Labor has accused the federal government of not working swiftly enough on the roll-out of Home Care Packages as almost 2000 Tasmanians wait for assistance suited to their needs.
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But the government has pointed out additional funding had allowed for reprioritsation of people waiting for the packages and the situation would have been worse under Labor's former home aged care plan.
Home Care Packages allow older people to live independently for as long as possible and are based on four levels of care.
A quarterly report on Home Care Packages was released this month and showed there were 721 new approvals in Tasmania for the specialised assistance between October and December.
This included 29 people at the lower end of the care spectrum and 187 people at the higher end.
The report showed there were almost 2000 Tasmanians awaiting approval for a care package at their approved level who had not been offered a lower package over the quarter.
This was despite 624 new packages being made available in the state over that time.
There were 2272 Tasmanians in receipt of Home Care Packages at the end of last year which represented 2.5 per cent of the number of packages available nationally.
Labor Senator Helen Polley said the report showed 128,000 Australians were waiting for tailored assistance nationally.
"There are vulnerable older Australians waiting more than 12 months for the package they have been approved for and some for more than two years," she said.
"People are actually passing away while they wait for adequate home care."
Council on the Ageing state chief executive Sue Leitch said the organisation was aware of people who had needed admission to residential care rather than accessing lower-level care packages.
"They are often eligible for higher level home care packages but cannot access the services," she said.
Ms Leitch said other older people waiting for Home Care Packages had relied on family support if available or paid for private support.
Aged Care Minister Ken Wyatt said the government had announced an additional 10,000 home care packages last month with allocations being made from February 12.
"This is in addition to the 10,000 high-level home care packages announced in December 2018, which are being released through to 30 June 2019, and the extra 14,000 high-level home care packages announced in the 2018-19 budget," he said.
Mr Wyatt said about 97 per cent of people waiting for a package at the end of last year been offered a lower-level package or were approved to access other support.
"The latest Department of Health projections show that under Labor's outdated home aged care plan, over 22,000 more senior Australians would be on the waiting list for home care this coming year," he said.
"This would include more than 20,000 missing out on level 3 and level 4 packages."
The Australian Greens on Tuesday announced it wanted to see funding for an additional 50,000 level 3 and 4 care packages over three years to address the waiting list.