The Federal Government has announced it has abandoned its plans to end the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP), which was due to roll into the Support at Home Program from 1 July 2027.
The CHSP Program, which supports 830,000 older Australians through subsidised access to entry-level supports that assist them to remain in their own homes, will now be extended for another 2 years to 30 June 2029.
Existing CHSP funded providers were ‘deemed’ into the Support at Home program under their relevant service delivery categories from 1 November 2025 and have spent the past 9 months updating their systems, policies and agreements to ensure compliance with the new program. This work has been both time consuming and costly.
Add to these compliance pressures, the cost of renewals under Support at Home and many providers, including local councils, have been providing notice of their intention to no longer deliver the program.
“When being consulted for support to understand the renewal process, the feedback we have received from providers is that the cost of ongoing compliance was beginning to exceed the very small margins (if any) that CHSP providers were making under this program and it was no longer viable to continue”, said Kathryn Garth, SoCom Consulting CEO.
With the most recent announcement, Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, Sam Rae has urged providers that have been considering withdrawing from CHSP, or those who have already indicated they intend to, to talk to the government before finalising any decisions. “The uncertainty that drove a lot of these decisions is now gone. Your contracts will continue without interruption until 2029”, he said.
What does this mean for future funding opportunities?
Currently available information about extension of the CHSP has focussed on what this means for the existing 1300 funded providers.
“We don’t yet know whether the amount of available funding will increase to meet obvious funding gaps, or if new applications for any funding will be opened to additional providers who are turning away enquiries for support every day”, said Kathryn Garth. “Ageing Australians who are approved for CHSP and receive codes are finding consistent road blocks when trying to find local providers who are approved and have funding available to deliver services against those codes.”
The government has said it now thinks the CHSP should remain a standalone program, rather than rolling it into Support at Home, and will use the extension to strengthen the program.
SoCom Consulting will continue to monitor the consultation process and provide further insights as new information is released. This includes guidance on how providers may need to now unwind their recent systems and process updates from Support at Home.
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