Aged Care Plan – FAQs

MyPlan is a home care service builder and cost calculator. It is a tool for people looking at receiving services at home and is intended to provide an estimation of costs only.

All services on MyPlan are provided by Whiddon, an award-winning not-for-profit aged care provider. All care services, transport and similar are provided by our experienced, qualified and caring team members.

Some services, such as allied health, physiotherapy, lawn mowing and home modifications are provided by partner organisations who are experts in those areas.

Home Care Packages provide subsidised care to support older people to continue living at home carefree. There are four levels of Home Care Packages in Australia to meet different care needs and the level that you’re approved at is based on the outcome of your Aged Care Assessment (ACAT).

Each Home Care Package level receives a set amount of funding from the government that can be used to pay for care and support services.

To access Community Care through a Home Care Package you need to have been assessed and assigned a package through MyAgedCare

It’s important to understand the different fees that are part of Home Care Packages and to ask your provider questions about what they will charge your package. You may also want to ask about any extra service fees associated with your care plan, to get a full understanding of all costs involved

Home Care Package funding is made up of 3 parts:

Home Care Package subsidy – this is paid by the Government and the amount changes depending on what level Home Care Package you have been given.

Basic Daily Care Fee – this is your contribution to your care and it supplements the Government subsidy. Your contribution is capped at 17.5% of the pension.

Income Tested Care Fee – this contribution only applies to people who have an income above a certain amount and is different for everyone. Your Centrelink assessment will tell you what you are expected to contribute to the fees of your home care services

• The first step is to understand your options. Talk to your family, support person, GP or a provider like Whiddon to see what types of support services are available and for assistance with goal planning. You should also gather together your financial information including your financial assets or any type of income you may be receiving.
• Step 2 is for people who are looking at subsidised care through a Home Care Package – if this is you, phone us and we’ll assist you to organise your assessment through MyAgedCare.

If you’re not looking at subsidised care, you can skip this step and go direct to Step 3! If you’re waiting for a Home Care Package, ask us about options while you wait!

The next step is research your options and shop around – what are you looking for? What do the providers offer? Do they feel like the right fit for you? Do you understand the service fees associated in your home care needs and wants?

Ask about fees and costs, the number of hours of service you’ll receive, office locations, care worker qualifications and care and package management fees.

Step 4 is to choose a provider and get started! Meet the team who will support you, create your care plan and talk about what’s important to you and your lifestyle. At this point you should be signing your Agreement and getting started!

MyPlan is a cost calculator only. Its aim is to provide customers with an estimate of costs and to showcase the range of care and support services that are available to support older people at home.

When you phone Whiddon, our Sales and Community Care team will work with you to review your needs and requirements, the types of services you want to access and the different funding and payment models available to finalise costs.

Our aim is to be as transparent as possible to ensure that your estimate is as close to the ‘real thing’ as it can be.

The MyPlan calculator covers hourly rate costs only. There are a number of costs that, depending on what services you access and what funding and payment model you use, you may need to pay. These fees are not shown on MyPlan and will be calculated with you at the next stage of your enquiry,

These additional costs include things like:

•  Kilometer charges for transport
•  Care Management costs for Home Care Packages
•  Exit fees for Home Care Packages
•  Package Management costs for Home Care Packages

This is because our Whiddon employees, as per their enterprise agreement, are paid at different rates for evening and weekend work.

Yes, absolutely! Whiddon are an approved provider for Home Care Packages.

If you have a Home Care Package and know what level it is, you can use our tool to see how much your funding will cover. Remember that there are some additional fees that you’ll need to allow room for too, these include:

• Care Management
• Package Management
• Kilometer costs if you’re using your Package for travel.

If you have a Home Care Package but don’t know what level, you can still use MyPlan to look at your options – we can adjust the estimates later when we speak with you.

Yes you can! MyPlan is designed to help you understand the types of services and estimate costs for a variety of home care services. How you pay is up to you – you may elect to cover the costs through a Home Care Package if you have one, or you may pay privately.

Private Home Care Services are a good alternative for when you don’t have, are waiting for, or can’t access a Government funded Home Care Package.

Private home care services are user-pays services. These services are not subsidised by the Government and do not require an Aged Care Assessment (ACAT) to be accessed. Meaning the user of the service will be required to make the full payment of all fees included in their home care services.

Because there’s no assessment or funding from the Government, there’s also no waiting period for privately-paid home care services. You can access support whenever you need it.

Yes you can – MyPlan can be used for one-off fee estimates or regular service budgeting.

Not yet, but you’re getting close!

MyPlan is a fee estimate only so you’ll need to call our Sales Team to sign up as a customer with Whiddon and book in your services. If you’d like us to start this process for you, please send us a message using the ‘Enquire’ button at the top of the page.

Yes, we do – when you’re ready to sign up and book services with us, we will share our Service Agreement with you.

Our booking conditions include: confirmation of booking time and day is dependent on booking slots available, booking for first-time customers may require a phone-based home assessment, bookings require a signed agreement from the customer.

Once you’ve finished adding services and changing times to suit your needs, you need to ‘save your plan by emailing it’- you’ll see a green button underneath the price total to do this!

Once you send to yourself, you can access when you need it and also share with family.

There are a few reasons for this – MyPlan is an estimate tool and doesn’t provide exact quotes. The reason for this is that there are different costs depending on how you’re paying, the types of services you want to access and the time of day.

For example, if you’re accessing and paying for services through a Home Care Package, you’ll have Package Management and Care Management fees to pay that will impact the total amount you have available to spend.

If you’re looking for private services that you pay for directly, without government funding, you’re exempt from these charges.

Home Care pricing is complex – we’d love to talk you through it or share our resources with you over on our Community Care Page

To help ensure your estimate is as accurate as possible, we have taken the Package Management Fee (a required component of your Home Care Package) into account. The figure shown to you is your HCP subsidy, minus the Package Management Fee.

Your final available amount for services may change following the addition of Care Management and kilometer charges.

Yes there is. Our cost per kilometer (for travel with a customer) is $1 per km.

This charge is not included in the estimate provided on MyPlan however we can assist you with an estimate via email or over the phone if you’d like assistance.

The costs shown for an overnight shift, for the purpose of estimates, are for an ‘inactive shift’ from 9pm – 7am. Our actual hours are flexible and can change to meet your needs – please chat to us about arranging this service!

Yes, absolutely! All of our Home Care Workers are qualified with a minimum Certificate 3 in Aged Care, Community Care or equivalent.

Our team members are also First Aid trained, have clear and current driving licenses, are experienced and have additional training provided by Whiddon, including in our award-winning Relationship Based Care approach.