The Albanese Government will bar residential aged care providers from charging elderly Australians an “unreasonable” fee, as it seeks to reform the beleaguered system. Source: The Australian.
Under reforms to the Aged Care Rules 2025, providers will no longer be able to charge residents a Higher Everyday Living Fee (HELF) for services they were receiving for free as part of their care arrangements before sweeping reforms to the aged care system came into effect on November 1, 2025.
Government guidelines had made it clear it was unreasonable for providers to charge a HELF fee in such instances, however the government reported instances of providers “taking advantage of older Australians”.
It now sought to ensure the expectation was “codified in law”.
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said the government had listened to older Australians and were acting to make the “rules clear and strengthen protections”.
“We’ve always said it was unreasonable for providers to start charging older Australians for services they previously received at no cost,” he said.
“We’ve been very clear, the Higher Everyday Living Fee is for optional, additional services people choose to receive, not services that were already part of their everyday care. It’s common sense that services a provider was already delivering, continue to be provided at no additional cost.”
The HELF fee is an optional fee for people in permanent or respite care choosing to receive a higher quality of service.
The Albanese Government has sought to massively overhaul the aged care system, spending on which grew to a whopping $39.8 billion in 2024-25.
The largest proportion of that spending was on residential care services.
Last month, the government said it would extend the Commonwealth Home Support Program for older Australians choosing to remain at home, rather than rolling it into the Support at Home program.
FULL STORY
Government to ban aged care providers from charging ‘unreasonable’ new fees (By Nathan Schmidt, The Australian)
