Aged Care Waiting Times in Australia (2026 Guide)

This is general information, not personal financial or legal advice. Before you make any decision, talk to the free official services below - they are funded to help you, not to sell you anything.

• My Aged Care: 1800 200 422, Monday to Friday 8am-8pm and Saturday 10am-2pm. This is the front door to assessment and funding. For another language, call TIS National on 131 450 and ask for 1800 200 422.

• OPAN (Older Persons Advocacy Network): 1800 700 600, Monday to Friday 8am-8pm and Saturday 10am-4pm. Free, confidential, independent advocacy to help you understand your rights, chase up a stuck application and push back if you are treated unfairly.

• National Dementia Helpline (Dementia Australia): 1800 100 500, 24 hours a day, every day, with live chat at dementia.org.au/helpline. Specialist advisors for anyone affected by dementia.

• Services Australia Financial Information Service (FIS): call 132 300 and say 'Financial Information Service'. Free officers who explain aged care fees and means assessments so you can plan.

• Carer Gateway: 1800 422 737, Monday to Friday 8am-5pm, for carers who need their own support.

If the situation is unsafe or urgent right now, say so on the phone - you can ask for an urgent assessment and may be able to start urgent services immediately.

On 1 November 2025 the new Aged Care Act 2024 began and the Support at Home program replaced both Home Care Packages and Short-Term Restorative Care. The Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) continues for now and is not expected to move across before 1 July 2027.

The journey has the same shape as before: register with My Aged Care, a short screening call, a triage call, then a face-to-face assessment, then approval (your Notice of Decision), then allocation of funding or a place, then services start.

The assessment that used to be done by an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT) is now simply called a 'comprehensive assessment'. The entry-level check is a 'Home Support Assessment'. Same assessors, new names.

If you were already getting or approved for a Home Care Package on or before 12 September 2024, or were in permanent residential care on or before 31 October 2025, you keep grandfathered fee protections - you can stay on your old fee arrangements or opt in to the new ones. Ask FIS (132 300) which is better for you before you switch.

After you apply through My Aged Care, an assessor will usually contact you within 2 to 6 weeks to arrange your comprehensive assessment. The assessment outcome letter (your Notice of Decision) is then usually sent within 2 to 6 weeks after the assessment.

Those are typical ranges, not guarantees - demand, your location and your priority all affect timing. If you have not heard from the assessment organisation after 2 weeks, call them directly, check your My Aged Care online account, or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422.

If things deteriorate while you wait (a fall, a hospital discharge, a carer who can no longer cope), tell your assessment organisation or My Aged Care. You can be re-triaged as urgent and may be able to access urgent services or an urgent assessment immediately. You do not have to sit quietly in the queue if the situation has changed.

Once approved for ongoing Support at Home services, you enter the national Support at Home Priority System. Funding is released based on two things: your priority category and your date of approval (the access approval start date on your outcome letter). There are four categories: urgent, high, medium and standard.

The Department's published estimated wait times for ongoing funding, as at 1 November 2025, are:

• Urgent priority: within 1 month

• High priority: 1.5 to 2.5 months

• Medium priority: 8 to 9 months

• Standard priority: 10 to 11 months

These estimates are reviewed and updated over time, so check the current figure on My Aged Care for your situation. Your category is set by what the assessor records about your needs - if your needs have genuinely increased, you can request a Support Plan Review, which may move you to a higher priority.

Each participant gets one of 8 funding classifications that set your quarterly budget. Budgets are paid quarterly, 10% of each quarter's budget is set aside for care management, and you can carry over unspent funds up to $1,000 or 10% (whichever is greater) into the next quarter.

If your wait for ongoing funding runs longer than expected, you may be offered interim funding: 60% of your approved budget is released early so you can start the most critical services and keep living safely at home. The remaining 40% is allocated as soon as funding becomes available. You will not be offered interim funding if you were approved for services with shorter expected waits.

Two pathways have no waitlist at all and are funded immediately on approval: the End-of-Life Pathway (for people in the last months of life) and the Restorative Care Pathway (short, goal-based therapy to regain independence after a setback). The government's own data shows the End-of-Life Pathway commencing in a median of about 15 days.

Assistive Technology (equipment) and Home Modifications run on their own separate priority systems (immediate, high, medium, standard), so a ramp, rail or shower modification can sometimes come through before your ongoing care funding does. Funding is allocated per service, so you do not have to wait for everything before starting one thing.

When funding is allocated you have 56 days from the date of the letter to sign a service agreement with a provider and start, with a 28-day extension available from My Aged Care if you need longer to find the right provider.

This is the biggest change for families worried about a nursing home wait. Since 1 November 2025, residential aged care places are allocated directly to the person. Everyone assessed and approved for residential care is allocated a place immediately, your priority category does not affect whether you get one, and the allocation does not expire.

In plain terms: there is no longer a government-managed national queue for a residential place. The remaining wait is practical, not bureaucratic - finding an aged care home you like that has an available room. In high-demand areas or for a specific preferred home, that can still take weeks or months.

Use the Find a provider tool or call My Aged Care on 1800 200 422 to compare homes, including their Star Ratings (1 to 5 stars across key areas of care). You can ask your assessor to refer you, or refer yourself using the referral code in your support plan. Putting your name down with several homes at once improves your odds of a timely vacancy.

Start the means assessment early through Services Australia - it determines what you will pay for care and accommodation and it takes time to process, so the sooner you lodge it the fewer surprises later. The free Financial Information Service (132 300) can walk you through it.

The government's first statutory Wait Times Report (covering 1 November 2025 to 31 March 2026, published 12 May 2026) reported a national median 'elapsed time' of 294 days (about 10 months) from application to service commencement, with an average of 360 days.

Read that number carefully. It measures total elapsed time across the whole pathway - including time taken up by personal choice, finding a provider, and old referrals that pre-date the reforms - not pure queueing. The Department deliberately calls it 'elapsed time', not 'waiting time'. For what your funding wait is likely to be, the priority-category estimates above are the better guide.

By service type, the report's median elapsed times were: Support at Home (ongoing) 347 days; residential care (ongoing) 167 days; Restorative Care Pathway 163 days; Assistive Technology and Home Modifications around 100 days; End-of-Life Pathway 15 days. Residential averages look long (about 13 months) only because a minority of people delay entry by choice - the median of around 6 months is more typical.

By state, median elapsed time ranged from 273 days in Victoria (shortest) to 322 days in Queensland (longest), clustering around 9 to 10 months elsewhere. At the end of Q3 2025-26, about 65,576 applications were still awaiting a triage decision - a sign the new system is processing very high volumes.

Waiting is the hardest part, but you are not powerless. Practical steps families can take:

• Use entry-level help now: the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) can provide cleaning, meals, transport and basic personal care while you wait for fuller Support at Home funding. Ask My Aged Care.

• Use respite to get a break: you are entitled to up to 63 days of subsidised residential respite per financial year (planned or emergency), extendable in 21-day blocks with assessor approval. Check days used with Services Australia on 1800 195 206 (Option 1). In a genuine emergency you may access respite even before assessment.

• Lean on Carer Gateway (1800 422 737) for carer counselling and support, and the National Dementia Helpline (1800 100 500) if dementia is involved.

• Bridge with private care if you can: non government-funded (privately paid) home care can fill gaps until your funding arrives. FIS (132 300) can help you weigh the cost.

• Keep records and follow up: note dates, names and reference numbers, check your My Aged Care online account, and call to chase progress. If you feel stuck or unfairly treated, OPAN (1800 700 600) gives free, independent advocacy, and the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission takes complaints on 1800 951 822.

• Re-assess if things worsen: a Support Plan Review can lift your priority if needs have genuinely increased. Don't wait silently if your parent's situation deteriorates.