Higher everyday living fees (HELF), explained

What it is

Every home has to provide everyday living services to every resident for the basic daily fee and the hotelling contribution: meals, cleaning, laundry, power and the like. A higher everyday living fee (HELF) is an extra daily charge for something above that standard, such as a wider menu, a glass of wine with dinner, a daily newspaper, Wi-Fi or a television package in the room. Homes give these packages their own names, for example "Elevate", "EverydayPlus" or "Enhanced Living".

It replaces the "extra service" and "additional service" fees that applied before 1 November 2025.

The rules that protect your parent

• Never a condition of moving in. A home may only offer a HELF agreement after your parent has moved in, and the agreement is separate from the accommodation and service agreements.
• In writing, item by item. The agreement has to say what each service is, how often it is provided, to what standard, and what it costs.
• Only for services they can use. A home cannot charge for something your parent is unable to use. A bundle may include an item they will not use, but it must not cost more than buying the items they do use separately.
• 28 days to change your mind. In the first 28 days after signing, your parent can change or end the agreement straight away, without notice, and the home cannot charge a fee for the change or for ending it (Aged Care Rules 2025, rule 284-11(7)(a)). After that, your parent or the home can change or end it with 28 days' notice, again with no fee for doing so (rule 284-11(7)(b)); the home can keep charging for the extras until the notice runs out (284-11(9)).
• Costs the home could not avoid: 90 days at most. When your parent changes or ends the agreement after the first 28 days, the home may recover a cost it had to pay for a service it had already arranged, and must show the evidence if asked. Such a cost stops counting 90 days after the notice ends or the agreement ends (rules 284-11(15) to (17)).
• Reviewed every year. For ongoing services the agreement must provide for a review at least once a year, with a written record of what was found and changed (rule 284-11(4), (5)).
• Price rises only by indexation. The department says agreed amounts increase annually by indexation; the Rules set this on 1 July each year, in line with the consumer price index (rule 284-15). A change to the agreement cannot be only a change of price (284-11(8)). The home can change the price it advertises to new residents at any time.

Why you rarely see a price

Homes must publish their room prices, but no rule makes them publish HELF prices, and nobody has to approve them. When we read ten homes' websites in November 2026, none showed a daily HELF amount; about half named a package and listed what it includes. The government's own fee estimator leaves HELF out.

So ask each home on your shortlist for its HELF price list in writing before you decide, and compare it with what your parent would actually use. Where an operator's website lists a package, our page for that home shows its name, what it includes and where we read it.

Adding it to the monthly bill

Once you have the home's written price, put the daily amount into the HELF box in the monthly calculator. A HELF of $15 a day adds about $456.25 a month.