Last month, we exposed a sobering reality: navigating the aged care system is pushing carers to the absolute brink. A major culprit? The gruelling agonising wait for government-funded, in-home care.
Currently, the Commonwealth Home Support Programme (CHSP) acts as the vital first rung on the ladder, offering basic but essential in-home support. It is a lean, cost-effective program for the government, free from the hurdles of asset or means-testing. Critically, emergency codes can be issued rapidly while a person waits for an official assessment, getting urgent services into the home faster.
For thousands of older Australians and their exhausted carers, CHSP is a genuine lifeline. It beautifully bridges the gap when life changes without warning, whether due to a sudden health emergency or the slow, quiet realisation that support is needed to help someone remain independent at home.
What truly sets the program apart is its inherent flexibility; it allows people to use services exactly as they need them. It can be deployed for a short period to aid recovery after a health event, or to provide ongoing, predictable support for daily life at home.
Yet, this safety net is under imminent threat. As we reported in our March 2026 issue, the Australian Government plans to absorb CHSP into the consolidated Support at Home program on July 1, 2027.
Is CHSP perfect as it stands? No – it has flaws and some redesign is needed.
But forcing transition of this essential program into Support at Home will plunge 840,000 vulnerable people into an ecosystem already buckling under severe assessment and funding backlogs. Support at Home is plagued by significant design faults and high costs; it is failing to cope with the 200,000-plus people already in it.
Integrating CHSP into a system that isn’t functioning won’t just complicate aged care, it will make the current, dire home care situation significantly worse.
In a piece of welcome good news, thanks to the tireless efforts and advocacy of many, on June 23, 2026, the Senate Community Affairs Committee Inquiry Report into the transition of the Commonwealth Home Support Program into the Support at Home Program was released. Key recommendations are definitive: CHSP must be retained as a separate, block-funded program, it should not transition into the Support at Home framework, and the government must extend its dedicated funding until July 2030.
The federal government is now being called upon to publicly announce its intentions.
Ms Natalie Siegel-Brown, the outgoing Inspector-General of Aged Care, urged the federal government to look closely at international benchmarks like Denmark. Through smart policy shifts, Denmark enables far more of its ageing citizens to remain living at home independently, drastically reducing the demand for expensive residential aged care beds.
Australia may be an island, but we do not have to invent solutions in isolation.
The Federal Government now faces a clear, undeniable choice. It can look at what is working globally, put in the hard work to resolve flaws within the Support at Home program and the Single Assessment System, and protect the vital, entry-level CHSP services that keep our elders living in their own homes for longer. True reform means fixing the foundations before expanding the house.
This article by Julia McCarthy appeared in the July 2026 edition of Village Voice.