106,977 are waiting for aged care, so where did the money go?

EDITOR’S VIEW

Yesterday, among all the billions and budget-speak surrounding the Federal Government’s final accounts for 2025–26, one detail deserved a lot more attention.

The government spent less than expected on aged care.

The ABC reported that Treasurer Jim Chalmers had announced a final budget deficit $6 billion better than forecast in May. Government receipts were $4.6 billion higher than expected and payments $1.4 billion lower.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher identified aged care, childcare, the Pharmaceutical Benefits Scheme and some national partnership payments among the areas where spending came in below forecast.

So who’s bullshitting who here?

Because older Australians keep being told the aged-care system is under enormous pressure, families are waiting for help, hospitals are struggling with patients who are medically ready to leave but can’t always access appropriate care, and providers have been warning about workforce and capacity pressures.

Yet aged care was among the areas where spending came in lower than forecast.

What we do Fworkssssssssknow

An underspend is not automatically a cut. Budgets are forecasts, actual spending comes in above or below estimates for all sorts of reasons, from lower demand and delayed programs to claims arriving later than expected.

So I’m not suggesting the government simply took money away from aged care, but on behalf of our Starts at 60 tribe I do want to know why spending came in below expectations, because demand for care isn’t exactly difficult to find.

As at June 30, 106,977 Australians who had been approved for ongoing Support at Home funding were still waiting for a place.

For people given a standard priority, the government’s own My Aged Care website put the estimated wait at seven to eight months. Even those assessed at medium priority faced an estimated five to six months.

That’s worth repeating in case it hasn’t sunk in… more than 100,000 people had been approved for ongoing home care and were waiting for it.

Against that backdrop, being told aged care contributed to lower-than-forecast government spending deserves an explanation.

So where did the money go?

There may be perfectly reasonable answers and I hope there are.

Maybe providers simply didn’t have the workforce or capacity to deliver the care that had been funded. Perhaps programs ran late, claims hadn’t landed or demand in some areas was lower than Treasury expected. There could be a perfectly mundane explanation.

We don’t know. And that’s precisely the problem.

What was the actual underspend in aged care? Which programs were responsible? How much related to Support at Home and how much to residential care or other programs?

Then there’s another important question: what happens to money that was expected to be spent on aged care but wasn’t?

Does it remain available for aged care? Does some roll into this financial year? Is it reallocated elsewhere? Or does the lower expenditure simply form part of the improved budget bottom line?

These aren’t gotcha questions, they’re very basic ones.

Announcing billions is the easy part

There is no shortage of big numbers attached to aged care. In May, the government announced another $1.4 billion over four years to improve affordability and access to home care, including $1 billion to fully fund personal care services.

It also committed hundreds of millions of dollars towards increasing residential aged-care capacity.

That’s substantial money, but there’s a big difference between putting funding into a Budget paper and getting care through someone’s front door.

Families don’t experience aged care in billions of dollars.

They know it in much simpler terms. Did someone turn up to help Mum shower on Tuesday morning? Has Dad finally received the equipment he needs to remain safely at home? Can an exhausted husband caring for his wife get some respite? And when an older Australian is ready to leave hospital, is there somewhere appropriate for them to go?

That’s where all those billions eventually have to mean something.

We want some answers

The government’s Final Budget Outcome was only released yesterday. There may well be a straightforward explanation for the lower-than-forecast spending.

If there is, good. Let’s hear it.

Starts at 60 will be asking the Federal Government exactly how much aged-care expenditure came in below forecast, which programs were affected and why.

We also want to know what happens to money that wasn’t spent and how the result squares with 106,977 Australians waiting for ongoing Support at Home funding at the end of the financial year.

Older Australians have heard plenty about how much money is being committed to aged care.

It’s fair to ask how much of it is reaching them.

What are your thoughts? Let us know in the comments.