Seniors lobby for homecare boost

National Seniors Australia is calling on the Morrison government to immediately boost the number of homecare packages and roll out a training program.

Ian Henschke is chief advocate for National Seniors Australia.

National Seniors Australia is calling on the Morrison government to immediately boost the number of homecare packages and roll out a training program to ensure there is enough staff to meet increased demands for the service and get mature-age Australians into work.

The body’s chief advocate, Ian Henschke, on Wednesday said the waiting list for homecare was a “hidden issue” and government spending priorities needed to be reassessed.

As at June 30, 2020, almost 100,000 were waiting for care, the Productivity Commission finding that the average wait time for those needing the highest level of care was 28 months.

“If you count Commonwealth Home Support with the Home Care Packages, there are around four times the number of people getting some form of homecare than residential,” Mr Henschke said.

“Residential care gets the bulk of the money, around twice of what goes to homecare, roughly $14bn to residential care and $7bn to homecare.”

Unacceptable waiting times have been criticised by the aged-care royal commission, with a Senate inquiry hearing last year that 30,000 people had died while waiting for a homecare package.

The group that represents more than 130,000 older Australians has also asked Treasury to address the critical issue of older renters being priced out from retirement homes or affordable housing in the May budget.

National Seniors Australia wants the maximum rate of Commonwealth Rent Assistance increased for older renters and a capital grants fund created for retirement housing projects that have simple rental agreements, longer term lease options and accessible design. “While most older Australians own their own home, 25 per cent do not. Worryingly, this figure is projected to rise steadily in the future in the face of rising home prices,” the pre-­budget submission reads.

“Those people are likely to have broken employment histories and worked low-paid jobs so would not have benefited from compulsory super­annuation. They would also not have been able to use tax breaks to make ­voluntary contributions to bolster savings … they will be heavily dependent on the Age Pension and other government support.”

The requests form part of the pre-budget submission provided to the government earlier this year.

The body says the federal government could redirect funding from existing mature-age employment programs to train new workers in the homecare setting.