Make Your Home Care Package Work Harder for You
The Good Companion delivers more care hours from your Support at Home funding with employed carers, a named coordinator and the same person every visit. Across Queensland, Perth WA and Melbourne VIC.
Same-day response No obligation DVA Gold Card accepted
SUPPORT AT HOME PROGRAM — FORMERLY HOME CARE PACKAGES
Government-funded home care, managed with complete transparency.
Eight funding classifications. All services. DVA and private clients welcome.
The Good Companion delivers the full range of in-home services under Support at Home funding — including overnight and live-in care — with a named coordinator, consistent carers and no hidden fees.
Sound familiar?
Your funding is approved. Your care should be better.
Four things families tell us about their current provider — and what each one actually costs in care hours.
The hourly rate decides everything
Once care management is deducted, what is left buys hours — and how many depends entirely on the hourly rate you are charged. At $95 an hour instead of $72.70 you get roughly a quarter fewer hours for exactly the same funding.
A different carer every visit
Rotating workers undo the continuity that makes home care work. We roster a settled team of two or three carers who share your week, so your parent always knows who is walking in.
No coordinator who knows them
A call centre means explaining the situation from scratch every time something changes. You get one named coordinator, reachable directly.
Unspent funds going back
Under Support at Home only $1,000 or 10% of the quarter rolls over — whichever is greater. The rest returns to the government. A growing balance is money being lost, not saved.
What your funding buys
Hours, not dollars. That is what your family feels.
Your classification is a dollar amount. How many hours it buys depends entirely on what your provider charges. These are the hours a week our rates deliver, after the 10% care management deduction.
| Support at Home classification | Hours a week with us |
|---|---|
| Classification 4 | about 7 hours |
| Classification 5 | about 10 hours |
| Classification 6 | about 12 hours |
| Classification 7 | about 14 hours |
| Classification 8 | about 19 hours |
On Classification 7, a provider charging $95 an hour delivers roughly 43 fewer hours a quarter — 173 fewer a year. Same funding, same government. Four hours a week less of somebody actually in the house. Classifications 1 to 3 are supported too; ask a coordinator what yours works out to.
If the funding isn't quite enough
You can add a few hours without touching your funding.
Most families do not sit exactly on their funded hours. You pay only for the extra, at the same published rate we charge funded clients. There is no minimum on the private part, and you can reduce or stop it in any week without changing your Support at Home arrangement.
Classification 4
The additional hours cost $196 a week — a companionship afternoon each week, and a second outing each month.
- The afternoon stops being empty. Funded care arrives at 9am and nobody comes again. That is the gap families notice first.
- Errands stop landing on family weekends. The bank, the chemist, the shopping.
- Someone stays connected. Regular outings do more for mood than another hour of personal care.
- A predictable afternoon back. The same afternoon every week, that can be planned around.
Classification 7
The additional hours cost $727 a week — two hours every weekday afternoon, on top of funded morning and evening care.
- Care at every point of the day. Morning personal care, afternoon company, evening care three nights.
- The family stops covering the afternoon shift. At this level, that shift is what makes it unsustainable.
- Meals, mobility and medication supervised across the day, not just at the two ends of it.
- A real alternative to residential care. Twenty-four hours a week of one-to-one attention at home.
Before you commit to a large top-up. Past roughly eight or nine hours of support a day, or wherever someone is needed overnight, a live-in carer usually delivers considerably more hours than the same money buys by the hour — and puts the same person there every hour. Ask a coordinator to price both ways first. Weekend and public holiday hours are charged at higher rates, so the figures above assume weekday care.
What The Good Companion delivers under Support at Home funding
All delivered at home by the same employed carer, every visit, backed by a coordinator who knows your care plan.
More care. Same carer. A coordinator who knows your parent.
Published rates, more hours
Our hourly rate is published and it decides how many hours your budget buys. We will compare it against what you are paying now, before any commitment.
Employed carers only
Every carer is directly employed vetted, trained, insured and accountable. Not matched through a platform or supplied by an agency.
Same carer, every visit
We match your parent with the right carer and maintain that relationship. Your carer knows their name, preferences and routines.
Named coordinator
One person manages your care plan and is your direct contact when anything changes not a call centre queue.
Switching is straightforward and it's your right
You can change providers at any time. Your unspent funds transfer automatically. No exit fees. We manage the transition on your behalf.
How switching works
The carers behind your Home Care Package
Employed. Named. The same person, every visit.
Real families. Real words.
"We have been using TGC for over 12 months. The carers have become like friends to Mum. For the first time in a long time, she is actually smiling."
"After switching, the difference was immediate more care hours, the same carer every visit, and a coordinator who knows Mum's situation."
"Approachable, flexible and genuinely caring. I feel like part of the family not just a number."
Questions about Home Care Packages & Support at Home
What replaced Home Care Packages?+
How do I know if your rates are competitive?+
Can I switch providers without losing my funding?+
What does a coordinator do?+
Is overnight care funded under Support at Home?+
Can I pay privately for more hours than my funding covers?+
Is there a point where live-in care makes more sense than adding hours?+
Speak to a coordinator today
your package should work harder for you
One call to understand whether The Good Companion can deliver more care from your Support at Home budget. No pressure, no obligation, same-day response.
Same-day response No obligation DVA Gold Card accepted