Stereotypes about wealthy baby boomers are skewing aged care policy. New fees, the shift to Support at Home, and pressures on community services risk leaving many older Australians without affordable, safe support. The consequences will be felt across families, hospitals and future generations.

Baby boomers, the first of whom will turn 80 next year, are now stereotyped as being cashed up and greedily expecting to spend the rest of their lives living off the public purse. It isn’t that simple.

The false stereotype of the cashed up baby boomer has shaped many of the aged care changes introduced in 2024 and 2025. Rightfully concerned about the budget implications of more people drawing on taxpayer-funded aged care services in the years ahead, the government introduced a new Aged Care Act in 2024 and announced a new Support at Home program that went live on 1 November 2025.

While the rhetoric of a rights-based aged care system that accompanied the Act was welcomed by key stakeholders, the central change is not more rights. Instead, it’s a massive increase in fees and charges. Many older people will not be able to afford these fees. This has not stopped government and aged care peak bodies repeatedly heralding the changes as a once in a generation reform.

There is no doubt that the number of baby boomers moving into old age has big budget implications. The average age that a person begins to need support at home is 80, with many people needing more comprehensive support at home by their mid 80s. People typically begin to need residential care in their late 80s and 90s with needs increasing year on year.

In 2035, just 10 years away, there will more than two million people aged 80 or above in Australia. That is a 60 per cent increase in a decade. This is what has governments worried.

In contrast, the number of people 65 to 79 years will increase by a million people (only 32 per cent). This difference is important. Despite being worried, governments still plan services for older people on the assumption that old age begins at 65 years. In doing so, many government projections are massively underestimating future needs. This is one of the many reasons why we do not have the workforce or the funding we need now and will need in the decades ahead.

What a person pays for their care in old age depends on their income and assets. The two major parties have a bipartisan policy to exempt the family home from the assets test.

As age increases, so does the percentage on the pension. Only 30 per cent of people in their late 60s are on a pension, so........

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