to their care partner when half the quarter's budget is gone in the first month.
  • Draft contribution invoices in Xero from the confirmed amounts. Our guide to automating invoicing with Xero covers how.
  • A draft monthly statement for each client, built from the same data.
  • Reminders for claim deadlines, exits and the two-monthly price review.

That takes the retyping off your office manager and care partners, and a person still checks every draft. Client records are health information, so keep them in systems you control. If software will help decide things about clients, our automated decision-making privacy policy checklist covers the OAIC's new privacy policy rule, which starts on 10 December 2026.

Off-the-shelf software is often the better answer. If you claim by hand from spreadsheets, start with a system from Services Australia's list. If your NDIS platform already does Support at Home, ask to see a real claim and statement in a demo, and our guide to the best NDIS software for small providers has more questions to ask. With a dozen clients claimed weekly, the portal and a clean CSV template may be enough. Automation is worth it where your software leaves gaps, such as statements that come out wrong or contributions rekeyed into Xero.

Our closest work is on the NDIS side. We built a compliance setup for an NDIS provider where every obligation sat in one register and the reminders went out on their own. They've since brought us back for a bigger build: automatic rostering and invoicing. For Support at Home, we'd map your month-end first. Our workflow automation service covers this work, built in your own accounts so you own it.

Want your Support at Home month-end to take less retyping? Tell us which systems you run on. We'll show you where the same visit gets typed in more than once, and what we'd connect first. Book a free call.

Sources

This is general information, not legal, tax or financial advice. For your own situation, check the department's program manual and Services Australia's provider pages, or call Services Australia's aged care providers enquiry line.

Facts checked 24 October 2026.