Aged care in Australia is under more strain than at any point since the Royal Commission handed down its final report.
Hospitals are absorbing the overflow, and waitlists keep growing every month. The workforce responsible for delivering frontline care is short by tens of thousands nationwide.
If you run or manage an aged care service, you feel this every week. Rostering gets harder each quarter, and families ring asking why a Support at Home assessment is taking a year.
Compliance paperwork for the new Aged Care Act queues up behind care work in the meantime.
This guide breaks down how aged care in Australia is structured and funded, and where the pressure points fall for providers right now.
It also covers what can shift off your team’s plate without touching the standard of care your clients receive.
Aged care in Australia runs across three main pathways, and which one a person uses depends on how much support they need and whether they can safely stay at home.
In-Home Support Through Support at Home
Many older Australians want to stay in their own home, and the Support at Home program is built around that goal.
It replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme on 1 November 2025.
The program now runs on eight funding levels instead of the old four, according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
Support at Home covers everyday help like personal care and nursing, plus larger investments such as home modifications and assistive technology.
Funding ranges from about $11,000 to $78,000 per year, depending on assessed need.
Providers deliver these services under a quarterly budget structure, which replaced the old annual model to keep spending closer to need.
Residential Aged Care in Australia
Residential care becomes an option when staying at home is no longer safe, even with support already in place.
Government subsidies keep it within reach for most families.
Homes include accommodation and meals as standard, and they provide 24-hour personal care alongside nursing and allied health support.
Entry requires a formal needs assessment through My Aged Care.
According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, more than half of the people entering permanent residential care are aged 85 and over.
Occupancy across the sector currently runs high, which is part of why the bed shortfall covered later in this guide matters so much to providers planning new places.
Short-Term and Respite Care
Full-time home support and a permanent move into residential care aren’t the only two options.
Restorative care occupies the middle ground, aimed at rebuilding strength and confidence after a stint in hospital or an illness, so someone can return to independent living.
Respite care serves a different purpose. It gives family carers a proper break, arranged either as a short stay in residential care or extra in-home support through My Aged Care.
Providers offering both pathways find restorative places fill quickly once hospitals know a bed is available nearby.
That flow-through is one small way the sector can ease the hospital pressure covered later in this guide.
Who Pays for Aged Care in Australia, and How Much
Funding depends on which pathway a person uses, and most combine a government subsidy with a personal contribution based on income and assets.
The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing sets these contribution rules and reviews them regularly.
Providers need to track a client’s classification closely, since a misclassified budget can mean weeks of underfunded care before an adjustment comes through.
| Program | What It Funds | Typical Contribution |
| Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) | Entry-level help such as cleaning, transport and meals | Small, income-based co-payment |
| Support at Home | Personal care, nursing, home modifications and assistive technology across eight funding levels | Income and asset-tested under the new contribution framework |
| Residential Aged Care | Accommodation, meals, 24-hour personal care and clinical support | Basic daily fee plus means-tested care and accommodation costs, capped annually and over a lifetime |
Why Australian Providers Are Struggling With Access
Getting a client through the system on time, without a months-long wait, is where providers feel the real strain, and it’s the part of the job families notice first.
- More than 200,000 older Australians are currently waiting for a Support at Home package or an assessment, according to aged care and health peak bodies cited by Australian Ageing Agenda.
- Hospitals are stuck with an estimated 3,300 older Australians who can’t be discharged because aged care isn’t available, a number that’s jumped 35 per cent in a single year.
- New bed numbers aren’t keeping up either. The sector needs roughly 10,000 additional residential places a year, yet fewer than 1,000 went up in 2025.
- Two-thirds of providers are running at a loss right now, a figure Ageing Australia chief executive Tom Symondson has pointed to directly.
- Government funding hasn’t kept pace either, with the latest pricing increase for residential care landing at just 2.55 per cent, well under both wage growth and inflation.
What the 2024 Aged Care Act Changed
The Aged Care Act 2024 kicked in on 1 November 2025.
It replaced legislation that had gone largely untouched for decades and reshaped several parts of the system providers thought they knew well.
Getting there took years of consultation, stemming from the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
The stated goal was a system that’s simpler for older people to navigate and steadier for providers to run.
- Support at Home replaced the Home Care Packages Program and Short-Term Restorative Care Programme, moving from four funding tiers to eight.
- The Commonwealth Home Support Program was due to fold into Support at Home, but that plan’s been shelved. It’s now extended to 30 June 2029 instead, keeping services steady for the 830,000 people who rely on it, according to the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing.
- Quality Standards were strengthened, and Star Ratings are now published so families can compare residential homes before choosing one.
- Care minute targets and 24-hour registered nurse coverage remain compulsory for residential providers, with funding now tied to delivery against the target.
Where Non-Clinical Support Can Ease the Load
Direct care has to stay onshore, because a personal care worker or registered nurse must be physically present with the client under the rules the Aged Care Act sets for who can deliver that care.
That part of the workforce shortfall has to be solved with local recruitment and better pay, not offshore staffing.
The work around care is a different story. Shifting admin-heavy roles offshore takes real hours off local staff without touching a single hour of hands-on care.
The same approach already works in wider healthcare, where offshore teams manage patient records and referral coordination for Australian medical practices.
A virtual receptionist covering after-hours calls can pick up what many home care providers currently lose to voicemail.
Tasks that usually move offshore first:
- Rostering support and shift confirmations
- Intake and enrolment paperwork
- Family and referral enquiries
- Invoicing and compliance documentation for Support at Home budgets
Where This Leaves Your Team
Aged care in Australia will keep tightening before it loosens. Beds aren’t being built fast enough, and the workforce shortfall is measured in the tens of thousands.
Every provider is absorbing more compliance work under the new Act as this plays out, and none of it clears by the end of the financial year.
Working harder with the same headcount won’t fix that. What helps is being deliberate about which parts of the job need a person in the building and which parts just need to get done well.
Outsourced Staff connects offshore professionals with Australian aged care and healthcare providers for the back-office and customer service work that keeps a service running behind the scenes.
Get in touch to talk through what could come off your team’s plate this quarter.
FAQs
What’s the difference between Support at Home and residential aged care?
Support at Home pays for the help someone needs to stay living at home, while residential aged care means moving into a facility for accommodation and round-the-clock care.
Most people only make that move once staying at home is no longer safe, even with extra support coming in.
How long does it take to get a Support at Home package in Australia?
Getting a full Support at Home package sorted is taking close to twelve months right now, based on Senate estimates figures that ABC News reported in 2026.
Some people end up waiting even longer, especially if they need a higher support level than what they were first approved for.
Who is eligible for aged care services in Australia?
Turning 65 generally triggers eligibility for government-funded aged care in Australia, and Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can access it from 50 due to lower life expectancy.
Age alone doesn’t get anyone through the door, though, since a person also needs to pass an assessment through My Aged Care before services are approved.
Why is aged care in Australia short on workers right now?
Australia’s older population is growing faster than the aged care workforce can keep pace with, and pay hasn’t caught up enough to pull in the staff needed.
Nurses are the clearest example, with government modelling putting the shortfall at more than 17,000 full-time equivalent roles, a figure the peak body Ageing Australia keeps citing.
Can aged care providers outsource any part of their operations?
Plenty of the day-to-day running of an aged care service can move offshore, rostering and intake paperwork included, just not the hands-on care itself.
Family enquiries and after-hours phone support are fair game for an offshore team too.
Personal care and nursing have to stay local, since someone has to physically be there, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission regulates who’s allowed to provide it.
How much does residential aged care cost in Australia?
Residential aged care in Australia costs a mix of a fixed daily fee everyone pays and means-tested charges for care and accommodation, so the total varies by resident.
Costs shift quite a bit between facilities and locations. The government keeps a lifetime and annual cap on what any resident pays, though, so the bill can’t blow out indefinitely.