The Difference Between NDIS & Aged Care

It's a genuinely common point of confusion, especially for families supporting someone with both age-related needs and a disability. Here's the difference in plain terms.

Support at Home (formerly Home Care Packages) is for older Australians, generally aged 65 and over (50+ for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people), who need support to keep living independently at home. It's assessed and delivered through My Aged Care.

The NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme) is for people under 65 with a permanent and significant disability. It's assessed and delivered through the National Disability Insurance Agency (NDIA), and tends to fund a broader range of supports — including things like assistive technology, therapy services, and community participation — tailored to individual goals rather than aged-care-specific needs.

Can you have both?

Generally, no — you have to choose one or the other once you're eligible for Support at Home. The main exception: if you were already an NDIS participant before turning 65, you can generally choose to stay on the NDIS rather than move across.

A simple way to think about it:

• If the need is primarily age-related — mobility changes, general frailty, needing help with day-to-day tasks as you get older — Support at Home is the relevant system.
• If the need stems from a permanent disability, regardless of age (for someone under 65), the NDIS is the relevant system.



If you're supporting a family member and aren't sure which applies, both My Aged Care and the NDIS have assessment teams who can help clarify — and it's genuinely worth checking early, since the NDIS becomes much harder to newly access after 65.