The aged care home has asked for a fee advice letter, and someone has pointed you to the SA457. Twenty-three pages, with questions about bank accounts, shares and even household contents. A lot of paper for one move.
You are not imagining it. It is a long form. Most of it is the same few questions, asked carefully.
Here is the plain answer. The SA457 tells Services Australia what you earn and own, so it can work out what you pay in an aged care home. It does not decide whether you get a place, and plenty of pensioners never fill it in.
The good news is that the letter it produces follows a set pattern. Let's walk through it plainly.
If you get the Age Pension and do not own a home, you can put the form down
Services Australia already holds the finances of anyone on a means-tested payment, such as the Age Pension, Disability Support Pension or Carer Payment. Without a home, the assessment happens automatically when you move in, provided your details are up to date through myGov or on 132 300.
Own or part own a home? Fill in the much shorter SA485 property details form instead, because the pension assessment never collected the home.
One thing to be clear on: the Age Pension (Blind), Disability Support Pension (Blind) and War Widow(er)s Pension are not means tested, so people on those fill it in.
Answering No means paying the maximum and the full room price
Question 14 asks whether you want to give income and asset details at all. Answer No, and the home can charge the maximum contributions plus the full room price. Unless you would pay that anyway, skipping it costs money every day.
The home is counted at a capped amount, and sometimes not at all
It is left out completely if a protected person still lives there: a partner, a dependent child, or a carer or close relative eligible for income support who has lived there with you for the past 2 or 5 years respectively.
Otherwise it counts, but only up to $219,858.40 as at 20 September 2026, or its net market value if lower. No professional valuation is needed.
Sit with what that means for a moment. Whether the house would sell for $500,000 or $2 million, for a single person it goes in at the same $219,858.40. Our guide to whether you have to sell the family home picks up from there.
Gifts, bank accounts and couples are where people trip up
- List every account, even the ones earning nothing. They are deemed to earn income regardless.
- Gifts from the last five years still count. Over $10,000 in a financial year, or $30,000 over five, is treated as an asset you still hold.
- Couples are assessed on half their combined income and assets, even when one has moved into care.
- Already moved in? Answer as at the entry date, not today.
The letter puts you in one of three positions on the room, and that sets the rest
Everyone pays the basic daily fee, currently $68.93 a day. The letter's bigger job is the room:
- The government pays it. With income below $36,454.60 and assets below $66,500.00, the government pays the full accommodation cost.
- You pay part. Low means, but above those amounts: you pay an accommodation contribution, up to the maximum on the letter.
- You pay the price you agree. Not low means: a refundable lump sum, a daily payment or a mix of both.
It also sets a hotelling contribution of up to $22.15 a day. Pay all of that and a non-clinical care contribution of up to $109.45 a day may follow, capped at $140,652.80 or four years of contributions. Clinical care is fully government funded.
One thing to be clear on: low means status is fixed on the day you move in and stays put while you remain in that home.
What to do next
- Check which form you need. Pensioner without a home: none. Pensioner with a home: the SA485. Everyone else: apply online through myGov within 13 weeks of starting, or use the paper SA457.
- Time it to the move. The letter lasts 120 days from the outcome.
- Use the free help. Try the aged care home fee estimator, or call the Financial Information Service on 132 300.
- Get authorised if you are helping someone. A financial power of attorney can sign with photo ID, and the SS313 form at the back lets you call for them: "I'm the authorised person for [name], calling about their cost of care assessment."
- Check the date on every figure, including these. Most change every 20 March and 20 September.
- Report changes within 28 days, including selling the home, on 1800 227 475, Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm.
- Get advice before selling the home or giving money away. Neither can be undone.
You don't have to work this out alone
It is a lot, all at once. Feeling overwhelmed is not a failure. It is a reasonable response to a genuinely confusing setup.
Having a chat with our team is free to you. It is one-on-one, a real conversation rather than a script, with no pressure to decide anything. When you are ready, we match you with vetted providers that fit what you actually need, never a ranking of who is "best".
Here is what it usually comes down to. The form gets done once, the letter goes to the home, and the fees are set from there. That is not a consolation prize. It is just how it generally works.
What matters is the person you care for settling in well, and you back to being family instead of a full-time case manager.
Whenever you are ready, today, next week or three months from now, we are here.
