Priority support at home processing announced for seniors with MND – sector reminds that system must work for all

As the fallout for Support at Home’s processing delays deepens, the government has announced a revamp for a subsection of those waiting. Yesterday the government announced that it would be overhauling rules within the new act to prioritise seniors with Motor Neuron Disease (MND) within the Support at Home scheme.

Priority processing

The government says it will be rapidly updating rules this week. Seniors with MND will soon have priority in being processed within the Support at Home scheme.

Minister Butler yesterday said, “Motor Neurone Disease is a rare, incurable and fatal condition which is invariably characterised by a rapid deterioration in physical function.”

“As a result of these particular characteristics, the Government will this week amend the Aged Care Rules to recognise MND as a discrete, specific condition warranting urgent priority for Support at Home. This change will give all older Australians with MND priority access to the Support at Home Program.”

Minister Butler went on to explain that this move will be done to mirror the prioritisation pathway already active through the NDIS within the Support at Home program.

Butler noted that for those who have already applied for care inclusive of a MND diagnosis, and were currently still waiting, the upcoming changes to rules this week would be applicable.

“The change will apply retrospectively – meaning older Australians with MND who have already been assessed and are waiting for a Support at Home place, as well as those approved in future, will be prioritised for urgent access to their funding.”

Missed wires

While the announcement of quicker processing for a subsection has been welcomed, wait times facing hundreds of thousands of Australian seniors remains a sticking point. A step further than crossed wires, advocates are calling intentional obfuscation when it comes to the Minister’s most recent comments on delays following the MND prioritisation announcement. A partial success is not what Australian seniors, and the providers who are ready to provide care, deserve. The goal posts, advocates remind, must be a resilient, robust and accessible system for all in need.

The government’s wait time report release date, published late on the 12 May, largely overshadowed by the Federal budget announcement, has drawn significant criticism from within and outside of government with allegations of manufactured overshadowing. Independent Senator Pocock, alongside other senators, has asked department staff as to any intentionality in publishing the data on the evening of the 12^th of May, during Tuesday’s Senate hearing.

The report covers seniors who commenced residential aged care or Support at Home services from the first day of the new act, November 1 2025 to 31 March 2026. These figures, extracted and assessed by government, indicate that when it comes to Support at Home wait times, between application date and commencement of services in a community setting, the average processing time is formally on record as being 364 days.

For assistive technology applications, the average wait time was 123 days or 4 months. And for home modifications, that time was the same.

And yet Minister Butler’s comments in highlighting a review of how Support at Home applications are prioritised has indicated a very different number.

“The Government has also directed the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing to undertake a rapid review of the Support at Home prioritisation mechanism. The Integrated Assessment Tool has improved the consistency and fairness of how in-home aged care is allocated – bringing median assessment wait times down from a peak of around 10 months, to consistently under one month.”

He says, “the review will make sure it keeps delivering for the people who need care most urgently. The Department will provide advice to Government within three months on any adjustments needed.”

Struggling supply

As the government’s own figures attest, wait-times for the Support at Home program are substantial. From initial application through My Aged Care, all the way to services commencing, inclusive of waiting for an assessment, assessment results, receiving interim funding and then finally full funding, the national average is around a year. The calls from seniors is that this is simply, and unacceptably, too long.

The view from sector professionals fills in a picture of being between a rock and a hard place. Providers too have lent their voice in highlighting the difficulty of working alongside clients as the ripple effects of Support at Home continues to be felt. Leaders share a current reality, where, in many cases for years, trust and earned rapport has been built up only to be strained by consequences of reform, namely, increased bureaucracy resulting in paperwork over care partnership. As scheme function and rules have changed, particularly the opaqueness of the IAT mechanism, confusion as to the difficulty of accessing care has been felt by all navigating the system.

Adrian Morgan, General Manager at Flexi Care is one such leader who has lamented the increased paperwork and tedious hoops required to try and secure care for clients. For seniors, particularly those in the beginning stages of MND, assistive technology updates are an urgent and integral part of care. Reports are growing of seniors in this acutely vulnerable state waiting weeks for care or being denied entirely.

With the government’s breaking announcement for those with MND, advocates see needed change happening not too soon.

Rhetoric versus reality

Yesterday Butler noted, “the review builds on our commitment in the Budget 2026-27 to strengthen the Integrated Assessment Tool and the way people are prioritised for Support at Home. It reflects the Government’s approach of moving quickly to make refinements to the Support at Home where people’s experiences of the system shows it is needed.”

And yet for advocates, industry leaders and seniors currently navigating the system, there is a pervasive sentiment of frustration at rhetoric at a distance from reality.

The news to prioritise seniors with a MND diagnosis through the Support at Home process is an important and needed update. And still, advocates and sector remind that the job is not done. Australia deserves the full picture, for reform to land timely care at home, an integral and strategic approach to care for the nation, for the hundreds of thousands still waiting a year for care to commence.