What Is an Aged Care Assessment in Australia — A Plain English Guide for Families

If someone you love needs more support as they age — whether that’s help at home or a move into residential care — an aged care assessment is the essential first step. Many people still call this an “ACAT assessment,” but the system behind it has changed significantly in recent years. Here’s an accurate, plain English guide to what’s actually involved in 2026.

What Is an Aged Care Assessment?

An aged care assessment is a free, structured evaluation of an older person’s care needs — the mandatory first step to access any government-subsidised aged care in Australia.

Important update worth knowing: Since 9 December 2024, the Single Assessment System has replaced the separate ACAT and RAS teams. The in-depth assessment formerly done by ACAT is now officially called a comprehensive assessment, and the lower-needs assessment is now called a home support assessment.

In practice, many families and even healthcare professionals still refer to “getting an ACAT assessment” because the term is so embedded in how people talk about aged care — but the formal terminology and the system behind it have genuinely changed.

Note on terminology: In Victoria, the older equivalent was called an ACAS assessment — Aged Care Assessment Service.

What This Assessment Unlocks

A comprehensive assessment determines eligibility for:

• Support at Home — the program that replaced Home Care Packages, providing funded support to remain living independently at home
• Residential aged care — permanent accommodation in an aged care facility
• Residential respite care — short-term stays in a facility to give primary carers a break
• Transition care — short-term support following a hospital stay

A Significant Recent Change — Support at Home

One of the biggest changes families need to understand: Support at Home replaced the old Home Care Packages system on 1 November 2025, moving from four package levels to eight classification levels.

If your loved one was already approved before that date, the older system and terminology may still apply to them. Everyone entering the system from 1 November 2025 onward goes through the new Support at Home structure.

The previous four Home Care Package levels provided funding ranging from roughly $10,271 to $62,589 per year — the new eight-level system is designed to offer more precisely tailored funding to match individual needs.

How the Assessment Actually Works Now

Step 1 — Contact My Aged Care Call 1800 200 422 or register online at myagedcare.gov.au. The initial call is free and takes around 15-20 minutes, where you’ll be asked about current needs and daily challenges.

Step 2 — Triage and referral A Triage Delegate will contact you within two weeks to arrange either a home support assessment for lower-level needs, or a comprehensive assessment for Support at Home eligibility.

Step 3 — The assessment itself A trained assessor visits the home and works through the new Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) — a structured evaluation covering 12 domains including physical health, cognition, emotional wellbeing, daily living activities, home environment, social circumstances, and carer capacity. The assessment typically takes 45 to 75 minutes, though it can take longer for more complex needs.

You can have a family member or advocate present — and it’s genuinely worth having someone there for support and to help ensure nothing important is missed.

How to Prepare Well

Be honest about the hard days, not just the good ones Be specific and honest about difficulties — describe the worst days, not the best ones. Many older people naturally want to put their best foot forward during an assessment, but this can result in being assigned a lower support classification than is actually needed.

Have documentation ready Current medications, recent test results, and any relevant medical history help the assessor understand the full picture.

Write down specific examples beforehand Rather than general concerns, specific dated examples — a fall last week, difficulty managing medications, missed meals — carry far more weight in the assessment.

A Few Honest Things to Know About the Current System

It’s worth being upfront about some genuine challenges families are currently navigating with this system.

Wait times have become significant. The national waiting list reached over 130,000 people by December 2025, with approximately 25,000 added in just two months. Wait times after approval can range from a few months to over 12 months, depending on demand in your area and the urgency of the situation.

The new assessment tool has faced some criticism. Advocacy groups have raised concerns that the algorithm-based IAT tool can sometimes underestimate care needs and limit experienced clinicians’ ability to use their professional judgment, with calls to advocacy services increasing by 50% after the tool’s introduction. The government has acknowledged this is an evolving area and stated it is actively monitoring and refining the process.

What this means practically: If the outcome of your assessment doesn’t seem to reflect your loved one’s genuine needs, you have every right to push back and ask questions — this isn’t just you being difficult, it reflects a system that is still being refined.

What If You Disagree With the Outcome?

If you aren’t happy with your assessment, the first step is to contact your assessor or My Aged Care to discuss your concerns. If you can’t reach an agreement, you can appeal the decision and have the assessment reviewed by the Secretary of the Australian Department of Health.

As I wrote in how to stay involved in your parent’s care — genuine advocacy, including formally requesting a review when something doesn’t seem right, is one of the most important things a family member can do.

The Cost of the Assessment Itself

The assessment itself is completely free, funded entirely by the Australian Government. There is no cost barrier to having this initial step completed.

If Your Situation Changes While Waiting

If your loved one’s condition deteriorates significantly while waiting for an assessment or for services to be allocated, contact My Aged Care immediately to update them. A changed situation may qualify for a faster assessment, a higher level of support, or priority access to services. The system won’t automatically know — you need to proactively communicate changes.

If Your Loved One Is in Hospital

Yes, assessments can happen while someone is in hospital — a social worker at the hospital can organise this, which can be a faster pathway than waiting to arrange it from home.

The Bottom Line

The aged care assessment process — still widely called “ACAT” even though it’s now technically the comprehensive assessment under the Single Assessment System — remains the essential first step toward accessing government-funded aged care.

The system has genuinely changed in recent years, wait times are a real and significant challenge right now, and the new assessment tool is still being refined. But understanding what’s actually involved, preparing honestly, and knowing you can push back if something doesn’t feel right puts your family in a much stronger position.

Start the process early. Don’t wait for a crisis to make the first call.

Has your family been through an aged care assessment recently? Share your experience in The Good Years Club community — what would you tell another family going in for the first time? 💙

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