Taxpayers paid $4,500 for dead man's chair amid aged care delays
Deidre de Jonge was getting ready to bury her husband Gerrit the day she received a phone call she had been waiting on for months.
The $4,500 taxpayer-funded chair her late husband had so desperately needed finally arrived, two weeks after he died at his home in Townsville.
It now sits in the centre of the living room as a reminder to Ms de Jonge of her "battle" for federal government funding that was meant to support her husband final weeks and months at home.
The $4,500 lift chair was intended to assist Gerrit de Jonge stand and recline without muscle pain. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
"I absolutely hated it, I hated the chair because it arrived too late," she said.
"The only reason I've still got it is because my husband said we fought hard for it."
About 130 kilometres west of Ms de Jonge, Daryll Mulgrue has finished decorating a bookshelf with framed photos to remember her partner Geoff Small.
The 88-year-old died months before they were due to receive funding for his care at home.
Daryll Mulgrue cared for her partner Geoff Small before he died. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)
The aged care department has previously defended the aged care package arrangement, which said wait times are falling.
The department did not respond to requests for comment.
But advocates say the stories of Mr Small and Mr de Jonge are not uncommon in a system that is broken.
On June 30 this year, there were 107,000 people waiting for the federal government's home aged-care program Support at Home.
The figure does not include those receiving funding while they wait, which in March was 53,000 people.
Some of those appearing at a senate inquiry into the program this week are expected to describe a system that is failing and in need of reform.
Waiting for a chair
Ms de Jonge first applied for My Aged Care funding for her husband in October 2024 after they learned his oesophageal cancer was terminal.
Townsville man Gerrit de Jonge was told he had three months left to live in January. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
About 15 months later in January this year, the former mine worker was given less than three months to live and still had not received a cent in funding.
"His feet were so swollen that he could hardly walk," Ms de Jonge said.
"He used a walking stick around the house all the time, but he couldn't in those days."
Gerrit de Jonge was approved for the End of Life Pathway which meant up to $2,000 for assistive technology and up to $25,000 for approved services for 12 weeks.
The couple were able to hire a lift chair with the $2,000 but Mr de Jonge lived for longer than the 12 weeks and soon the funding for the chair ran out.
Deidre de Jonge's husband Gerrit de Jonge died in June. (ABC News: James Tugwell)
Ms de Jonge complained to My Aged Care in May and soon the couple was approved for their original Support at Home package and the purchase of a new chair.
Mr de Jonge died by voluntary euthanasia in late June.
And with his death, Ms de Jonge felt her complaints were suddenly dismissed.
When help never comes
Ms Mulgrue was the full-time career for partner Geoff Small as his health deteriorated over the final 10 years of his life.
And as she cared for him at their home on the outskirts of Charters Towers, she herself was going through chemotherapy for leukaemia.
Daryll Mulgrue was the full-time carer of her partner Geoff Small before he died in July. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)
"My life stopped and everything was for Geoff," she said.
"I was exhausted, absolutely exhausted."
In January, Mr Small was approved for complex care Support at Home funding and told the wait time was 12 months.
He died six months later at Charters Towers Hospital.
Geoff Small died at Charters Towers Hospital before funding for at-home care was ever received. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)
The 88-year-old never received his funding, so there was never a support worker to help with showering, dressing and continence management.
All that fell to Ms Mulgrue in the last months of her partner's life.
"It was horrible," she said.
"If I had some help, I perhaps wouldn't have been so exhausted."
More than 4,800 people died in 2024–25 while waiting for their approved home care funding.
The most recent federal aged care department data shows an average wait of about 10 months to access a Support at Home package.
About 390,000 people had received their package as of June.
There were 390,000 people with federal government Support at Home funding packages in place in June. (ABC News: Emily Anderson)
'People would be horrified'
The Older Persons Advocacy Network (OPAN) submission to a Senate inquiry into the program said temporary extra funding should be available to older people on the waiting lists.
Geoff Rowe speaks for OPAN and is chief executive of Aged and Disability Advocacy Australia.
"The system is still very broken," he said.
"If the general public were more aware about how broken the system is then they would be outraged.
"People would be horrified."
Geoff Rowe says the aged care at home funding system is broken. (ABC News: David Lewis)
He said cases like Ms Mulgrue and Ms de Jonge show the My Aged Care system was not allocating funding effectively.
"At the moment we see a system that is unable to deliver those necessary items of equipment in a timely manner," he said.
Mr Rowe said Support at Home packages cost a fraction of the price of hospital beds or residential aged care places.
"We know that when older people can't get the support that they need they end up in the hospital system, and that's worth about $2.5 million per bed per annum," he said.
"The more we invest at that low support — keeping people at home, keeping people independent — the more people we are going to be able to support."
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae did not provide a response before publication.
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