Aged care doesn’t start when the need arises
When an older client begins to need help, there can be a natural assumption that aged care services will follow reasonably quickly. The latest government data suggests advisers should challenge that assumption.
The Aged Care Act 2024 Wait Times Report: Residential Care and Support at Home (issued 11 August 2026 by the Department of Health, Disability & Ageing) examines the wait times experienced by people who commenced care services between April and June 2026. It measures the elapsed time from their initial My Aged Care application, through assessment and allocation, until services actually commenced.
This report found that across all services, the median elapsed time was 255 days (around eight months). But the average wait time was even longer at 296 days, or around 10 months, showing that some people have quite lengthy wait times.
That is a long time when someone urgently needs care.
Getting into aged care is a pathway, not a single step
One reason these figures are important is that accessing government-funded aged care involves a series of steps. The report maps the pathway in nine steps:
Registration – the initial step is to register with My Aged Care.
Screening – completion of a questionnaire either online, via phone or at a service centre, with referral then made to an assessment organisation.
Triage – a triage delegate from the assessment organisation will determine eligibility for an assessment, the type of assessment required, its priority and whether urgent support may be needed.
Assessment – a face-to-face meeting is arranged and conducted by a needs assessor to understand the person’s needs using the Integrated Assessment Tool.
Approval – the assessor will make recommendations on the eligible government-funded services with a formal approval generated.
Priority determination – for support at home approvals, a period of time may elapse before funding is allocated and services can commence. Clients are assigned as either urgent, high, medium or standard priority, which impacts how quickly funding may be released.
Allocation – a Notice of Determination is sent to the person confirming what has been approved, and for support at home, when (and how much) funding has been allocated.
Service commencement – after a service provider has been chosen and service agreement entered into, services can commence.
Review – if the client’s needs change the client can request a support plan review with their assessment organisation to determine if approvals can be revised.
The distinction between these steps matters. A client may have recognised their need for assistance and started the process, but may have several stages ahead before funded care commences. For example, at the end of June 2026, 14,382 people were awaiting a triage decision.
Ten months can be a very long time at home
The figures for ongoing Support at Home are particularly concerning.
For people who commenced ongoing Support at Home, the median elapsed time between application and commencement was 297 days – around 10 months. The average was 306 days. Assistive technology and home modifications each had median elapsed times of around six months.
Urgent and short-term pathways were considerably faster. The End-of-Life Pathway had a median elapsed time of just 14 days, while the Restorative Care Pathway had a median of 64 days.
For advisers, that raises an important planning question: if a client needs more help today, how will they manage financially if government-funded ongoing support does not commence for many months? Access to cashflow planning may help the client to fund care privately in the interim for better outcomes.
Residential care is not necessarily immediate either
Residential care presents a different picture, but it carries its own warning.
The median elapsed time was 138 days, or around five months, for ongoing residential care. But the averages were much higher – 356 days and 329 days respectively.
According to the report, many people commenced residential care within approximately three to five months, but some people experienced substantially longer pathways due to individual circumstances, choices and bed availability.
The message is not that every client should expect to wait five or 10 months. But it is that timing is uncertain – and uncertainty itself needs to be planned for.
The financial planning issue is the gap
There is an important qualification to all these numbers. The government deliberately describes them as “elapsed times” rather than simply waiting times as not every day represents a government or system delay. Personal circumstances, provider availability, consumer choices and system factors can all affect when services commence.
But for an older person and their family, there is still a practical issue to solve. Care needs do not wait for the aged care system.
A client may need help during these waiting (elapsed time) periods. Families may step in to provide interim support, or private services may need to be purchased at full cost to the client. For many older people they may end up stuck in a hospital bed.
That creates financial questions that create a role for advisers. How much could the client afford to spend privately while waiting? Is sufficient cash available? What happens if a family member needs to reduce work to provide care? Is expenditure required to modify the home? And if residential care becomes necessary sooner than expected, how quickly can the client's finances be reorganised?
Aged care advice should not begin only when a client has an aged care place or Support at Home funding ready to use. It is an ongoing discussion and review for advisers and their clients.
To access the full Government report, click here.