Home Care Package Unspent Funds: What Providers Track

Home care package unspent funds are the balances a participant carried into Support at Home on 1 November 2025. They follow different rules from the quarterly rollover and sit in up to three balances, and who holds each one decides how it is claimed, reported and returned. Facts below are as at 13 October 2026.

Rollover of unspent ongoing budget is covered in our guide to quarterly budget governance. Points below are law, Department guidance or flagged good practice; confirm legal interpretation with your legal adviser.

Key Takeaways

Participants with unspent Home Care Package funds on 31 October 2025 kept a provider-held participant portion and a Commonwealth portion held by the provider, Services Australia or both.
The Commonwealth portion pays for approved services once the quarterly budget is spent, and for assistive technology and home modifications before the AT-HM funding tier.
Monthly statements must show the opening and closing amount of each balance that applies.
On exit the participant portion goes to the participant or their estate, and the provider-held Commonwealth portion goes back to the Commonwealth.
The Department's changing providers page gives a different instruction for the participant portion (transfer it to the new provider within 60 days) from the Rules and Manual, which direct payment to the participant within 70 days.

What are transitioned Home Care Package unspent funds, and who holds them?

Participants with unspent funds on 31 October 2025 retained them, even if later reassessed (Program Manual section 9.3.1, "the Manual"). The Manual and the Department's individualised budgets page describe three balances, and the Aged Care Act 2024 ("the Act") gives each a legal basis.

Participant portion, provider-held: fees paid under the package, the unspent care recipient portion in Act s 273A. It pays that participant's contributions.
Commonwealth portion, provider-held: the unspent Commonwealth portion (s 226A). The Department says it may apply to people who joined the Home Care Packages Program before 1 September 2021; for later joiners, anything you hold is participant portion.
Commonwealth portion, government-held: the home care account (s 226E), held by Services Australia for the participant whatever their classification.

Opening credits came from amounts recorded under the old law (ss 226A(3) and 226E(3)), so reconcile to Services Australia's figures. The Department says no carryover limit applies. The Aged Care Rules 2025 ("the Rules") prescribe two events that zero the home care account, death and age 115, each once the claim period has ended (s 226E-20).

What can a participant use the funds for, including assistive technology and home modifications?

The Department names two uses for the Commonwealth portion: approved services once the whole quarterly budget is spent, and assistive technology and home modifications (AT-HM), where it comes before the AT-HM funding tier (Manual section 9.3.1.4). The participant portion is for that participant's contributions.

The Manual says transitioned participants can reach the scheme without further assessment (section 13.2.1), through a transitional approval the AT-HM page calls a $0 tier. You should be able to show:

List, need and plan: the item is on the AT-HM list, suits the participant's needs, is agreed with them and sits in the care plan and individualised budget.
Prescription: every home modification needs one, and some assistive technology benefits from one, depending on its list category (section 13.4.1).
Justification: the need and reasoning are documented and the evidence kept.

Prescription and wraparound services can be paid from it too: the Manual's example uses a $303 balance for $270 of occupational therapy and $33 of equipment. Our AT-HM compliance guide covers the scheme's caps.

After a reassessment, the AT-HM page says the participant must be approved for AT-HM funding in the new support plan. Check the notice of decision first.

Anything paid wholly from the Commonwealth portion attracts no contribution. A part-paid claim attracts one on the budget-funded part only (Manual section 9.3.1.4; Transitional Rules s 114).

How are claims drawn from the balances?

Services Australia applies the order in Act section 251B, repeated in Manual section 16.4.5. It differs for services and AT-HM.

Services: the quarterly or pathway budget, then your provider-held Commonwealth portion, then the home care account.
AT-HM: your provider-held portion, then the home care account, then the assistive technology or home modifications account.

You still submit the claim against the correct funding source, and the Department's payment arrangements page says to flag a claim against a provider-held portion. No subsidy is paid to you on that part, because the money is already with you (Manual section 16.4.5). As good practice, reduce your held balance the same day.

The participant portion sits outside the chain. If you agreed to retain it, reduce it by the contributions you charge, not below zero (Rules s 273A-20). The written return-or-retain agreement was due within 70 days of the Act's start (s 273A-10), so check each file.

How do the balances appear on monthly statements?

Rules s 155-40(6) applies when a participant has a home care account balance or you hold either unspent portion. The statement must show each applicable balance separately at the start and end of the month, and list AT-HM items charged through the unspent Commonwealth portion (s 155-40(5)(m)).

It is due by the last day of the following month, even with no services (s 155-40(8) and (9)). See the Department's monthly statements page and our monthly statements guide.

What happens when a participant changes provider, exits or dies?

The Rules set the deadlines. The Manual and Department pages are the operating guide.

Participant portion: pay the participant within 70 days after you stop delivering services, or the estate within 14 days of being shown probate or letters of administration (Rules s 273A-20(b); Manual section 12.3.3).
Provider-held Commonwealth portion: give the System Governor written notice and return the balance (Act s 226D, or s 226C if you move the participant to another of your branches). The Rules set the deadline at the end of the day after the last day you could claim for that participant (s 226D-5). The Manual says within 60 days after the exit date, and working to that is good practice. Failure to return it is a debt to the Commonwealth (Act ss 514(3) and 515).
Home care account: it stays with the participant, receives any returned funds (Manual section 12.3.1) and is available to the new provider immediately.
Notices: if you hold either portion, give the participant, or after death their legal representative or estate, a notice within 28 days of stopping services stating the cessation date, both balances and contributions deducted (Rules s 149-45). Give a new provider your estimated account balances within 28 days of learning of its agreement, if within 60 days of exit (s 149-46).

The Department's changing providers page differs, saying to transfer the participant portion to the new provider within 60 calendar days. Follow the Rules and Manual, which direct payment to the participant within 70 days, and carry the dates in your entry, transition and exit policy.

Which records prove the balances were handled correctly?

The Rules require you to keep, for 7 years, the participant's accounts including section 149-45 notices, monthly statements and the records that verify claims (ss 154-1000 and 154-1205). Our record keeping policy is a starting point. As good practice, hold one ledger per participant:

Balances: opening and running figures for each, with the date and source of every movement.
Participant portion: the return-or-retain agreement and each contribution deducted.
AT-HM file: agreed price, quotes and prescriptions, invoices, receipts, contribution amount and delivery proof (Manual sections 13.7 and 13.7.2).
Claims and exit: funding source and provider-held flag on each claim line, the section 149-45 and 149-46 notices, and return confirmations.

Errors to test for include applying the quarterly cap to these balances and drawing the AT-HM tier first. Others are holding a participant portion without an agreement and merging balances on one statement line.

Governa publishes free policy templates. Governa Connect maps an organisation's policies to the Strengthened Aged Care Quality Standards, and Norma answers staff questions grounded in those policies.

Keep the three balances apart on every record

Each balance has a different holder, claiming position and return deadline, so a combined figure fails at the first exit. Give each its own ledger line, statement line and exit step. Next, pull one transitioned participant's file and check that the agreement, balances, last statement and last claim agree.

Related Resources

Frequently Asked Questions

Do home care package unspent funds expire?

The Department says no carryover limit applies, and the Rules zero the home care account on only two events, death and age 115, each once the claim period has ended. The Manual's four-quarter rule for ongoing funding is not stated to cover these balances, so confirm with Services Australia.

Can unspent Home Care Package funds be used for assistive technology and home modifications?

Yes. The Commonwealth portion can pay, before the AT-HM funding tier, for AT-HM list items that suit the participant's needs, are in the care plan and individualised budget and meet any prescription requirement. No further assessment is needed, but a reassessed participant needs AT-HM approval in the new support plan.

Who holds the unspent funds after 1 November 2025, the provider or the Commonwealth?

Both can. The provider holds the participant portion and, for people who joined before 1 September 2021, may also hold a Commonwealth portion. Services Australia holds the rest in the home care account.

What happens to unspent funds when a participant changes provider?

The home care account is available to the new provider immediately. The outgoing provider returns any provider-held Commonwealth portion to Services Australia and pays the participant portion to the participant.

Home Care Package Unspent Funds Under Support at Home: What Providers Must Track