Ageing Australia input to Federal Budget

Ageing Australia makes recommendations ahead of federal budget

Ageing Australia has made a series of recommendations ahead of the federal budget to build a sustainable and investable aged care sector, supported by a workforce to match, that will grow with our ageing population.

“Action is needed now, with the number of Australians aged over 70 set to hit 2.3 million by 2044,” Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson said. “The most immediate step the Government can take to relieve pressure on the aged care system is to increase the number of Support at Home packages.  At last count, more than 100,000 older Australians were waiting for a package and another 100,000 waiting just to be assessed, so the issue is fast approaching a national emergency.”

“Last year, the Government announced the release of 83,000 new packages for 2025-26.  Sadly, that’s proving to be nowhere near enough, given the surge in demand. Just last week, the Productivity Commission revealed the median time between an older person being approved for a package and receiving care doubled from 4 months to 8 months, with many still waiting more than a year. We need to urgently bring the wait times down. The Royal Commission said nobody should wait more than a month, and we are a very long way from that. Helping older Australians stay in their own homes benefits individuals, their families and reduces demand on our health and aged care systems. Without rapid access to home care, too many people end up in hospital unnecessarily or on residential aged care waiting lists, when they could be living in their own home.”

Australia also needs to urgently grow the capacity of residential aged care to meet demand. “We should be building 10,000 beds a year over the next two decades just to meet that demand, but sadly we’re only building a fraction of those - about 800 last year.”

“We also need a workforce to match. By 2050, aged care will face a projected shortage of some 400,000 workers. Without urgent action, Australia will not have the workers needed to support our ageing population. These proposed measures, if adopted, will support a viable and growing sector that can meet the needs of the Australian community.”

Ageing Australia key recommendations

 Funding

1. Increase the Accommodation Supplement for supported residents so residential aged care providers can keep their doors open and invest in building safe, modern homes.
2. Set a price floor for the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate (MPIR) of eight per cent to encourage investment in building and upgrading residential aged care homes.
3. A review of the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) funding model to more accurately align care funding with actual provider costs in support of older Australians. Current care funding is falling behind the cost of delivering that care.
4. Introduce a low interest loan scheme to facilitate the development and renewal of residential aged care homes. Most providers are unable to access commercial finance to build new beds.
5. Expand the Aged Care Capital Assistance Program (ACCAP) to support capital development in areas and communities of highest priority. This will particularly help in rural and remote areas.
6. Implement price caps for Support at Home services no earlier than 1 January 2027 using data from Support at Home activity, so pricing accurately reflects delivery costs. The current deadline of 1 July 2026 will mean using outdated and inaccurate data which risks homecare providers closing or reducing services.
7. Increase the care management cap for Support at Home to ensure older people receive the care and coordination support they need. The decision to reduce the cap to 10% of a person’s package mean those with complex needs cannot get the support they need.
8. Increase funding for CHSP services so providers can continue delivering the support older people rely on before CHSP becomes part of Support at Home.

Workforce

9. Allocate $150 million to expand ACCAP with a dedicated aged care worker accommodation stream to help providers to attract and house staff, especially in non-metropolitan and First Nations communities.

 Establish a national Essential Skills Visa to make it easier for overseas aged care and community care workers to come to Australia.

10. Remove Labour Market Testing for critical aged and community care roles so providers can recruit international workers more quickly.