Govt's failure on younger people in residential aged care
New data exposes ongoing failure to keep younger people out of aged care
- Targets missed: Government fails all YPIRAC aged care commitments
- 776 remain: Younger Australians still living in aged care homes
- 53 new entrants: Quarterly admissions rise despite reform efforts
- Royal Commission warning: Calls continue for age appropriate disability housing
The -then-Morrison Government pledged in November 2019 to stop younger people living in residential aged care.
Data for the December quarter, the latest available, again shows the Albanese Government has failed to meet the 2019 commitment to get younger people out of aged care homes.
In October 2019, the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety published its interim report, ‘Neglect’, identifying an urgent need to “stop the flow of younger people with a disability going into aged care.”
A month later, the Government set itself three targets for Younger People in Residential Aged Care (YPIRAC) including:
- no people under the age of 65 living in residential aged care by 1 January 2025;
- no people under the age of 65 entering residential aged care by 1 January 2022; and
- no people under the age of 45 living in residential aged care by 1 January 2022.
More than six years later, the Government has failed on all three counts.
At the end of 2025, there were still 776 people under the age of 65 in residential aged care. Though a 25% decline on numbers a year earlier, the result is still well short of the zero target.
Concerningly, 53 people under the age of 65 entered residential aged care in the December quarter, the highest number since the three months to March 2024.
The increase comes despite the intention of the Aged Care Act 2024 to prevent younger people from accessing residential aged care, except in very limited circumstances or where that is the person's preference.
GEN, the Government’s website for aged care data, states that while the YPIRAC targets have not been met, the “Government remains committed to ensuring there are no younger people under the age of 65 living in residential aged care” and to support younger people with to access “alternative, age-appropriate accommodation and supports.”
