Access to care and support services

• Unmet needs: proportion of people (aged 0-64 years) living in households who receive disability support who felt their needs were not being met
• Unmet needs: proportion of people (aged 65 years and over) living in households who receive aged care services and who felt their needs were not being met

• Quality: proportion of people with disability (aged 15–64 years) who were satisfied with the quality of assistance
• Quality: proportion of people (aged 65 years or over) living in households, who were satisfied with the quality of assistance

While there are many forms of care and support services in Australia, disability and aged care are two that many Australians will engage with at some time in their lives. Early childhood education and care is another important care and support service.

Measuring levels of unmet need, as well as client and carer satisfaction is a key source of insight into the extent to which Australians have access to these services.

In 2018, of those people living at home and receiving formal disability support or aged care services: 

• 37.5% of people with disability aged 15-64 years reported a need for more formal disability assistance than they were receiving
• 34.0% of people aged 65 years and over reported their need for assistance was not fully met.

More recent data comes from the 2022 Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers (SDAC). Outputs from this survey may not be comparable to the values listed above due to different population definitions and changes to the methodology regarding satisfaction with the quality of care received.

In 2022, of the 1.8 million people with disability aged 15-64 years (living in households) who needed assistance with at least one activity:

• 47.0% said their need was partly met
• 3.3% said their need was not met at all.

In 2022, of the 1.7 million people aged 65 years and over living at home who needed assistance with at least one activity:

• 43.5% said their need was partly met
• 4.2% said their need was not met at all.

In 2018, a large proportion of people were satisfied with the quality of care and support they received. This included:

• 76.6% of people aged 15-64 years who received formal disability support, consistent with the levels reported in 2015 and 2012 (78.7% and 79.5%)
• 84.4% of people aged 65 years and older who received formal aged care services, a decrease from the level reported in 2015 and 2012 (89.2% and 88.6%). 

In 2022, according to SDAC:

• about three quarters (76.8%) of people with disability (aged 15-64), living in households, who received formal assistance were satisfied with the quality of assistance provided from organised services
• 85.4% of people aged 65 years and older, living in households, who received formal aged care services were satisfied with the quality of assistance from organised services. 

Further information about access to care and support services can be found at the Productivity Commission Report on Government Services 2024 and the ABS Survey of Disability, Ageing and Carers 2022.

Disaggregation available includes:

• Age
• Sex
• Disability status
• Remoteness.