Unspent home care funds continue to rise
StewartBrown’s quarterly report shows slight improvement in revenue utilisation, but Grant Corderoy tells CCR high rates of unspent funds remain.

StewartBrown’s most recent quarterly report shows that out of the 77,555 home care packages surveyed, there is a new average of $15,221 in unspent funds per client.
This finding for the quarter ending September 2024 marks a $2,057 increase of an average of $13,164 per client in the same quarter in 2023. The Aged Care Financial Performance Survey Report report notes that in aggregate across the sector, this represents in excess of $4.2 billion unutilised funds.
Providers of home care should prepare for changes due to commence in July 2025, said StewartBrown senior partner Grant Corderoy, particularly those targeting revenue utilisation, as the rate is currently sitting at “well under 90 per cent.”

Too much home care funding is not being utilised, he said, which is adding to the unspent funds.
“The big challenge for the sector in home care, both from the pricing authority, as well as the providers, is setting a price from July 1, for the first year of transition, that’s [an] appropriate price, that’s affordable for the consumer, but also reflects a proper margin, we’ll call it for the provider.
“And it’s going to be a lot of work around what the right pricing structure should be,” Mr Corderoy told Community Care Review.
“I feel that this is something that is going to be the major focus for home care. And until they get that right, it’s going to only have marginal surpluses.
“Unspent funds and revenue utilisation has been a [big] area of concern for many years. And I think that will change that. And if we can then use the funding available, the consumers use what’s available, [and] not have unspent funds, [it] will also allow us to have more funding to get more people into home care, which is needed because the waiting lists are starting to grow.”
Other key findings

- operating profit of $3.36 per client per day across the survey average
- average revenue utilisation sits at just over 85 per cent
- staff hours have increased by 0.32 hours (19.2 minutes) to 5.25 hours (315 minutes) per care recipient
- administration and support costs represent 25 per cent of revenue, down from 26.5 per cent the previous year
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Of course there are large unspent funds being held by the Govt. because it has now been made so difficult to spend them, The average Home Care provider just says no to every request and then we go back and fight for what we want. Any item over $200 seems to require an O/T report which then costs more than $200. The HCP people also rip off the system. My HCP has charged me $200 for a wheelchair taxi ride to the local club which is a 3.4 klm roundtrip. AND does anyone know what happens to unspent funds after 1.7.25 ?
The reason I have unspent funds is because it is so difficult to communicate my needs to my provider. They only want to provide me with support that they deem they can provide. Also there is a real lack of comprehension of what is needed when dealing with non Australian staff. Questions go unanswered. Queries up the ladder of responsibility go around in circles and so on.
It does not seem to matter what one needs, some providers just want to provide what they want to and do not consult with you nor consider your individual needs. This is not how it was supposed to be but it is a reality for so many of us.