This guide explains MPIR when moving aged care home, and the rules that decide whether your rate follows you or resets. If you need the basics first, start with our MPIR rate explained guide, which sets out the formula and the current rate. This page covers only what changes when you move: a new home, a new room, indexation, and the two kinds of deduction from a lump sum.
The short version is simple, but families get caught by the detail. The rate is locked to an agreement, not to a person. Change the agreement and you change the rate. Keep the agreement and the rate stays, even when the quarterly announcement moves.
What MPIR When Moving Aged Care Home Means in Practice
The Maximum Permissible Interest Rate, or MPIR, is the government rate used to turn an unpaid lump sum into a daily payment. The formula is the same everywhere: daily payment equals the unpaid lump sum multiplied by the MPIR, divided by 365. Our MPIR rate explained guide works through that formula with the current figures.
The lock-in rule is the part most families misunderstand. The MPIR that applies to you is the rate current when your room price is agreed, and it then stays fixed for that agreement. The government reviews the rate every quarter, on 1 January, 1 April, 1 July and 1 October, but a new quarterly rate does not rewrite an agreement that already exists. That is why the explainer page can say a rate is locked for a stay, and this page can still say a move resets it. Both are true, because a move ends one agreement and starts another.
The current rate, as published for 1 October to 31 December 2026, is 8.51% a year. At that rate, every $100,000 of unpaid lump sum costs $23.32 a day. Rates are set quarterly by the government, so always check the rate current when your new price is agreed rather than relying on a figure from an earlier quarter.
Moving to a New Home Resets the Rate
When you move to a new home, you agree a new room price and sign a new accommodation agreement. That new agreement uses the MPIR current at that time, whether it is higher or lower than your old rate. Your old rate does not carry across, and the new home cannot use your old agreement to set your daily payment.
A small rate change still matters over a long stay. Take a room priced at $450,000, paid fully as a daily payment. At the previous quarter rate of 8.34%, the daily payment is $102.82. At the current rate of 8.51%, the same room costs $104.91 a day. The gap is $2.09 a day, which is about $763 over a year. Use our MPIR calculator to run your own room price at the current rate before you agree a new price.
The same reset logic applies if you leave care and later re-enter at a different home. Each new agreement takes the rate of its own quarter. Keep a copy of each agreement, and note the rate written in it, so you can check later statements against the right figure.
Moving Rooms Inside the Same Home
A room change inside the same home is less clear cut, and that is where families should ask rather than assume. If the room move comes with a new room price agreement, the new agreement can use the MPIR current at that time, just as a move to a new home does. If the move is a room change with no new price agreement, the existing rate should continue.
Ask the provider, in writing, whether the room change creates a new agreement and which MPIR the new agreement uses. Get the answer before you move rooms, not after the first statement arrives. A short written answer now avoids a billing dispute later, and it also tells you whether the room change is worth the extra daily cost.
The same question matters when a home changes its published room prices. A price list change alone does not rewrite your agreement. Only a new agreement with a new price does that, so an existing resident should not see a new MPIR simply because the home repriced its rooms.
Why Your Daily Amount Can Still Rise When the MPIR Is Locked
A locked MPIR does not always mean a fixed daily amount. Since 1 November 2025, the rules for people entering care changed, and one of those changes is indexation of the daily amount. Families who entered before that date sit under the older rules, so the two groups need different advice.
Indexation for residents who entered from 1 November 2025
If you first entered residential care on or after 1 November 2025, your daily amount is indexed twice a year, on 20 March and 20 September, in line with consumer prices. Indexation changes the amount you pay, not the MPIR behind it. Think of it this way: the interest rate stays locked, but the daily amount is adjusted for price rises, so the figure on your statement can still go up.
This matters most when you compare two homes or two entry dates. A home that looks cheaper at entry can still cost more over time once indexation is applied, and a move to a new home resets both the MPIR and the indexation starting point. Ask the new home how indexation will apply to your daily amount, and whether the figure quoted to you is the entry figure or an indexed figure.
Grandfathered residents who entered earlier
If you entered care before 1 November 2025, you keep your earlier arrangements. Your daily amount is not indexed under the new rules, and no retention is deducted from your lump sum under the new rules. A move to a new home after that date is different: the new agreement falls under the new rules, including indexation and retention, even though your old stay did not. Check this point carefully before a move, because it changes the long term cost comparison.
The 1 November 2025 date also changed the old payment timing rules. Before that date, residents had to choose how to pay within 28 days of entry, and had six months to pay a lump sum, with daily payments applying in the meantime. From 1 November 2025, there is no set timeframe for choosing: daily payments apply until a lump sum is paid, and you can pay or top up a lump sum at any time after entry. Our MPIR rate history guide shows how quarterly rates have moved, which helps when you compare an old locked rate with a new one.
DAP Drawdown and Retention: Two Deductions That Behave Differently
Two deductions can come out of a lump sum, and they affect your future daily amount in opposite ways. Confusing them is easy, because both reduce the balance that is eventually refunded. Only one of them raises your future daily payment.
The first is DAP drawdown. If you pay part of the lump sum and ask the provider to deduct your daily payments from the balance, the unpaid amount grows as the balance falls. A larger unpaid amount means a larger daily payment next month, so the daily figure creeps up over time. This is the effect our MPIR rate explained guide notes in its answers: deducting daily payments from the lump sum gradually increases the daily charge.
The second is retention. For residents who first entered from 1 November 2025, the provider deducts a retention amount of 2% a year from the lump sum balance, for up to five years. Retention reduces the refundable balance, but it does not increase your daily payment. The daily payment is calculated on the outstanding lump sum, and retention deductions are excluded from that increase. Topping up the lump sum has the opposite effect: a larger paid balance means a smaller unpaid amount, and a smaller daily payment.
Before you agree to drawdown, run both paths on our RAD vs DAP calculator and compare the refundable balance at exit. Drawdown can suit a family that needs cash flow now, but it costs more over a long stay than paying the daily amount from income. Retention, by contrast, is not a choice: it applies to new entrants from 1 November 2025, and the five year clock does not restart if you change homes.
Before You Move: A Short Checklist
Work through these steps before you sign a new agreement. Each one prevents a common billing surprise, and together they give you a clear record if a later statement looks wrong.
- Confirm the new MPIR in writing. Ask the new home to state the agreed room price and the MPIR that applies to that agreement. Check it against the rate published for that quarter.
- Confirm which entry rules apply. A new agreement from 1 November 2025 brings indexation and retention with it, even if your previous stay was grandfathered. Ask the home to confirm this in writing.
- Decide on drawdown before you sign. Choose whether daily payments come from income or from the lump sum balance, and have that choice written into the agreement. Changing it later is possible, but a written starting position avoids confusion.
- Compare the full cost, not just the entry figure. Run the new room price through the MPIR calculator, add indexation for new entrants, and compare it with your current daily amount before you commit.
- Keep every agreement. File the old agreement, the new agreement, and any room change letter together. If a statement uses the wrong rate, the agreement is your proof.
If a statement still looks wrong after you have checked the rate and the agreement, contact My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 and explain the charge, the agreement date, and what the provider said. Our My Aged Care guide explains how to prepare. For the wider money picture, read the aged care finance hub before you sign anything.
Questions Families Ask About Moving
The answers below cover the moving questions families ask most. For the formula, the current rate, and worked examples at other room prices, read the MPIR rate explained guide. For a specific move, work through the checklist first, then ask the new home for the rate and the rules in writing.