Almost half the federal parliament and nearly two-thirds of the Senate have called for urgent reforms to the Support at Home program — government-funded aged care services to help older people stay at home for longer — after complaints from older Australians and their carers.

Support at Home replaced Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care in November 2025. Independent Senator David Pocock said the government legislated a “no worse off” principle when passing Aged Care reforms in 2024, but since then, more older Australians report being significantly worse off.

“Unacceptably long wait times to access services, price gouging in fees, and the government’s reliance on a broken algorithm for conducting assessments are common complaints being raised with me,” Senator Pocock said.

“Support at Home is not helping older Australians in the way the Federal Government promised, and that’s having a deeply distressing, very human impact.

“A growing number of older Australians are getting in touch to say they can no longer afford help with the absolute basic necessities of life, from showering safely to preparing a nutritious meal.”

Senator Pocock, Senator Anne Ruston (shadow minister for health and aged care), and Senator Penny Allman-Payne (Greens spokesperson for older people) — supported by the Coalition, the Greens, and the entire crossbench — wrote a letter to Aged Care Minister Sam Rae MP, seeking to:

• restore human oversight to aged care assessments so they reflect genuine individual needs, not flawed algorithms; 
• re-categorise showering, dressing and continence as clinical care, with no older Australian forced to pay excessive costs for basic hygiene; 
• consider whether essential daily activities like meal preparation have been correctly classified;
• review the 10 per cent case management fee cap;
• and provide clear, transparent detail on implementation of upcoming price caps under Support at Home, as service costs have reportedly risen by up to 40 per cent.

“We need to be able to keep older Australians safely living at home for as long as possible, and the Albanese Government needs to step up and fix reforms to aged care that are failing,” Senator Pocock said.

“We have to do better than this as a country at looking after every generation, from youngest to oldest and that’s why together with the Coalition, the Greens, and my crossbench colleagues we are calling on the Minister to make urgent changes to the Support at Home program.”

The letter states that failing to deliver adequate supports has social and economic costs. One-third of Australians over 65 falls at least once a year — and falls can lead to fractures, loss of independence, and death. They are the leading cause of injury leading to hospitalisation and death; about half occur in the home, especially when showering. Older Australians have the highest hospitalisation rate for falls, and mortality rates increase significantly with age. According to the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, fall injuries cost the Australian health system more than $5 billion in 2023-2024.

“Assisting older Australians with showering is a basic dignity, but it also helps to prevent falls and people finding themselves in hospitals,” Senator Pocock said.

“Our hospitals cannot take the strain of a broken aged care system, and we all pay the price if we don’t provide the older Australians with affordable support to age at home.”

The letter also criticises the Integrated Assessment Tool (IAT) system, which determines how much support people can receive to remain living at home. Clinical assessors cannot overrule its decisions, and it has been blamed for reducing care for older Australians, the ABC reported recently.

“I find it astounding that both the Albanese Government and the federal public service are allowing an algorithm to determine funding outcomes for older Australians in need of support,” Senator Pocock said.

“These decisions need to be made by a human for humans. We’re calling on Minister Rae to immediately cease the use of a broken algorithm in undertaking aged care assessments.”

The letter was released to coincide with a “Care Repair” campaign the Daily Telegraph launched this week.

“What we’re seeing in our aged care system has such real human cost for older Australians and their families,” Senator Pocock said. “We need the government to listen to experts, to listen to older Australians, and listen to their families and make changes now. This is not a foreign war in the Middle East. This is a problem in our aged care system here in Australia, and it is solvable.