This story appeared in theweeklysource.com.au on September 21, 2026.
✓ Key points
$4.4M error: 1,872 Pearl clients affected Complaints: Increased ten-fold after the error Impact: Pearl estimates $1.1M in costs Senate: Penny Fielding takes concerns to inquiry
Nine months on, the WA-based home care provider is still dealing with the fallout from a Government IT error.
On 19 December 2025, a Services Australia ICT error double-paid claims across 24 Pearl Home Care outlets – approximately $4.4 million affecting 1,872 clients.
On client statements, it appeared Pearl had charged them twice.
CEO Penny Fielding told The Weekly SOURCE that some clients believed Pearl was responsible for the incorrect charges.
“They thought we were stealing money from them,” she said.
Services Australia attempted to correct the error by putting the money back into client budgets rather than reversing the original transactions.
But Penny said some of the money went into the wrong funding bucket, while the double charges remained visible on statements.
The fix created another problem
Further corrections created another issue. By the end of April, 172 Pearl clients had negative Home Care Account balances.
Services Australia subsequently confirmed in writing that the negative balances had occurred as a “flow on from the duplicate payment error”.
For Pearl, which has 39 franchises and more than 4,000 clients nationally, the consequences have continued.
Complaints have increased ten-fold since December and some clients have left. Penny estimates the cost to Pearl at about $1.1 million, including remediation and lost revenue.
Pearl has also covered about $80,000 in client costs resulting from further corrections, Penny said.
“Home care is such a trusting relationship,” Penny said.
“If they don’t trust us because of something that’s happened that someone else has done, it breaks down that whole carer and client relationship.”
“A human in the loop”
Penny will take Pearl’s experience to the Senate Community Affairs References Committee as part of its inquiry into the implementation of Support at Home.
Pearl supports the objectives of Support at Home, but its submission argues problems with implementation have created unnecessary complexity and administrative work for clients and providers.
Penny said Pearl now has two staff spending their days dealing with Services Australia and My Aged Care, while three senior nursing staff support the monthly claiming process.
“We’re now moving really skilled aged care nursing and other staff into doing admin jobs, which always horrifies me,” she said.
Pearl wants automated validation and error reporting for claims, better coordination between My Aged Care and Services Australia, and consultation with providers before Government agencies make corrections affecting client accounts.
“I think it would be a shame for people to think that Support at Home is broken,” Penny said. “I think they need to take away, though, that the implementation is broken.”
Look out for The Weekly SOURCE’s coverage of tomorrow’s Senate hearing in Canberra.
