Government Funded Personal Alarm: Free Options in Australia (2026)

A government funded personal alarm in Australia isn’t available through one single program. There are six separate pathways, and which one applies to you depends on your age, where you live, and whether you’re already receiving aged care, disability, workers’ compensation, transport accident, or veterans’ support: Support at Home’s Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) budget, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP), an NDIS plan, a state-based scheme, WorkSafe or TAC in Victoria, or the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Rehabilitation Appliances Program. Most people only ever need to know about one or two of these. This guide walks through each one, what it actually covers, and how to apply.

Government funded personal alarm pathways at a glance

Pathway	Who it’s for	What it typically covers
Support at Home (AT-HM scheme)	People 65+ receiving aged care support at home	Device cost via a funding tier, plus wraparound services
CHSP / geat2GO	People with lower-level, entry support needs	A referred, approved device (not a self-purchase)
NDIS	People under 65 (under 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) with an eligible disability	Assistive technology in an NDIS plan
State schemes (VIC, SA, NSW, WA)	Residents of those specific states, criteria vary	Varies, see below
WorkSafe / TAC (VIC)	People with an accepted workplace injury or transport accident claim in Victoria	Personal alarm or medical alert equipment, via a treating health professional’s assessment
DVA Rehabilitation Appliances Program	Eligible veterans (Gold or White Card)	Device via a prescriber-completed form

Safe-Life Personal Medical Alarm Black with travel charger below.

Source: Department of Health and Aged Care

Support at Home and the AT-HM scheme

Support at Home launched on 1 November 2025, replacing Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care as the main aged care at-home funding program.[1] It includes a dedicated Assistive Technology and Home Modifications (AT-HM) scheme, funded separately from your regular day-to-day care budget, so choosing a personal alarm doesn’t mean giving up other supports.[2]

AT-HM funding is approved in one of three tiers based on your assessed need:

Tier	Funding amount	What it’s for
Low	Up to $500	Simple, low-cost items, no prescription required
Medium	Up to $2,000	Moderate-cost equipment
High	Up to $15,000 (and above with a prescription and supporting evidence for genuinely higher assessed needs)	More complex equipment or home modifications

These are the tier ceilings confirmed on the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing’s official AT-HM page.[2] Some third-party sites quote more precise indexed figures ($513 / $2,052 / $15,390); see the editorial note at the end of this document before publishing.

For a personal alarm specifically, AT-HM funding can cover both the device and a period of monitoring, how long that monitoring runs depends on the tier you’re assigned and how your allocated budget is used, rather than a fixed number of months. A support plan review is available once that funding is used up, to request more. AT-HM funding is allocated through its own priority system, separate from the general Support at Home priority queue, so your alarm funding can come through before your other ongoing supports do. If you’ve transitioned from an old Home Care Package, you’ll generally need to draw down any unspent HCP funds first before new AT-HM funding starts.

How to apply: register with My Aged Care (1800 200 422) and complete an aged care assessment. Your support plan and Notice of Decision will confirm your funding tier, and once it’s allocated you can choose an approved provider to supply the alarm. For the full step-by-step process, read our complete guide to the Support at Home programme.

The Commonwealth Home Support Programme and geat2GO

The CHSP is a separate, ongoing program, not a Support at Home benefit, and it hasn’t been folded into Support at Home; it’s been extended to 30 June 2029.

CHSP can include funding for equipment like personal alarms through the national equipment scheme delivered by geat2GO. It’s important to be upfront about how this actually works: you can’t apply for a geat2GO-funded alarm directly. A referral has to come from a registered health professional, such as an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, or your ACAT/RAS assessor, following a documented falls or safety risk. If you’ve already had a My Aged Care assessment, ask your assessor or GP about a geat2GO referral. Safe-Life is an approved geat2GO supplier, so once a referral is in place, our team can help from there. On a Safe-Life device the first 12 months of SIM usage is included regardless of pathway, and CHSP referrals also include 2 months of monitoring, after which monitoring is paid by you. See our full guide to geat2GO referrals for who can refer and how the process works.

NDIS assistive technology funding

If you’re under 65 (or under 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) and have an eligible disability, a personal alarm may be funded as assistive technology under an NDIS plan rather than through aged care. Safe-Life is a registered NDIS provider (provider number 4050109546). NDIS funding can be more comprehensive than the CHSP pathway above: rather than just the device, ongoing services like the SIM card and monitoring plan can also be included as a line item within your plan, so check this with your planner or support coordinator when the device is first approved.

State-based schemes: the option most guides skip

This is the layer that’s easy to miss, because it depends entirely on which state you live in, and no single scheme covers the whole country.

Victoria: Personal Alert Victoria (PAV). PAV provides a free, fully-monitored home alarm to eligible Victorians who are frail, isolated, or living with a disability. To qualify, you generally need to live alone (or be alone for most of the day or evening, or live with someone who couldn’t get to the phone in an emergency), and have a major or chronic medical condition or take six or more prescription medications permanently.[3] Assessment is arranged through My Aged Care (1800 200 422) or directly with Victoria’s PAV provider on 1800 451 300. It’s worth being clear about one thing here: PAV funds that provider’s own home alarm specifically, not alarms from other suppliers, so it isn’t a pathway to a Safe-Life device. If you’re in Victoria and want a Safe-Life alarm, the NDIS, Support at Home AT-HM, or CHSP/geat2GO pathways above are the relevant routes.

South Australia: Personal Alert AssistanceSA (PAASA). PAASA provides financial assistance toward an approved personal alarm and its monitoring for eligible South Australians, generally residents aged 75 and over (65 and over for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people) who hold a Pensioner Concession Card or Commonwealth Seniors Health Card.[4] You apply after a My Aged Care assessment, with a registered health professional completing part of the application form, and you then choose from PAASA’s list of approved providers. Check the current SA Government PAASA page for the approved provider list and application form before advising a customer either way.

New South Wales: EnableNSW. EnableNSW’s Aids and Equipment Program (AEP) funds one mobile, non-monitored personal alarm per eligible person, and Safe-Life has supplied alarms through this pathway before.[5] To qualify, a Registered Occupational Therapist needs to confirm that the person has a history of falls (or a relevant high-risk condition), lives alone or spends significant time alone and can’t alert someone another way, has already tried other risk-management strategies such as home modifications or falls-prevention education, and has the physical and cognitive ability to use the device correctly. It doesn’t cover people assessed as financial Band 3, and it specifically excludes monitored or back-to-base systems with an ongoing monthly rental fee, so this pathway funds the alarm hardware itself. If you also want an ongoing monitored service on top, that’s arranged and paid for separately, the same “device funded, ongoing service paid by you” structure as the CHSP/geat2GO pathway above. Applications go through a completed Equipment Request Form, with an itemised quote required for non-contract items, and the prescriber can’t be affiliated with the equipment supplier.

Western Australia. WA doesn’t have one single dedicated personal alarm scheme. The main pathways are the WA HACC program (Western Australia is the only state still running its own Home and Community Care program separately from the rest of the country) and the WA Assistive Technology Program, managed through the Independent Living Centre WA.

Other states and territories. If you’re in Queensland, Tasmania, the ACT, or the Northern Territory, My Aged Care, the NDIS, and CHSP/geat2GO are generally the relevant pathways, since these jurisdictions don’t run a separate state alarm scheme.

WorkSafe and TAC: workplace injuries and transport accidents (Victoria)

These two are different in kind from everything above: they’re not aged care or disability schemes, they’re Victorian statutory compensation schemes, and they only apply if you have an accepted claim.

WorkSafe. If you’ve been injured at work in Victoria and have an accepted claim under the Victorian workers’ compensation scheme, WorkSafe can fund equipment, including a personal alarm or medical alert device, where a treating health professional clinically justifies it as supporting your rehabilitation, function, or safe return to daily life.[7] Your treating health professional (a registered medical practitioner or allied health professional) provides the clinical recommendation, and WorkSafe generally prefers equipment sourced through its contracted supplier network, though non-contracted suppliers, including Safe-Life, can be used where needed. Safe-Life can supply personal alarms and monitoring devices through an accepted WorkSafe claim once that clinical recommendation is in place.

TAC (Transport Accident Commission). If you’ve been injured in a transport accident in Victoria and have a TAC claim, personal alarms and medical alert devices are specifically listed among the equipment TAC can fund, once a treating health professional (an occupational therapist, physiotherapist, or speech therapist) completes an Assistive Technology Assessment and Recommendations form with clinical justification linking the equipment to your transport accident injury.[8] Safe-Life has been supplying TAC with personal alarms and other equipment since 2020: once the assessment is approved, we provide a quote and TAC issues a purchase order directly, on standard 30-day payment terms, so there’s an established process behind this rather than something being worked out for the first time.

Applying through either pathway: speak to your case manager or treating health professional first, since the request has to come from them, not from you directly. For TAC specifically, the process is straightforward given the established relationship above, be specific about wanting a Safe-Life device and your case manager can request a quote directly from us.

DVA funding for veterans

Eligible Gold and White Card holders can access a personal alarm through the Department of Veterans’ Affairs Rehabilitation Appliances Program (RAP). A prescriber completes the DVA D9199 Assessment Form on the veteran’s behalf.[6] Eligibility generally requires a significant risk of a medical emergency, or a recent (within the past 12 months), investigated history of falls, or a number of factors that put the person at high risk of falling. The same form also covers exit reminders and tracking devices for veterans at risk of wandering, so if that’s the more relevant need, our guide to wearable tracking devices for seniors with dementia covers that side of things. RAP funding can’t duplicate an item already funded through the NDIS, a Home Care Package, or CHSP for the same need.

Funded vs private: what does it actually cost you?

Pathway	Device cost to you	SIM (first 12 months)	Monitoring	Typical wait
Support at Home (AT-HM)	Often a small participant contribution	Included	Varies by assigned tier and how the budget is used, review available once it’s used up	Weeks, once assessed
CHSP / geat2GO	Usually free of charge once referred	Included	2 months included on a Safe-Life device, then paid by you	Depends on referral and local demand
NDIS	Usually free of charge within an approved plan	Included	Can be included as an ongoing line item in your plan	Depends on plan review timing
PAV (VIC)	Free, state-contracted device only, not a Safe-Life supply pathway	Not applicable	Included while eligible	Typically 2-4 weeks from referral
PAASA (SA)	Partial contribution on some devices	Depends on the approved provider chosen	Included per PAASA terms	Depends on assessment and application processing
EnableNSW	Device funded (non-monitored alarm)	Included	Not funded, arranged and paid separately if wanted	Depends on prescriber and processing
WorkSafe / TAC (VIC)	Usually free of charge once the clinical justification is approved	Included	Depends on the claim and assessment	Depends on the treating health professional’s assessment and claim processing
Privately purchased	Full retail cost	Paid by you	Paid by you	Immediate

Not sure which pathway applies to your situation? Contact our team and we’ll help you work out the right option before you buy, or while your application is being assessed. If you’d rather browse first, our full range of personal alarms and our buying guide to personal alarms for elderly Australians cover device types, including watch-style alarms and falls prevention alarms, in more detail.

How to apply: step by step

Start with an assessment. For most people this means calling My Aged Care on 1800 200 422. Veterans should contact DVA directly; people under 65 with a disability should check NDIS eligibility first.
Get the right referral for your pathway. CHSP/geat2GO, WorkSafe, TAC, and DVA all require a health professional’s referral or a completed assessment form, they aren’t something you can apply for as a self-purchase.
Confirm your funding tier or approval. Support at Home issues a Notice of Decision; PAASA issues a Letter of Approval; NDIS confirms funding within your plan.
Choose an approved provider. Check whether your chosen device and supplier are eligible under your specific pathway; this varies scheme by scheme, as set out above.
Still unsure? Get in touch and we’ll help you figure out which of the above actually applies to your situation.

FAQs

Can I get a government funded personal alarm completely free in Australia?

Often, yes, depending on your pathway. Personal Alert Victoria and many CHSP/geat2GO referrals provide the device and monitoring at no cost to eligible people. Other pathways, like PAASA and EnableNSW, may involve a smaller contribution..

What’s the difference between Support at Home and the CHSP?

Support at Home is the main aged care at-home program from 1 November 2025 and includes the AT-HM assistive technology budget. The CHSP is a separate, lower-level entry support program that continues to run alongside it, not a benefit within it.

Can I apply for a personal alarm myself, or do I need a referral?

It depends on the pathway. Support at Home and NDIS funding generally follow a formal assessment and support plan. CHSP/geat2GO and DVA specifically require a referral or assessment form from a health professional, you can’t self-refer directly into those two.

I’m under 65. Can I still get government help with a personal alarm?

Yes, if you have an eligible disability, through an NDIS plan (under 65, or under 50 for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people).

I was injured at work or in a car accident in Victoria. Can I get a personal alarm funded?

Possibly, through WorkSafe or TAC, if you have an accepted claim and your treating health professional clinically justifies the equipment as supporting your recovery or independence. You can’t apply for this yourself, the request needs to come from your treating health professional or case manager.

Does the government funding cover ongoing monitoring, or just the device?

On a Safe-Life device, the first 12 months of SIM usage is included regardless of which funding pathway you come through. Monitoring is where it differs: Support at Home’s AT-HM scheme can cover monitoring too, but for how long depends on your assigned tier and how that budget is used rather than a fixed period, CHSP/geat2GO includes 2 months before it switches to you, an NDIS plan can include ongoing monitoring as a line item, and EnableNSW doesn’t fund monitoring at all since it’s specifically for non-monitored devices. PAV and PAASA work differently again, since those are state schemes with their own approved-provider arrangements rather than a Safe-Life order.

I live in Queensland (or Tasmania, the ACT, NT). Is there a state scheme for me?

Not currently a dedicated one. My Aged Care, CHSP/geat2GO, and the NDIS are the relevant pathways in these areas.

The honest bottom line

A government funded personal alarm in Australia isn’t one program, it’s a set of six different pathways that overlap depending on your age, state, injury circumstances, and existing supports. The fastest way to find out which one applies to you is a My Aged Care assessment (1800 200 422) if you’re over 65, or an NDIS access check if you’re not. From there, our team can help you work out the practical next step, or read our broader guide to home monitoring systems for elderly Australians if you’re still weighing up what kind of device suits your situation.