It arrives as a letter, or simply as an invoice that no longer matches the last one. Before you argue, work out which of four things happened — because two of them are automatic and two of them are genuinely negotiable, and families waste months arguing the wrong one.
1. Which increase is this?
a) Indexation of the basic daily fee. The basic daily fee is set at 85% of the single Age Pension, and it moves when the pension moves — on 20 March and 20 September every year. No provider decides this and no provider can waive it. If your letter lands in late March or late September, this is almost certainly what it is. Arguing is pointless; understanding it stops you from wasting energy.
b) A means-tested care fee recalculation. This one moves when her circumstances move, not when the provider decides. Services Australia recalculates after a reassessment of income and assets — a term deposit maturing, the family home passing the two-year exemption after she moved in, an inheritance, a change in the spouse's situation. There are annual and lifetime caps, and they are indexed too. If the number jumped, the first call is to Services Australia, not the provider.
c) The daily accommodation payment moving. If she is paying a DAP rather than a lump-sum RAD, the daily amount is derived from the agreed room price using the maximum permissible interest rate, which is set quarterly. A DAP agreed at one MPIR does not float afterwards for an existing resident — so if it changed, ask exactly why and under which clause.
d) Extra service or additional service fees. This is the negotiable category: newspapers, wine with dinner, a particular room standard, "lifestyle" packages. These must be agreed in writing and set out in the Resident Agreement. If a new charge appeared without an agreed variation, that is a fair thing to challenge.
2. What has to be in writing
- The Resident Agreement must set out the fees, what they cover, and how they can change. Ask for your copy — you are entitled to it.
- Fee changes must be notified, with the required notice period. "It's on the invoice" is not notification.
- Additional service fees require agreement, and you can ask for them to be itemised and, where they are genuinely optional, removed.
- Under the aged care reforms that took effect from 1 July 2025, existing residents are protected by "no worse off" arrangements — if she entered care before the changeover, her fee arrangements should not become worse under the new rules. If a letter suggests otherwise, that is precisely the point to query.
3. Three questions that change the outcome
By email, so the answers exist in writing.
- "Please send an itemised statement showing which fee components changed, the effective date, and the clause of the Resident Agreement that applies."
- "Which of these charges are basic and mandatory, and which are additional services I can decline?"
- "Has her means assessment been updated by Services Australia, and what is the current annual and lifetime cap position?"
That third one is the sleeper. Families often find she has been paying a means-tested care fee past the annual cap, or that an old assessment no longer reflects reality.
4. Financial hardship exists and is under-used
If the fees are genuinely unaffordable — assets that cannot be accessed, an unsold home, income that does not cover the fees — financial hardship assistance through Services Australia can reduce the accommodation payment or the means-tested care fee. It is means-tested, it is not automatic, and almost nobody applies unless someone tells them it exists.
Applications are refused on documentation far more often than on merit.
5. If the answer is unsatisfactory
In order, in writing at every step
- The facility manager and the accounts team, with the itemised statement.
- The provider's formal complaints process — every approved provider must have one.
- OPAN, the Older Persons Advocacy Network — 1800 700 600. Free, independent, and they will help you write the letter and sit in on the meeting.
- Services Australia, for anything means-tested, and for hardship.
- The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission — 1800 951 822, which takes complaints about fees and agreements, not only about care.
6. When the number is simply not payable
Sometimes the increase is lawful, correctly notified, and still out of reach. That is not a fight to win — it is a decision to make. Room prices vary widely between providers for comparable care, and published room prices are searchable before you ever pick up the phone.
Run both tracks at once — the hardship application on one side, alternatives on the other.
Curalune Care Help (A$109) puts together, usually within 24 business hours, a shortlist of 3 to 5 homes matched to her area and care needs — with contacts, room prices to confirm, and the questions to ask about what the quoted price actually includes.
*General information, not financial advice. Fees, room prices and availability are always confirmed by the providers and Services Australia.*