This story appeared in theweeklysource.com.au on September 23, 2026.
✓ Key points
200,000: Waiting or awaiting assessment
297 days: Median package wait
“Flawed”: Funding model attacked
320 hours: Weekly claiming burden
Some of aged care’s biggest names did not hold back at the final public hearing of the Senate inquiry into Support at Home.
The Senate Community Affairs References Committee held its final public hearing in Canberra on Tuesday (22 September), almost six months after its first hearing in April.
Care is being missed
Bolton Clarke Executive General Manager Policy and Advocacy Tim Hicks said Support at Home had made ageing at home harder for many clients because providers had lost flexibility over how approved funding could be used.
People could miss wound care, physiotherapy after a fall and personal care while waiting for reassessment or additional funding, even as unspent funding was returned to Government.
Tim described the administrative burden as “astronomical”.
He said Bolton Clarke care managers were estimated to spend about one day a week checking My Aged Care for package changes and new information.
Ageing Australia CEO Tom Symondson told the inquiry that more than 100,000 people were waiting for an approved package, another 100,000 were waiting to be assessed and more than 50,000 were receiving only 60% of their approved funding.
He said the median wait had fallen to 297 days by the end of June, but remained well above the Government’s three-month target and the Royal Commission’s recommendation that nobody wait more than a month.
‘Economically illiterate’
Hall & Prior CEO Graeme Prior said the new Aged Care Act and Support at Home continued a “deeply flawed” approach where funding reflected the available Government envelope rather than the actual cost of delivering quality care.
He said the sector understood that needs were infinite and resources finite, but argued Government needed to be transparent about what could be funded and how scarce resources were allocated.
Hall & Prior’s Dr David Cullen was more direct.
He described the blanket 60% interim funding model as “stupid” and called the Support at Home means test “economically illiterate”, arguing people with the same income could face vastly different contributions depending on the level of support they required.
David also told the committee that the Aged Care Act gives participants “absolutely no rights whatsoever”.
Pearl Home Care CEO Penny Fielding had another number for the committee.
She said the administrative burden had “skyrocketed”, with her head office spending an estimated extra 320 hours a week on claiming alone.
The committee has published 263 submissions and reports to the Senate on 24 November.
Correction: The original article incorrectly attributed comments to Graeme Prior. The article has been updated to accurately reflect his comments.
