In my analysis of the 1 October price, I explained why almost no home will receive 2.55%. Your NWAU blend, your care minute delivery and the October start date decide what you actually see.
Our own data adds a second point, and it matters just as much for boards.
The average moves once a year
Across the metropolitan (MM 1) homes in our data, average daily subsidy rose from $309.54 in September to $317.36 in October 2026. That’s $7.82 a day, or 2.5%, almost exactly the headline.
Now look at the 11 months before it. From October 2025 to September 2026, the same average moved from $307.79 to $309.54. That’s $1.75 a day across almost a year.
Last October told a different story at the price change itself. The price rose 4.67%, but the MM 1 average rose 3.3%, from $297.99 to $307.79. The reweighting that came with it took the difference.
For the average provider, funding steps up once a year, when the price moves. In between, it’s almost flat.
Why that changes the board question
If the October rise lifts everyone, it can’t change where you sit against your peers. What changes your position is what happens in the other 11 months: whether your residents’ classifications keep pace with the care they need.
And care needs are moving. The MM 1 average care minutes requirement, which reflects how much care residents’ AN-ACC classes call for, rose from 215.89 in October 2025 to 218.11 in July 2026, before easing to 217.72 in October. The price sets the step each October. The mix moves all year, and that’s the part that separates one provider from another.
Where Mirus Benchmarking comes in
This is the question Mirus Benchmarking was built for.
It’s a free, light version of Mirus Metrics. It compares your organisation’s average daily subsidy, occupancy and casemix with providers like you, using your own data. Track your trend against any remoteness band, and see where you sit against every state, ownership type and remoteness cohort side by side.
Your data updates daily, so the view is always current. Trends are shown month by month, with up to two years of history. You can see how your subsidy moved through the 11 months before 1 October and, as the new price flows through, whether the gap to your peers is narrowing or widening. Casemix is shown as your care minutes requirement, so you can see whether your mix is moving with your peers or away from them.
Benchmarking works at the organisation level. To see the new price home by home and class by class, or to test care minute delivery against your targets, that’s the work of Mirus Metrics and Care Minute Manager.
What we’d act on
- Look at the 11 months, not the October step. Check how your average daily subsidy moved between price changes, against your remoteness band.
- Read subsidy and care needs together. If your care minutes requirement is rising and your subsidy isn’t, your classifications may be falling behind.
- Watch the gap, not the headline. As the October figures land, the useful question isn’t whether your funding rose. It’s whether your position moved.
The sector will keep talking about 2.55%. The number your board needs is where you sit.
