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 is a view only system from 11 August 2022.

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

The homeless supplement is a component of the viability supplement expansion and is not applicable for home care services.

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

The Department of Health and Aged Care determines the residential aged care service’s eligibility for the specialised homeless base care tariff.

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

• Be registered with the Department of Health and Aged Care 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 the Viability expansion component and homeless supplement assessment form (AC024) to Services Australia

The AC024 form consists of 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.