What is the Means-Tested Care Fee for residential care?

What is the Means-Tested Care Fee for residential aged care?

The Means-Tested Care Fee is an additional amount that some residents pay towards the cost of their personal and clinical care in an aged care home.

It is separate from:

• the Basic Daily Fee

• accommodation payments or contributions

• optional higher everyday living fees.

Not everyone pays a Means-Tested Care Fee. The amount depends on the resident’s income, assets and assessed cost of care.

Who does the Means-Tested Care Fee apply to?

It generally applies to people who entered permanent residential aged care between 1 July 2014 and 31 October 2025 and remain under those fee arrangements.

People who entered an aged care home from 1 November 2025 generally do not pay a fee with this name. Under the newer arrangements, financially able residents may instead pay:

• a hotelling contribution

• a non-clinical care contribution.

Residents who entered care before 1 November 2025 generally remain on their existing fee arrangements unless they voluntarily opt into the newer system. Opting in cannot normally be reversed.

What does the fee help pay for?

The Means-Tested Care Fee contributes towards the resident’s care costs, including support such as:

• personal care

• assistance with showering and dressing

• mobility and transfers

• continence support

• nursing and clinical care

• medication management

• other care required because of the resident’s assessed needs.

The government pays the remaining eligible care costs to the aged care provider.

How is it calculated?

Services Australia or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs completes a residential aged care means assessment.

The assessment considers both income and assets.

Income can include:

• pension payments

• superannuation income

• employment or business income

• rental income

• investment income

• deemed income from financial assets.

Assets can include:

• bank accounts and term deposits

• shares and investments

• investment properties

• superannuation balances

• private trusts or companies

• some refundable aged care accommodation deposits

• part of the value of the family home in some circumstances.

The amount calculated from the person’s income and assets is compared with the assessed cost of their care. The resident cannot be charged more than the cost of their care or the applicable fee limits.

Services Australia sends the resident and provider a fee advice letter explaining the daily amount payable.

Is the family home included?

Sometimes.

If the former home is retained, only a capped amount of its value may be included in the means assessment. As at March 2026, the maximum assessable home value is $214,884, or the home’s net market value if lower.

The home is generally excluded while it is occupied by a protected person, such as:

• the resident’s partner

• a dependent child

• an eligible carer who has lived there for at least two years

• an eligible close relative who has lived there for at least five years.

Different rules and individual circumstances can affect this treatment, so Services Australia should confirm how the property will be assessed.

What happens if the resident is part of a couple?

For a couple, Services Australia generally combines their income and assets and attributes half to each person.

This can apply even when:

• an asset is held only in one person’s name

• one partner earns most of the income

• the couple is living apart because one person has entered aged care.

How much can someone be charged?

As at July 2026, the Means-Tested Care Fee can range from $0 to $372.03 per day, but most residents would pay less than the maximum.

Caps limit the total amount payable:

• annual cap: $35,910.43

• lifetime cap: $86,185.23.

Once the annual cap is reached, the resident stops paying the fee until the next anniversary of entering aged care.

Once the lifetime cap is reached, no further Means-Tested Care Fee is payable.

These caps are indexed in March and September. Income-Tested Care Fees previously paid under a Home Care Package can also count towards the annual and lifetime caps.

Practical example

A full pensioner with limited assets may be assessed as paying no Means-Tested Care Fee.

A part pensioner or self-funded retiree with higher income and assets may be asked to contribute a daily amount towards their care.

For example, Services Australia might assess a resident’s fee at $35 per day.

That resident would pay:

• the Basic Daily Fee

• the assessed $35 daily Means-Tested Care Fee

• any applicable accommodation costs

• any optional services they agreed to purchase.

The $35 is only an example. The provider does not decide the amount—Services Australia or DVA calculates it.

Does the amount stay the same?

Not necessarily.

The fee may change because of:

• changes in income or assets

• selling the family home

• paying a refundable accommodation deposit

• changes in relationship status

• changes in the assessed cost of care

• regular government indexation

• reaching an annual or lifetime cap.

Residents must tell Services Australia or DVA when relevant financial circumstances change.

What if financial information is not provided?

A resident can choose not to disclose their income and assets, but this can result in them being treated as having sufficient means to pay the maximum applicable fees and accommodation costs.

It is generally better to complete the means assessment, even where the person expects to be self-funded.

What applies to people entering care now?

For people entering permanent residential aged care from 1 November 2025, the comparable means-tested charges are:

Hotelling contribution

This helps meet daily living costs beyond the Basic Daily Fee. It is currently capped at the value of the government hotelling supplement, $22.15 per day.

Non-clinical care contribution

This contributes towards non-clinical care such as bathing, mobility assistance and lifestyle support.

It is currently capped at $107.32 per day. It stops once the resident reaches the indexed lifetime cap of $137,917.01 or has paid it for a cumulative four years, whichever occurs first.

The government continues to fund clinical care.

The practical distinction is:

The Means-Tested Care Fee is an older residential aged care fee based on income, assets and care costs. New residents generally pay the newer hotelling and non-clinical care contributions instead.

What should I do next?

Ask Services Australia or the aged care home to identify your exact fee arrangement before comparing figures. Do not assume an older fee description applies to a new admission.

Helpful Local Home Help resources

• Start with Liz

• How much does Support at Home cost?

• More articles about aged care costs