The top 10 aged care takeaways from Senate Estimates

Politicians had their first opportunity since the new Aged Care Act commenced to interrogate the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing in Canberra today (Wednesday, 3 December).

And amid growing public frustration over assessment delays, fee spikes, hospital bottlenecks and workforce shortages, Supplementary Budget Estimates offered more clarity – but little comfort.

Here are our top 10 takeaways.

1. 93% of the Home Care Packages allocated in November were interim packages, delivering funding at only 60% of the recommended level. Consumers can remain on interim packages for as long as 17 weeks.
2. There are 107,281 older people waiting for Support at Home at their assessed level of need as of 31 October 2025, down from 121, 909 at the end of September.
3. There are 113,150 older Australians waiting for an aged care assessment under the Government's new Single Assessment System, down from 121,596 at the end of July.
4. The average wait time for an aged care assessment was 30 days in October, up from 24 days in September. Excluding hospital patients, the average wait time for an assessment was 53.3 days.
5. Despite the Government's promise that grandfathered users of Support at Home would be 'no worse off', steep fee increases are driving care recipients to drop services or pay higher 0ut-of-pocket charges.
6. The decision to remove clinical assessors' ability to manually override Integrated Assessment Tool determinations for Support at Home was included in the Rules released for exposure draft on 31 July 2025. Greg Pugh, First Assistant Secretary, Access and Home Support with the Department, said algorithm determinations will be closely monitored.
7. Representatives of the Department of Health were unable to say how many older people are in hospital waiting for discharge to residential aged care because there is no agreed definition between the States and Federal Government of delayed discharge. As a consequence, the Department was unable to cost delayed hospital discharge.
8. The Department is in the process of testing a new model to determine workforce needs. It's expected to be released in the next six months.
9. By 2044, there will be 1.8 million older Australians seeking home care, an increase of 34,500 annually, compared with a total of around 300,000 currently.
10. Decisions about the allocation of Support at Home packages are made by the Ministers for Health and Finance, not the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.

In total, 1,750 questions were submitted ahead of today’s hearing – just 380 have been answered.

Watch this space then.