Homeless supplement for aged care services 065-13040030

The System for the Payment of Aged Residential Care (SPARC) is the legacy aged care payment system for residential care. SPARC was a view only system from 11 August 2022 and decommissioned in 2023.

To view the legacy SPARC process, see the historical version.

The homeless supplement aims to better support residential aged care services that specialise in caring for care recipients with:

• a history of, or
• who are at risk of homelessness at the time of entry into care

From 1 October 2022 the homeless supplement:

• is known as the specialised homeless base care tariff
• ceased as an individual supplement due to the implementation of the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) model
• is paid as part of the residential aged care service's AN-ACC fixed funding component

Home Care providers are not eligible to receive a homeless supplement.

To view the homeless supplement in the Aged Care Staff Portal, see Table 8 in Aged Care Staff Portal (ACSP) Service in Context.

The Department of Health and Aged Care (DoHAC) determines the residential aged care service's eligibility for the specialised homeless base care tariff (BCT).

Post 1 October 2022 eligibility

Approved providers must apply to DoHAC for a determination that a residential care service has Specialised Homeless status. If a residential care service is determined to have a specialised status, the approved provider will be paid the relevant specialised BCT rate for the services that have the specialised status.

For DoHAC to determine if a residential care service has specialised status, the approved provider should provide evidence that they meet the relevant eligibility criteria:

• The approved provider demonstrated experience in providing, or the capacity to provide, specialist homeless programs
• The residential care service is providing such specialist programs, or
• The approved provider gives an undertaking to begin providing the specialist programs within 3 months of the application being made, and
• On the day before the application was made, at least 50% of the care recipients (including continuing care recipients) provided with permanent residential care have demonstrated complex behavioural needs and social disadvantage associated with their background as a homeless person

Approved providers can apply for specialised status for any of their services at any time, however a determination will only be made if all the applicable eligibility criteria are met.

The AN-ACC specialised classification will be applied for up to 3 years. During this time, the provider must continue to meet all the eligibility requirements. Applications for a specialised classification will start from the beginning of the next payment period following the change. For example, an application lodged 15 February can only start from 1 March.

When a care recipient starts receiving care, the service needs to complete and return DoHAC's 'Specialised Homeless Status - Care Recipient Assessment Form' to DoHAC for assessment. If the application is approved, the service will update the care recipient's entry event to include the homelessness indicator.

Pre 1 October 2022 eligibility

To be eligible for the homeless supplement the residential aged care service needed to meet all of the following criteria:

• Be registered with DoHAC for the expansion component of the viability supplement
• Have more than half of all residents meeting the viability expansion component and homeless supplement assessment criteria
• Send a completed Viability expansion component and homeless supplement assessment form (AC024) to Services Australia

The AC024 form has 4 pages.

Aged care services retain the Assessment section (pages 1 and 2) and sends the Confirmation section (pages 3 and 4) to Services Australia for processing.

When processing the AC024 form, Service Australia's role is to process the form and check the following details are completed on the form:

• Care recipient details including ID number
• Entry date
• Receipt date (this date cannot be a future date and must be more than 28 days from date of entry)
• Authorised person's details including signature and date the form was signed

It is the aged care service's responsibility to ensure the care recipient meets the eligibility requirements, outlined on pages 1 and 2 of the AC024 form, before submitting the forms.