New home care package recipients and assessment contractors are suffering because the myagedcare gateway is struggling under the new referral regime that kicked off 1 July 2015.

Since then 11,300 new clients have been referred to the 13 new Regional Assessment Service Contractors (RAS), well below expectations.

Blue Care reports that in QLD they have only received 10% of referrals they had expected, down to 3.5% in the NT. They had staffed up for full volume.

The Department of Social Services has increased the contact staff to 250 people and the number of referrals for assessment has grown from 200 today to 1200 per day. DSS states it will be fully functional by mid September.