Homeless supplement for aged care services 065-13040030

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 to have their residential care service recognised as having Specialised Homeless status. If approved, they will receive the relevant specialised BCT rate of those services.

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 at any time, but approval is only granted if all eligibility criteria are met.

The AN-ACC specialised classification lasts up to 3 years, during which the provider must meet all eligibility requirements. It takes effect at the start of the next payment period after approval. For example, an application lodged 15 February can only start from 1 March.

When a care recipient begins care, the service must submit the 'Specialised Homeless Status - Care Recipient Assessment Form' to DoHAC for assessment. If approved, the service will update the entry record 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.

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.