What does help at home cost?

There is no honest single answer, and anyone who gives you one is guessing. What someone pays turns on which service, whether it is subsidised, and who provides it. But the shape of it is knowable.

What drives the price

Whether it is a service for the house or help for a person — a cleaner costs less than a support worker, because the second is trained and insured for being with someone. Whether it is subsidised. Whether it is one-off or ongoing. And where you are.

It is also why AskFam never shows a price a provider has not confirmed: an invented number is worse than none, because you plan around it.

What the subsidy changes

A great deal. Through the support programme or a Home Care Package you pay a contribution and the government pays the rest — often turning an unaffordable weekly cost into a manageable one. What you contribute is means-tested and set at the assessment.

Which is the real answer to what it costs: for a lot of families, far less than the private rate, once the assessment is done. My Aged Care, 1800 200 422.

The one number we will give you

On AskFam's open job board, ordinary tasks like cleaning and mowing start at $35 an hour. That floor is real — the board rejects offers below it — because whoever takes the job covers their own super, insurance and travel out of it, and less than that is not a bargain, it is an underpaid person.

Everything else about price, we will not invent. We will tell you what shapes it and point you at the people who can actually quote it.

Why two quotes can look so different

The same-sounding job priced twice over can differ by a lot, usually for real reasons: an agency carries insurance, cover and supervision that an independent sole trader does not, so it costs more and carries less risk. Weekends and public holidays cost more than weekdays. Personal care costs more than cleaning. And "per hour" sometimes hides a minimum visit length or a travel charge.

So compare like for like: ask what is included, the minimum booking, and whether the rate changes on weekends.

Is any of it tax-deductible?

Generally no. Private help at home — cleaning, personal care, companionship — is not tax-deductible, and the old medical expenses tax offset has been gone for years, so do not count on it.

The real way to bring the cost down is not the tax system, it is the subsidy — and the free assessment is what unlocks it. My Aged Care, 1800 200 422.

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.