Major blowout in waiting times for aged care support

by Zac de Silva

Older Australians are waiting an average of nine months to get access to home support services, as the nation’s ageing population puts increasing pressure on providers.

The median time taken for someone to sign onto a home care package was 272 days in the last financial year, according to a Productivity Commission report.

That includes 27 days for the initial aged care assessment, up from 22 days in the previous financial year.

But the major blowout was the time between a person’s assessment being approved and when they started receiving services.

For home care, that figure more than doubled, from 118 days to 245, the report reveals.

There was also a stark increase in the time it took for older Australians to get into a nursing home.

That waiting period went from 136 days in 2023/24, to 162 days the following year.

The figures are contained in the Productivity Commission’s Report on Government Services, an annual investigation into the effectiveness and fairness of federal, state and territory programs.

Since the data was collected, the federal government has announced measures aimed at reducing wait times for care.

That includes the release of 20,000 home care packages in late 2025, and another 63,000 by the middle of 2026.

A spokesman for Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said there were encouraging signs the sector was moving in the right direction.

“We know there’s always more work to do, and we’ll continue to focus on bringing down wait times further so that every older Australian can access the care they need, as soon as they need it,” the spokesman said.

The government says the high wait times outlined in the report are on the way down.

Overall, Australia spent nearly $40 billion on aged care in the 2024/25 financial year, up from $38 billion the previous year.

In the past decade, the cost of looking after older Australians has nearly doubled, the report shows.

The Productivity Commission report also reveals some green shoots: the proportion of aged care services meeting their targets for minutes of care increased from 34 per cent to nearly 46 per cent.

It found 93.5 per cent of services met a mandatory requirement to have a nurse on duty 24/7.