Just over 129,000 older Australians are waiting for their approved level of home care, a sign federal Labor says underscores the failure of the coalition government to tackle this ongoing crisis.
Labor's ageing and seniors spokeswoman Julie Collins says the waiting list has grown from 88,000 under the coalition government.
"Reforms to aged care were meant to give older Australians the choice to age at home, but these figures confirm the Liberals' policy chaos has failed older Australians," Ms Collins said in a statement on Saturday.
She also noted that aged care has again been locked out as a cabinet position after the federal election, a policy area which has had four different ministers since the Liberals were first elected in 2013.
She said older Australians deserve better.
"Many older Australians are waiting more than 12 months for the package they have been approved for and some are waiting more than two years," she said.
The government's latest Home Care Packages Program report (January-March 2019) shows 75,739 people were waiting on a home care package at their approved level and had not been offered access to a lower level package.
There were also 53,299 people who were waiting for a home care package at their approved level but who have been offered a lower level package.
Of these people, 30,283 chose to take an offered package, 6355 were deciding on whether to take up a package and 16,661 had not taken up their previous offer of a lower level package.
