The Aged Care Funding Wait
Count the people waiting.
Count the ones we lose.
You know the shape of it. An ageing parent is approved for a funded aged care package, and then it does not come, and no one can tell you when it will. If you are waiting in that queue with someone you love, this one is yours. And if you are not, but you think this is not good enough, it is yours too.
A number you do not keep is a number you never have to explain.
The ask is simple. One honest count, so we as a community have transparency on the queue, and the families behind it.
Does any of this sound familiar?
To the daughter checking her phone in the work carpark. To the son who has read the same twenty-page letter four times. To the husband, elderly himself, caring for a wife who needs more than he can give, and no word on when help will come.
We see you. Beside almost every older person waiting is someone like you, holding the gap the funding never came to fill.
And if none of this is your family, but you have read the numbers and cannot accept them, you belong here too. You do not have to be in the queue to know this is wrong.
You are not overreacting. You are not doing this alone. Add your name, and be counted.
"They call it policy. We call it family. Put a face to the wait."
A campaign led by families and the older people they love and care for.
Open to everyone who wants this counted.
Convened by Vera.
Who we are
We are the sons and daughters, the partners and neighbours, of older Australians who were told they'd get care, and are still waiting. We sat with our parents through the phone calls, the letters, the silence. No one asked us what that wait costs.
We are also the nurses and care workers who see it up close, the neighbours who noticed, and the Australians who have simply read the numbers and decided they are not acceptable. You do not have to be waiting to belong here.
FACES is led by families, supported by providers and policymakers, and open to anyone who thinks this is wrong.
The numbers
How many older Australians are waiting for the care they were approved for? In one week this July, the Government answered four different ways.
200,000+
Inspector-General, 15 Jul 2026
131,366
Senate Estimates, 31 Dec 2025
107,281
Department quarterly report, 31 Oct 2025
100,191
Wait Times Report, 26 May 2026
The Minister disputed the Inspector-General's numbers. His own office then confirmed that every figure came straight from the Government's own reports. When the Government cannot agree with itself, families have no chance of trusting the number.
NOT PUBLISHED
How many die waiting is published nowhere on a routine basis. It surfaces only when a senator asks. Last year it was 4,812. Thirteen a day. Up 42 per cent.
You cannot fix what you refuse to count.
So we ask for one honest count.
0
a day
4,812 a year
older Australians die every day waiting for care they were approved for.
More than three and a half times the national road toll.
The wave is only building
The need is exploding. The count is not.
4 to 5×
the annual growth in Australians reaching 85, by 2032.
Australians aged 85 and over will grow from about 561,000 in 2023 to about 837,000 by 2032. Demand for aged care is accelerating fast.
And no one is counting the ones we lose.
Source: ABS, Bernard Salt.
The ask
Count and publish, every quarter, how many older Australians are waiting for the aged care they were promised, and how many die before it comes.
The whole pipeline, every quarter
- The people waiting to be assessed.
- The people approved but receiving nothing, or only part of what they were promised.
- The people who died while waiting.
Published every quarter, to the same definition each time, across every setting.
And the families holding this together, the second blind spot, deserve to be counted too.
And we are not waiting for permission.
Vera will publish these numbers ourselves, every quarter, on .
Read the Senate submission, and add your name. Be heard, be counted.
Add your name
You do not have to be waiting, or caring for someone, to add your name. If you think this is wrong, you count.
Families, older Australians, carers, providers, clinicians, academics, advocates, and anyone who has simply had enough.
Join the movement
This isn't a fight with providers. Most are doing their best inside a broken system. Our fight is with the silence: a system that won't count what it costs to look away. We need families, older Australians, carers, providers, clinicians, academics, advocates, and anyone who has simply had enough, all counted together.
The wall of faces
Every name here is someone who said: count us.
0 names and counting
A face is what makes this hard to look away from, so add yours if you can. A silhouette counts just the same.
Who is leading this
Melissa Reader
Convenor, FACES · CEO, Vera
Melissa convened FACES after watching families carry this fight alone, one phone call at a time. She's brought together an alliance built the way the campaigns that worked before were: family-led, evidence-backed, and impossible to ignore.
Sources
- Australian Bureau of Statistics, mortality and population projections
- Aged Care Royal Commission, Final Report, projected demand and Salt Actuarial modelling
- Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission / Inspector-General of Aged Care, public reporting
- Department of Health and Aged Care, Home Care Package waitlist data
- National road toll data, Bureau of Infrastructure and Transport Research Economics
- FACES Senate submission (full document) — coming soon