Aged care industry body Ageing Australia is calling on the federal government to redirect a reported $1.4 billion aged care underspend into services, saying more than 106,000 older Australians are waiting for ongoing Support at Home funding.
The organisation says the gap between budgeted spending and care delivered comes as thousands of older people remain in hospitals because appropriate care is unavailable.
For Hawkesbury families seeking support for an older relative, the national debate raises questions about the availability of home care and residential aged care places. The figures released by Ageing Australia do not identify how many people are waiting in the Hawkesbury.
Ageing Australia chief executive Tom Symondson said the underspend did not reflect a reduction in demand.
“We don’t have $1.4 billion less need for aged care,” he said.
“We have more than 106,000 older Australians waiting for ongoing Support at Home funding and thousands stuck in hospital because there is nowhere appropriate for them to go.”
Mr Symondson said the figures raised serious questions about why allocated funding had not reached people needing care.
Ageing Australia estimates about $510 million would fund three emergency measures it has proposed to support residential aged care this financial year.
Those measures include increasing the annual uplift in Australian National Aged Care Classification funding, known as AN-ACC, from 2.55 per cent to 5 per cent.
The organisation also wants a 3.5 per cent increase in the hotelling supplement, pending a review of funding needs, and the planned $5 increase in the accommodation supplement brought forward from March 2027 to October 2026.
It estimates the remaining approximately $900 million could provide ongoing Support at Home services to 30,000 older Australians on the waiting list.
These are Ageing Australia’s estimates of how the underspend could be used, rather than announced government commitments.
Mr Symondson also warned that funding pressures were affecting plans to expand residential care.
He said more than 3,600 planned aged care beds had been shelved or put at risk within a month, following what the organisation described as a funding reduction in real terms.
He contrasted that with the government’s stated need, cited by Ageing Australia, to build around 10,000 aged care beds annually over the next two decades.
“The Government cannot say we desperately need thousands of new beds and then make funding decisions that stop those beds from being built,” Mr Symondson said.
Ageing Australia is calling for future underspends to be reinvested in meeting unmet demand and expanding the sector’s capacity.
“Leaving $1.4 billion unspent isn’t a saving if the care it was intended to fund still needs to be delivered,” Mr Symondson said.
The organisation argues that funding decisions must address both the immediate needs of people waiting for support and the longer-term demand for residential care.
For older Australians and their families, the central issue remains whether help will be available when it is needed.
