More than 6,400 older Australians who had already been approved for home-care funding died while still waiting for a package in 2025–26, according to federal health department figures published Thursday. The count—6,436 people—marks a roughly one-third jump from the 4,812 deaths recorded under the previous National Priority System the year before, and equals an average of seventeen deaths every day among clients stuck in the queue.
The data landed after the Coalition said the government had failed to comply with two Senate orders demanding the statistics. Opposition aged-care spokespeople framed the release as overdue transparency; Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said the death rate among wait-listed clients remained “significantly lower” than mortality for older Australians overall, while acknowledging “more work to do.”
How large the queue still is
As of 30 June, more than 106,000 Australians were on the official wait list for a Support at Home place, the department said. The program replaced the old Home Care Packages system with tiered subsidies for cleaning, nursing and personal care in people’s houses, but rollout bottlenecks have persisted since the transition began.
Council on the Ageing Australia chief Patricia Sparrow called the fatalities “an absolute tragedy,” telling ABC Radio the system was not keeping pace with demographic demand. Advocacy groups have argued that approvals without timely funding create a paperwork queue that leaves frail clients relying on family carers or emergency hospital admissions.
What the government points to
Rae said Canberra delivered an additional 83,000 home-care places in 2025–26 and would roll out another 32,000 this year. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese conceded in May that aged-care access was “not good enough” after a separate report showed clients waiting about a year for services. Thursday’s figures give opponents a harder number to use in Question Time ahead of the federal budget cycle.
The health department did not break down deaths by state or package level in its initial release. States administer assessments through regional hubs, and wait times vary: rural clients often wait longer for allied-health visits even after funding is assigned. The government has promised faster digital assessments, but unions representing aged-care workers say staffing shortages in regional providers remain the binding constraint.
What families should expect next
Approved clients still waiting should continue checking My Aged Care portals for allocation dates and contact approved providers directly if packages stall, consumer advocates said. The opposition is likely to press for quarterly publication of queue deaths rather than annual dumps tied to Senate orders.
For clinicians, the statistic underscores hospital flow pressure: delayed home support keeps frail patients in acute beds longer than medically necessary. State health ministers meet monthly on hospital access; Victoria and New South Wales have both cited home-care delays in their elective-surgery recovery plans. No new emergency funding announcement accompanied Thursday’s data release.