What you’ll pay on Classification 1
Last updated 21 August 2026
Figures current as at 21 August 2026: quarterly budgets indexed 1 July 2026; lifetime caps indexed 20 March 2026; median prices from the mid-2026 National Summary of Support at Home Prices.
The short version
- Classification 1 comes with $2,752.50 a quarter ($11,010.01 a year) - the smallest budget on the scale, for a light touch of regular help.
- Clinical care - nursing, allied health and care management - is free for everyone, and personal care becomes free for everyone from 1 October 2026.
- Contributions apply only to independence services (5-50% of the price) and everyday living services (17.5-80%).
- The budget itself is not means-tested - everyone on this classification gets the same amount. Only your share of each service’s price depends on your means.
A small budget, and small bills to match
Classification 1 is the entry level of Support at Home - typically an hour or two of help a week. Spread over a 13-week quarter, $2,752.50 works out to around $212 a week of purchasing power. Care management (capped at 10% of the budget) comes out of that, but it’s classed as clinical care, so it never costs you anything out of pocket.
What you personally pay depends only on which services you choose and your means assessment - never on the size of the budget. At this level the weekly bills are modest for almost everyone, as the examples below show.
Three worked examples
All three use national median prices - personal care around $115 an hour, cleaning around $110, gardening around $118, social support around $111 - and a 13-week quarter. The part-pensioner rates are an illustrative mid-range; your actual percentage is set by Services Australia’s means assessment. These are illustrations of how the sums work, not quotes, and evening or weekend surcharges would add to them.
Joan, full pensioner
- Classification 1 · $2,752.50/qtr
- Weekly: 1 hr personal care; 1 hr cleaning each fortnight
- Her contribution
- ≈ $15/week
- Why
- 5% on personal care ($5.75) and 17.5% on the averaged fortnightly clean ($9.63). From 1 October 2026: ≈ $10/week.
Peter, part pensioner
- Classification 1 · $2,752.50/qtr
- Weekly: 1 hr social support; 1 hr safety gardening each fortnight
- His contribution
- ≈ $46/week
- Why
- His illustrative mid-range rates are 20% on independence and 40% on everyday living. No personal care in his mix, so 1 October doesn’t change his total.
Helen, self-funded
- Classification 1 · $2,752.50/qtr
- Weekly: 1 hr cleaning; 1 hr personal care each fortnight
- Her contribution
- ≈ $117/week
- Why
- Around 80% of the cleaning ($88) and around 50% of the averaged personal care ($28.75). From 1 October 2026: ≈ $88/week.
What 1 October 2026 changes here
From 1 October 2026, personal care - showering, dressing, grooming, continence care - is reclassified as clinical care and becomes free for everyone, automatically. In the examples above, Joan’s weekly bill drops from about $15 to about $10, and Helen’s from about $117 to about $88. Peter’s stays the same only because his mix has no personal care in it.
The “no worse off” grandfathering arrangements protect people who, at 12 September 2024, had a Home Care Package, were on the National Priority System, or had been assessed or approved. If that’s you, you keep HCP-era fee arrangements for life - full pensioners who paid no income-tested care fee keep paying $0 - and a lower lifetime cap applies. Read how grandfathering works.
Whatever your rates, contributions don’t run forever. Once your non-clinical contributions reach $137,917.01 over your lifetime, you stop contributing altogether - and the cap is $86,185.23 for grandfathered participants. If contributions are genuinely unaffordable, financial hardship provisions exist through Services Australia; nobody should go without care because they can’t contribute.
Not sure Classification 1 is your level?
Tell us what help you need each week and your pension status. We’ll talk through what you’d likely pay - and whether it’s worth asking about a higher classification.
Common questions
Do my contributions come out of the $2,752.50 budget?
No. Your contribution is your share of each service’s price, paid from your own pocket; the government’s share comes from the quarterly budget. A $110 clean at 17.5% costs you $19.25, and the budget covers the other $90.75.
I get a little help through CHSP now - is Classification 1 the same thing?
No - the Commonwealth Home Support Programme is a separate program with its own fees, and the government announced on 20 August 2026 that it will keep running standalone until at least 30 June 2029. Some people stay on CHSP; others are assessed into Support at Home. It depends on your assessment.
What if an hour or two a week stops being enough?
Reassessment is free - contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. If you’re weighing up whether the next level would suit you better, see our Classification 1 vs 2 comparison.
What happens if I never complete the means assessment?
You’re automatically charged the maximum rates - around 50% on independence services and around 80% on everyday living. For most people the Services Australia assessment produces a lower rate, so it’s almost always worth doing.
Sources
- Support at Home Program Manual - service categories, individual contributions and classification budgets.
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, health.gov.au - Support at Home classifications and quarterly budgets (indexed 1 July 2026).
- Department of Health, Disability and Ageing - National Summary of Support at Home Prices (median service prices), 2026.
- Services Australia, servicesaustralia.gov.au - aged care means assessment; lifetime cap on non-clinical contributions (indexed 20 March 2026).