Wait for home care exceeds 300 days
The department has pointed to wait times on My Aged Care in its response to Senator Anne Ruston’s question about reassessment wait times.
For an older person with standard priority, the current wait time for the Support at Home package they’ve been assessed as needing is around 300 to 330 days for assessment and reassessment alike, according to the My Aged Care website.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has pointed to this data in its response to a question taken on notice from Senator Anne Ruston at the 1 April Senate inquiry hearing into Support at Home.
Ms Ruston had asked about the wait time between reassessment and the older person receiving the higher level of care. In the response published on Tuesday 29 April, the department said estimated wait times for ongoing Support at Home funding were published on My Aged Care and that the same time applied to both initial assessments and reassessments.
“These wait times apply both to older people who are assessed and approved for SaH for the first time, and for those who are reassessed and approved for a higher level of care,” the department said in its answer to Ms Ruston’s question.
For those with medium priority, the wait time is around 240 to 270 days, while those with high priority are waiting around 45 to 75 days. People with urgent priority have an estimated wait time of within 30 days.
According to the Productivity Commission’s 2026 Report on Government Service, the median wait time for an assessment was 27 days in 2024-25 and the wait time between assessment approval for a package and service commencement was 245 days.
The Senate inquiry into Support at Home is ongoing, with submissions closing on 31 July 2026 and a reporting date of 24 November.
Read more aged care news, follow Community Care Review on Facebook and LinkedIn and sign up to our newsletter
