Senior Australians are increasingly choosing to remain in their own homes for longer and the Morrison Government is committed to supporting this choice.
Department of Health data as at 30 June 2019 indicates that 125,117 Australians have access to a home care package compared with 99,932 at the same time last year. That is a 25 per cent increase in just one year.
During the June 2019 quarter, 47,700 home care packages were released, at an average of around 3,700 per week.
More than 97 per cent of all people who were waiting for a package at their approved level at 30 June 2019 had already been offered a lower level package or have been approved to access support through the Commonwealth Home Support Programme.
The Coalition is committed to providing quarterly data to provide information on the operation of the home care system to ensure an open and accountable system. We started publishing this data in September 2017. Prior to that this data had not been easily available.
The 9th data report shows that the number of people waiting for a home care package at their assessed level has fallen by around 7 per cent since 31 March 2019. The report is also a tool to help home care providers understand trends in home care approvals and care.
These results build on my announcement last week of over an extra $150 million in Growth Funding to enable an additional 18,000 senior Australians to access entry–level home support over the next 12 months.
Labor provided no additional funding in their costings for home care places, or any additional funding for aged care quality, workforce or residential aged care at the last election.
Aged care continues to be one of the top priorities for our Government. The Morrison Government will continue to make improvements and drive change for the better, whilst the Royal Commission for Aged Care Quality and Safety does its work.
The report is available on the AIHW GEN aged care data website.