The Government will spend just $101.7 million on the new Packages ahead of the transition to the new Support at Home program from 1 July 2025.
Announced in the Albanese Government’s Mid-Year Economic Fiscal Outlook (MYEFO) 2024-25, the Packages come on top of the 24,100 Packages released in the 2024-25 Budget in May this year.
The new announcement still falls far short of meeting the Opposition’s call to cut the home care wait list, which stands at 76,000 according to the latest available figures.
Labor did reveal that the Government plans to release 83,000 Home Care Packages in 2025-26 last month as it looks to reach its target of reducing the wait times to three months by 1 July 2027.
The MYEFO statement also forecasts that the move to 10 Package levels – including the highest-level $78,000 Package – under Support at Home will save $446.2 million over three years from 2025-26 (and an additional $1.2 billion from 2028-29 to 2033-34) by delaying the entry of older Australians into residential aged care.
Aged care provision ratio cut again
The majority of the other funding announcements for aged care in the MYEFO had already been announced by the Government, including:
- $5.4 billion over four years from 2024-25 (and an additional $6.8 billion from 2028-29 to 2033-34) for the new Support at Home Program.
- $743.5 million over four years from 2024-25 (and an additional $787.7 million from 2028-29 to 2033-34) for residential aged care.
- $1 billion over seven years from 2024-25 to deliver key aged care reforms and to continue to implement recommendations from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
- $3.7 billion over four years from 2024-25 (and an additional $8.9 billion from 2028-29 to 2033-34) to meet the cost of the Fair Work Commission’s Stage 3 decision on the Aged Care Work Value Case
The Government has also committed to further “temporarily” reduce the residential aged care provision ratio after already cutting the ratio from 78 places to 60.1 places per 1,000 people aged over 70 years in the 2023-24 Federal Budget.
The MYEFO 2024-25 statement flags the ratio will be reduced further to 59.3 places per 1,000 people aged over 70 years in 2024-25 – a saving of $1.7 billion to the Government over four years from 2024 25 (and an additional $1.7 billion from 2028-29 to 2029-30).
This comes with the provision to gradually increase the ratio to 61.5 places per 1,000 people aged over 70 years in 2029-30 – presumably to meet what will be growing demand for residential aged care from ageing Baby Boomers.
