A Senate estimates hearing has heard 86 challenges to aged care assessment decisions were deemed unsuccessful after reaching the statutory deadline, while officials were unable to immediately account for hundreds of other applications.
Eighty-six challenges to aged care assessment decisions were automatically rejected after the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing failed to determine them within the statutory 90-day deadline, leaving the original decisions standing.
The figure emerged during Senate estimates on Wednesday afternoon, when departmental officials were questioned about the reconsideration process for older Australians dissatisfied with the outcomes of their aged care assessments.
Department assistant secretary Robert Day told the committee that 2208 applications for reconsideration had been received between 1 November 2025 and 30 June 2026.
Of those, 1571 had been finalised as at 21 September, with 436 resulting in a changed decision.
Another 286 original decisions were upheld, 467 applications were withdrawn and 297 were found to lack legal standing.
Mr Day said 86 applications had been deemed affirmed because the department had reached the statutory 90-day deadline without determining them.
“The act says that when you get to 90 days, the act is deemed to have been affirmed,” he told the committee.
Opposition health and aged care spokesperson Senator Anne Ruston pressed Mr Day to explain what had happened to the 637 applications that remained unresolved on 21 September, questioning whether they had also exceeded the statutory deadline.
Mr Day said the department could pause the 90-day clock when it requested additional information from an applicant.
“The department has the capacity to request further information from the individual,” he said.
“The clock is paused for the period from the time that we send the request for further information until we receive a response from that individual.”
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Senator Ruston challenged the department’s figures.
“Your advice is not easily reconciled,” she said.
“How many of the 2208 applications for review were finalised within the statutory 90 days? Not how many are resolved now, but how many were resolved within the statutory 90 days?”
Mr Day said the outstanding applications would either have been finalised since 21 September or remained subject to requests for further information.
He agreed to take questions on notice about their status.
Senator Ruston also sought a breakdown of the 297 applications deemed to lack legal standing.
Mr Day said these included challenges to decisions that were not reviewable, applications lodged outside the statutory 28-day period, and applications made by someone other than the older person or their legal guardian.
He said extensions to the 28-day deadline had been granted in approximately 130 cases.