A cleaner, or help around the home?

This is the most useful question in the whole product, and it takes one sentence to answer.

Just the cleaning

A cleaning service. They come, they do the floors and the bathroom, they go. They are not there for the person, and will not usually be trained or insured for anything involving them.

Straightforward to arrange, rarely subsidised, and the right answer when the house is the problem.

Help around the home

A support worker. The cleaning is part of it, but so is putting the shopping away, changing the bed, noticing what has run out — and talking to the person while they do it.

This is the one that is usually subsidised, because it is classed as help for a person rather than a service for a house. It also means somebody lays eyes on them every week, which is frequently worth more than the work itself.

How to tell which you need

One question: if the house were spotless, would you still want somebody coming?

If yes, you want help around the home. If no, you want a cleaner.

Is it paid for?

Often, at least partly. My Aged Care is the government front door for anyone over 65, and the assessment that decides what is subsidised is free. For someone under 65 living with disability, that role belongs to the NDIS.

The assessment is the step people skip, and it is the one that unlocks everything else. It is also slow — weeks, sometimes months — so it is worth starting even if you arrange something privately in the meantime.

If you would rather just post it

Ordinary cleaning can go on the open job board, and people offer on it. Hourly offers start at $35 an hour, because whoever takes it is covering their own super, insurance and travel out of that.

Help around the home cannot be posted. It means being alone with somebody who may be vulnerable, and AskFam has no way to check anyone — so it goes to services that do.

What AskFam does and does not do

AskFam works out what you need and points you at services that already exist. It does not employ anyone, does not arrange the work, and takes no fee or commission — from you or from them.

It also has not checked anybody. Where you see a business listed, that is a public listing, not a recommendation. Where somebody offers on a job you posted, that is them describing themselves, in their own words. Ask for what matters to you, and take your time about it.