Costs and fees

What is the basic daily fee for aged care?

Updated 24 August 2026

The basic daily fee is the standard living-costs fee that every resident of an Australian aged care home pays. The maximum is $66.80 a day under the residential care fee schedule that applies from 1 July 2026. My Aged Care publishes the same maximum as $24,382 a year.

The government fixes that maximum by formula. The fee equals 85% of the basic age pension paid to a single person, and it is re-indexed on 20 March and on 20 September, tracking age pension increases.

The basic daily fee buys the daily living services provided at the home: meals, cleaning, laundry, heating and cooling, and utilities. It does not pay for care. It also sits apart from accommodation costs and from any means-tested contribution. Every aged care home resident pays it regardless of their income and assets. For some residents it is the only fee they pay, because their means assessment sets the other contributions at nil.

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How is the basic daily fee set in 2026?

The basic daily fee is calculated as a percentage of the single basic age pension. The fee therefore moves whenever the pension moves. My Aged Care puts the maximum at 85% of the basic age pension for a single person. The health.gov.au provider page, last updated 10 April 2026, states the same 85% figure.

Services Australia publishes the base that the 85% is taken from. For a single person, the maximum basic rate of Age Pension is $1,100.30 a fortnight before supplements, on a page last updated 19 June 2026. The Department of Social Services adjusts those pension rates every 20 March and 20 September. The basic daily fee is indexed on the same two dates.

The residential care fee schedule that applies from 1 July 2026 publishes three basic daily fee rates. Which one a resident pays depends on when they entered care.

• Standard basic daily fee: $66.80 a day. This rate is 85% of the basic age pension for a single person. It applies to residents who are not on pre-1 July 2014 fee arrangements. The rate has not changed since the schedule that took effect at the 20 March 2026 indexation, which was the most recent indexation point.
• Non-standard basic daily fee: $75.83 a day. This rate is 96.5% of the basic age pension for a single person. It applies to some residents who entered care before 1 July 2014, under the fee arrangements of that time.
• Protected basic daily fee: $60.90 a day. This rate is 77.5% of the basic age pension for a single person. It applies to other residents on pre-1 July 2014 arrangements, at a lower daily amount than the standard rate.

One of those three basic daily fee rates sets the maximum for every resident of the 2,590 aged care homes the Elderberry directory lists across 708 providers as at August 2026.

What does the basic daily fee cover?

The basic daily fee covers the daily living services a resident receives at the aged care home. My Aged Care lists those as meals, cleaning, laundry and utilities. The health.gov.au provider page adds heating and cooling. Services Australia describes the same fee to providers as payment for costs such as meals, electricity and laundry. The maximum basic daily fee is set by the pension formula, so it does not rise with the amount of care a resident needs.

Three cost layers sit outside the basic daily fee. Each one is funded, charged or taken up under its own rules.

• Clinical care. Clinical care in aged care homes is fully funded by the government, under the fee arrangements that began on 1 November 2025. None of that cost reaches the resident through the basic daily fee.
• Accommodation. A resident's room is priced and paid for on its own terms. What the resident contributes towards the room is decided by their means assessment, not by the pension formula that fixes the basic daily fee.
• A higher standard of service. Since 1 November 2025, the optional higher everyday living fee lets a resident pay for a higher standard of services than the basic daily fee covers. Because it is optional, it reaches only a resident who takes up those higher-standard services.

Accommodation and means-tested contributions are the other large components of aged care costs. They are also why the total cost of a nursing home differs between two residents living in the same building.

Who pays the basic daily fee, and how is it paid?

Every person living in an Australian aged care home pays the basic daily fee, whatever their income and assets. The fee is payable for every day of residency. That includes any day the resident spends overnight in hospital or away on holiday. Residents pay it directly to their aged care home, usually fortnightly or monthly. The home does not work out the amount itself. Services Australia tells the provider the basic daily fee it can charge for each resident, in that resident's initial fee advice letter.

Two groups of veterans may have the fee met by another payer. For an eligible former Prisoner of War, and for a Victoria Cross recipient, the basic daily fee may be paid by the Department of Veterans' Affairs.

Do respite and short-term care residents pay the basic daily fee?

Residential respite residents pay the basic daily fee on the same formula and at the same maximum as permanent residents. My Aged Care states that the government sets the respite fee at 85% of the single basic age pension, which produces the same $66.80 a day maximum. The footnote to the 1 July 2026 schedule states that the fee applies to permanent residential care and to residential respite care.

A respite resident's exposure stops at that fee. A provider cannot charge a respite resident means tested contributions, and cannot charge them accommodation costs either.

The Transition Care Programme is capped at two daily rates, set by where the care is delivered.

• $13.75 a day for transition care at home or in the community. My Aged Care gives this as the current maximum, and the 1 July 2026 schedule sets the same rate for transition care delivered in a home or community setting.
• $66.80 a day for transition care in a residential setting. This is the same 85% of the single age pension that sets the residential basic daily fee. A transition care resident in a residential setting therefore faces the same daily maximum as a permanent resident.

What other fees can an aged care home charge?

An aged care home can charge a hotelling contribution, a non-clinical care contribution, a means tested care fee, accommodation costs and an optional higher everyday living fee on top of the basic daily fee. Which of them apply depends on when the resident entered care. A person who enters an aged care home on or after 1 November 2025 falls under one of two fee arrangements. A person whose permanent move into an aged care home happened on or before 31 October 2025 keeps the resident fees and accommodation costs they were already paying while they remain in care, unless they choose to opt in to the new arrangements.

Under the 1 November 2025 arrangements, two means-tested contributions can be charged on top of the basic daily fee.

• Hotelling contribution, up to $22.15 a day. The contribution is limited to the value of the hotelling supplement, which the 1 July 2026 schedule sets at $22.15. That daily cap is indexed in March and September.
• Non-clinical care contribution, up to $107.32 a day under the 1 July 2026 schedule. This contribution excludes the resident's clinical care costs. Under that schedule it also stops permanently once the resident reaches $137,917.01 in total contributions, or after four years of cumulative contributions, whichever comes first. My Aged Care marks that lifetime figure as indexed, and the caps are updated on 20 March and 20 September.

Accommodation is charged separately again. Under the schedule that applies from 1 July 2026, a resident with income below $35,521.20 a year and assets below $64,500.00 has their full accommodation costs paid by the Australian Government. My Aged Care notes that both threshold amounts change with indexation. Two further figures in that schedule govern deposits. A resident who pays part of their accommodation cost as a refundable accommodation deposit must keep at least $64,500 in assets. A deposit above $789,686 cannot be charged without prior approval from the Independent Health and Aged Care Pricing Authority.

Who pays for aged care in Australia is decided charge by charge. The aged care means assessment sets the hotelling contribution, the non-clinical care contribution and the resident's share of accommodation costs. The basic daily fee is not one of the charges it touches.

What is the maximum means-tested fee for aged care?

For a resident on the 1 July 2014 fee arrangements, the means tested care fee runs from $0 to $372.03 a day, under the schedule that applies from 1 July 2026. The fee is capped at $35,910.43 a year and at $86,185.23 over a lifetime. Both caps are indexed on 20 March and 20 September. Where a resident sits inside that range is set by the aged care means assessment, which assesses their income and their assets.

The caps are hard stops. Once a resident reaches an annual cap for a given year, the provider cannot charge that fee again for the rest of that year. Reaching a lifetime cap ends the charge outright. The basic daily fee is never capped, so it continues for every day of residency once the means-tested fees have stopped.

How do pensioners afford the basic daily fee?

A pensioner meets the basic daily fee from the age pension, because the fee is set as a share of that same pension, at 85% of the single basic age pension.

Three mechanisms reduce what a pensioner on low means is asked to pay beyond the basic daily fee.

• The means assessment can set every other contribution at nil. Services Australia states that for some people the basic daily fee is the only fee they need to pay. My Aged Care carries a worked example in which a resident's finances leave him paying a basic daily fee and nothing else.
• The government subsidises the room for a low means resident. Under the 1 July 2026 schedule, the government pays an accommodation supplement of up to $72.30 a day for a low means resident, based on the outcome of their means assessment.
• The government meets the cost of clinical care. Clinical care in an aged care home is government funded under the 1 November 2025 arrangements, so a pensioner's clinical needs add nothing to the fees they are charged.

Services Australia's Financial Information Service is free and open to everyone. An Aged Care Specialist Officer at a Services Australia service centre can talk a person through their options.

What happens if you cannot afford aged care fees?

Financial hardship assistance covers a person who cannot afford their aged care home costs for reasons that are beyond their control. Where a person is eligible, the Australian Government pays some or all of their contributions, fees and accommodation. My Aged Care states that an application can cover the basic daily fee, the means tested care fee and accommodation costs, depending on the person's situation.

Two thresholds govern eligibility, and My Aged Care states neither of them with an effective date. The page ties both to the basic age pension, which is indexed on 20 March and 20 September. On assets, hardship assistance is restricted to people holding no more than $46,835.10, once unrealisable assets are excluded. The page describes that figure as the annual basic age pension with supplements, multiplied by 1.5. On income, the test looks at what is left after essential expenses. A person left with less than $165.05 a fortnight, which the page puts at 15% of the basic age pension amount, may qualify for the full fee reduction supplement.

Hardship assistance has a fixed boundary. It cannot be granted for the higher everyday living fee, or for extra and additional service fees. A resident who has agreed to those optional charges keeps paying them whatever the hardship outcome.

Common questions

Can you avoid aged care fees?

The basic daily fee is charged to every aged care home resident regardless of their means, and no cap ever switches it off. Who meets that charge can change. The Department of Veterans' Affairs may pay it for an eligible former Prisoner of War or Victoria Cross recipient. Financial hardship assistance can cover it for a person whose assets and remaining income fall below the hardship thresholds. What can fall is the means-tested side of the bill. Withholding financial detail is not a route to that reduction: Services Australia states that a person who leaves their income and assets undeclared pays the maximum rate for aged care services.

How much money can you have in the bank for aged care?

The asset free area in the 1 July 2026 schedule is $64,500.00, the asset side of the means assessment threshold that decides whether the Australian Government pays a resident's full accommodation costs. The minimum permissible asset level in that same schedule is also $64,500, and that one is the floor a resident must keep when part of their accommodation cost is paid as a refundable deposit. A third figure sets the hardship ceiling. My Aged Care puts it at $46,835.10 in assets, excluding unrealisable assets, and states no effective date for the amount. None of the three figures moves the basic daily fee.

What are the three types of aged care?

The three types of government-funded aged care are the Commonwealth Home Support Programme, Support at Home, and residential aged care. They sit across two settings, care in a person's own home and residential care in an aged care home, with in-home care split across the first two programmes.

• Commonwealth Home Support Programme. Entry-level support, delivered to a person living in their own home.
• Support at Home. In-home care for people with more complex needs, including short-term pathways.
• Residential aged care. Care delivered in an aged care home, either permanently or as short-term respite care.

Retirement villages sit outside those three. The government does not subsidise them, so a resident pays the full cost themselves. Eligibility for government-funded aged care services starts at 65 years of age. It starts at 50 years for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and for people who are homeless or at risk of homelessness, on a health.gov.au page last updated 23 April 2026.

What are the changes to aged care in 2026?

The fee rules a resident meets in 2026 come from the new Aged Care Act. That Act commenced on 1 November 2025, and aged care fees changed from that date, including the arrival of the optional higher everyday living fee. The standard basic daily fee has held at $66.80 a day from the 20 March 2026 schedule through to the schedule that applies from 1 July 2026.

Existing residents keep their protection under the no worse off principle. That principle is the source of the choice a permanent resident as at 31 October 2025 holds between their existing fee arrangements and the new ones. It reaches the same way to someone approved for a Home Care Package, or already receiving one, by 12 September 2024.

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