Unspent Home Care Package funds have climbed another $500 million to $4.1 billion – the equivalent of almost 70,000 unused Packages based on an average value of $60,000 – according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s Quarter 4 2024–25 Quarterly Financial Snapshot (QFS).
The report shows home care operator earnings remained broadly steady in 2024-25, but rising labour costs and softening margins continue to define the landscape.
EBITDA averaged $6.18 per care recipient per day (pcrpd), up just $0.14 on the previous year, while the median margin slipped 0.8 percentage points to 6.7%.
Revenue lifted thanks to higher Package utilisation – up from 82.7% to 86.4% – and a 4.2% rise in claim days, but labour costs jumped 9.3% year-on-year as the Fair Work Commission’s wage increases flowed through.
In Q4 2024-25, the average hourly rate for:
- Registered Nurses rose to $52.50 (up 5.0%);
- Enrolled nurses to $39.51 (up 5.4%);
- Personal care workers to $34.93 (up 4.2%).
Only 77.6% of home care operators reported a positive EBITDA – down 1.8 percentage points from 2023-24.
Costs for care management and administration also rose while minutes delivered fell. Care management costs climbed $0.52 to $7.72 pcrpd with time delivered down 0.13 minutes, while administration costs increased $0.40 to $7.28 pcrpd with time down 0.19 minutes.
Between 2020-21 and 2023-24, care management charges accounted for 16.5-18% of provider revenue, but the cost of delivering those services averaged only 10.5-11% – a margin the Department notes may have been used to cross-subsidise losses elsewhere.
Under Support at Home, care management will be capped at 10% of a recipient’s budget, and administration costs will be bundled into service prices. The Department says it will monitor pricing to ensure it remains “reasonable”, but providers may need to raise prices to protect margins.
You can read the full QFS report here.
