Dying in the queue: 200,000 older Australians caught in aged care delays

The scale of Australia’s aged care waitlist is now impossible to ignore. A Senate inquiry has heard that more than 200,000 older people are stuck waiting for support, with the delays described as nothing short of “unconscionable”.

The figure is almost double what the government had been claiming. Officials had previously told the public that around 100,000 people were waiting, but the inquiry revealed the true backlog to be more than 200,000. Advocates say this gap has allowed a crisis to grow out of sight.

Around 90,000 people have already been approved for a home care package but are still waiting for services to start, while another 121,596 are waiting just to be assessed. Behind those numbers are people living with serious illness, families juggling unpaid care, and carers watching health decline while the system stalls.

For Canberra couple Graham and Kim Paxton, the waiting has become unbearable. Graham has a terminal illness and has been told he may only have one to two years to live. He has approval for the highest level of home care support, yet more than a year later he is still waiting for services.

It is not an isolated story. In Adelaide, 87-year-old Cyril Tooze, who lived with severe heart and lung conditions, spent so long waiting for support that he eventually chose voluntary assisted dying. His family says the delay robbed him of the chance to live his final months at home with dignity.

Providers argue that they are ready to deliver support immediately. Ninety-eight percent of organisations offering home care packages say they have capacity, yet the government has not released new packages since June. Officials claim 2,700 packages become available each week, but these are mostly recycled places freed up when someone dies or moves into residential care.

Former Acting Inspector-General of Aged Care Ian Yates has described the situation as a “calculated denial of service”. Anglicare has reported wait times have doubled over the past year, with tens of thousands more people now stuck in limbo. COTA Australia estimates the true wait time, from application to care actually starting, can stretch to 15 months. They believe around 10,000 older Australians die every year while waiting.

The Senate inquiry, forced through by crossbench and Opposition pressure, is investigating the government’s decision to delay the Support at Home program until November and to withhold 20,000 additional packages that were promised. The committee is due to report back in mid-September.

Advocates are pushing for the waitlist to be cut to 25,000 people at most, in line with the recommendation of the Royal Commission. At present, the queue is heading in the opposite direction.

Families say they feel abandoned. “It’s cruel to make people wait when providers are ready and the need is so clear,” one carer wrote on a community forum.

The question hanging over the inquiry is no longer whether the waitlist is too long. It is whether the government will act fast enough to stop more people from dying in the queue.