Liberals accuse government of backdown on aged care program

The federal government has extended the Commonwealth Home Support Program for another two years.

The opposition has labelled the move an "embarrassing, overdue backdown from Labor in the face of overwhelming evidence".

The aged care minister said the intention was to keep the program separate from Support at Home on an ongoing basis.

The Commonwealth program helping older people with shopping, transport and meals on wheels will be extended until 2029, but the government has flagged its intention to make the program permanent beyond that.

The Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) assists 830,000 seniors with low-level supports to help them live at home.

As part of major changes to the aged care sector, the program was going to be abolished in mid-2027 and rolled into the new Support at Home program, which is designed to provide a coordinated budget to support more complex care, but which critics said was going to make service delivery more expensive and less efficient.

Providers, including local councils, had also withdrawn services because of the uncertainty around the program's future.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said the government was now also beginning consultation with an eye to permanently keeping CHSP separate from Support at Home.

Mr Rae said it was important for the government to be looking at how it can use early intervention services like CHSP to take pressure off the rest of the ever-growing aged care system, which faces a shortage of beds and long waitlists.

He hoped the operators that stopped providing services would return now they had certainty.

Health Minister Mark Butler said the CHSP program would require reform, though, because there was some overlap between it and the Support at Home program.

"There are differences in co-contribution arrangements that will have to be sorted," he said.

Under CHSP, participants are expected to contribute varying amounts to the cost of their care, if they can afford to.

"Simple services like house cleaning and meals might cost a few dollars. More complex services like some home modifications will cost much more," according to the department's website.