When an assessor visits an older person to work out their aged care, most families assume a human makes the decision. A major investigation has just revealed that increasingly, a computer does. The tool behind Support at Home assessments has come under scrutiny after reports of older Australians being denied the funding they need, with families describing a system that overrules what’s plainly visible in the room. Here’s the plain-language guide to what’s happening and what you can do about it.
What the Investigation Found
A Four Corners investigation, drawing on expert analysis, Senate estimates evidence and documents obtained under Freedom of Information, revealed the fullest picture yet of the algorithm shaping aged care decisions for tens of thousands of older Australians.
At its centre is an electronic questionnaire known as the Integrated Assessment Tool. A clinical assessor visits with a laptop, works through the questionnaire, and the tool plays a major role in determining the support a person receives. For some families, the results haven’t matched the reality in front of them.
“I was very worried about a computer making a decision on a human being,” one participant’s daughter, Jan Helgeland, said.
Her mother Audrey, who is losing her sight and desperate to stay in her home of 43 years, was assessed, and reassessed, with the algorithm twice declining more funding despite the family’s concerns.
Why Families Are Worried
The core fear is simple: that a standardised electronic tool can miss what a human in the room can see. When an assessor’s laptop questionnaire drives the outcome, the nuances of an individual’s real daily struggle, the things that don’t fit neatly into checkboxes, can get lost.
For older people like Audrey, the stakes are their independence and their ability to stay in their own homes. When the tool says no, families are left feeling that a computer has overruled obvious human need, and that the person who actually saw their loved one had limited power to change it.
The Government’s Response
The government defends the system as broadly working. The Minister for Aged Care pointed out that the number of review requests represented less than half a per cent of the more than 250,000 Australians assessed in the first half of 2026.
“No single system will get everything right, of course, so we need a robust review process,” Minister Sam Rae said, calling that half-a-per-cent review rate “relatively tolerable.”
That’s a fair point statistically, but it’s cold comfort to a family whose genuine need has been declined, and it underlines why knowing how to challenge a decision matters so much.
What You Can Do If You Disagree
Here’s the practical part. If you believe an assessment doesn’t reflect your or your loved one’s real needs, you can request a review or reassessment, and the existence of a review process is exactly why you shouldn’t accept a poor result quietly.
Prepare thoroughly. Before an assessment or reassessment, document the person’s hardest days in concrete terms, what they cannot do, what help they need, what goes wrong without support. Have a family member or advocate present who can describe what they actually observe, because people routinely understate their own struggles. And if the outcome still doesn’t match reality, ask about the review pathway and seek support from the Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN), which offers free, independent advocacy on 1800 700 600. Details on assessments are on My Aged Care.
For Families Managing a Parent’s Assessment
If you help manage a parent’s care, the assessment is where your involvement matters most. Be present if you can, describe the hard days plainly rather than letting your parent downplay them, and don’t treat the result as final if it’s clearly wrong. The families who push back with clear evidence of real need are the ones most likely to see decisions changed. A tool can decline funding, but a well-evidenced review is your genuine recourse.
The Bottom Line
An algorithm is quietly playing a major role in deciding older Australians’ aged care, and while the government says it mostly works, families denied genuine care are paying the price when it doesn’t. You are not powerless: assessments can be reviewed, strong evidence of real need matters, and free advocacy exists to help. If a decision doesn’t match the reality you see, prepare your evidence, get support, and challenge it. This is general information, not aged care, medical, legal or financial advice.
Epik Wire covers aged care in plain language for older Australians and their families. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay informed.
