Does “Support at Home” meet the needs of Autistic elders?

By Helen Said, Autistic advocate, Melbourne Australia

In November 2025, the Australian government introduced a new system of providing care for elders who live in their own homes. Over the past month and a half, I have been comparing the “Support at Home” granted to my mother, who has just received aged care funding, with the services previously granted to my late father, who was funded under the old system of aged care packages.

 As an older Autistic advocate, I have also been pondering how well these new services will meet the needs of Australian Autistic elders living in their own homes. I have attended online Autistic discussions and forums about the needs of elder neurokin, and even been an elder guest speaker. However, neither our speeches nor discussions addressed the specifics of government services provided to elder Autistics living in their own homes in Australia. 

 Elders to have more rights, less services and increased costs

A few months ago, shortly before the introduction of “Support at Home”, I attended a public forum in our municipality, where the new Aged Care Act and funding packages were discussed by Minister for Aged Care and Seniors, The Hon Sam Rae MP. After describing the elders’ rights enshrined in the new Act, Mr Rae stressed that nobody who currently received aged services in the home would be moved onto the new system. Why not, I wondered….

 I quickly intuited that these enhanced seniors’ rights were to be accompanied by reduced services and increased costs to elders entering the new Support at Home system. At the time, my mother was just about to be granted her aged care package funding. She had been assessed for aged care services shortly after my father died, and although she had been approved, there was a wait of many months before funding was granted. Mum was among the first elderly Australians to be granted Support at Home under the new system, and she just used her first service yesterday.

 Home services like gardening that used to be free to people receiving the full aged pension will now be billed to pensioners at 17.5% of total costs, and only a limited service is available under the new Support at Home scheme. Other services like transport will be billed to pensioners at a rate of 5%, while medical care remains free. So why the changes?

 Ageist employers cost Australian taxpayers

It is often argued that our ageing society is a burden on our aged care workforce and government expenditure, implying that it’s our fault since we are living too long. Unlike more traditional societies where elders are the leaders and the keepers of wisdom, in our ageist society, elders are often seen as valueless.

 Employers routinely discriminate against older job seekers and employers but have rarely been prosecuted under Human Rights legislation. Instead of adapting their expectations and job roles to fit skilled and experienced older workers, many employers decide it is high time they retired and actively try to get rid of older workers. Older people who lose their jobs are fearful of never working again because “who will hire me at my age?” It is clear that anti-ageism legislation needs to be stronger and the government needs to introduce quotas to employ a minimum number of senior workers. Similar measures are also needed to tackle rampant unemployment amongst Autistics.

 Who pays for employers’ ageism? You do, through your taxes. Older people who lose jobs become dependent on welfare payments, funded by your taxes. Their physical and mental health often declines without adequate stimulation and income, making them more reliant on taxpayer subsidised services. And by losing jobs in middle age, they have less chance to earn superannuation and will need further government help later on.

 If the government doesn’t have enough money to continue wrap-around, fully subsidised aged care services, then maybe tackling employers’ ageism is the answer. More older people in the workforce means that more older people can pay taxes to help fund the services that older people need.

 Shopping arrangements less suited to Autistic elders

In entering the Aged Care Services Agreement, it became apparent that service providers were still trying to wrap their heads around what is or isn’t approved for aged care funding under the new scheme. We had an inquiry which my mum’s Care Partner (formerly called a Case Manager) investigated. Last year, while Dad was alive, the aged care package paid for online supermarket shopping home delivery. We found out that this subsidy has now been removed and older people need to pay the fee themselves.

 Why wouldn’t aged care services pay for the home delivery of groceries, yet they will provide a support worker to drive an older person to the supermarket and take them shopping? Obviously, the government would save big money by encouraging older people to shop for groceries online, with Woolworths Delivery Unlimited costing only $119 per year, whereas escorting an older person to and from the shops and around the shops could easily cost the government well over $119 per fortnight!

 I think one of the reasons is that the government hasn’t properly considered the need to improve elders’ digital literacy, to enable many of them to shop from home, and ultimately save the government money in escorting elders to and from shops and around the shops. Improving digital literacy would also help protect elders from scams and make them less reliant on Centrelink staff and other advocates, which would also represent another saving for the government.

 Another reason for the government to favour in person grocery shopping, over online grocery shopping, is to protect elders’ ability to move around, get out of the house and go to the shops. This is a very important activity for many elderly people, but it is often not favoured by Autistics. Many Autistics experience sensory overwhelm within busy supermarkets and find grocery shopping unpleasant and exhausting. Some Autistics, who bult a life around enjoying solitude, might be less comfortable with support worker shopping. For the Autistic minority, online shopping and meetings have been a game-changer.  

 Providing subsidised shopping opportunities that typically assist neurotypical shoppers, but removing subsidies that favour typically Autistic shoppers…. could this be the tip of the iceberg when it comes to overlooking the needs of Autistic elders? I intend to keep a close eye on where the gaps might be in the Support at Home scheme, and to keep demanding Autistic elder co-production. But don’t leave it all up to me; everyone needs to use their voices.

 $119 per year might not seem like much for pensioners to pay, but this lump sum payment could be challenging for some pensioners. Paying by the month would cost Woolworths shoppers $15 each month, or a total of $180, ripping off poorer pensioners by $61 per year. On top of this, pensioners only get shopping delivery if they order over $75 worth of groceries, which is a lot to fork out for a struggling single pensioner paying rent.

 Online shopping could present more expenses if, say, an AuDHD pensioner forgot to order butter to bake a birthday cake – if they can’t shop independently, they would then have to order an additional $75 worth of groceries and pay an additional $10 fee for “Delivery Now” charges, to get the butter delivered within 2 hours. Now here’s where a thoughtful aged care service, and a less profit driven monopoly of supermarkets, could make a difference – they could possibly fund special “Delivery Now” fees for neurodivergent elders or elders with cognitive decline, who forgot a to buy a particular item, without the requirement for elders to make the extra order up to the $75 minimum.

 Keeping people socially active VS maintaining Autistic passions

We’ve all heard that social connection maintains our mental function and older people need “5 good friends”. But, as an Autistic, I would prefer to have 3 good friends and 2 strong passions. Five friends would talk too much and stop me using my brain, so I would prefer to swap the 2 noisier ones for Autistic passions (special interests) that help change the world, like advocacy and backyard vegetable gardening. This is in line with recent research which credit “grandma hobbies” for longevity.

 Maintaining social connection seems to be a high priority in aged care service provision, whereas hobby engagement seems to be more hit and miss. Elders can have a support worker to keep them company, and thoughtful aged care services might try to match you up with someone who shares your hobbies or interests, but this isn’t guaranteed.

 The common Autistic preference for animal company also doesn’t seem to attract aged care funding, for example, repairing an animal enclosure or fence, or planting cat grass etc seem to be classed under home owners’ expenditure, whereas you could get easily get a support worker to take you to a senior’s social event, which are typically geared around neurotypical social styles and interests.

 It’s clear that the people who drafted the National Autism Strategy, and the people who drafted the new Aged Care Act haven’t spoken to each other about the needs of neurodivergent elders. It is not too late to tweak either one of these policy directions, but it won’t happen without community consultation. Intersectional issues need to become a priority, and not just a buzz word.