Mark Butler and Sam Rae have extended the program, which was set to end in the middle of next year. (ABC News: Matt Roberts)
The federal government has extended the Commonwealth Home Support Program for another two years.
The opposition has labelled the move an "embarrassing, overdue backdown from Labor in the face of overwhelming evidence".
The aged care minister said the intention was to keep the program separate from Support at Home on an ongoing basis.
The Commonwealth program helping older people with shopping, transport and meals on wheels will be extended until 2029, but the government has flagged its intention to make the program permanent beyond that.
The Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) provides low-level support to 830,000 seniors to help them live at home.
As part of major changes to the aged care sector, the program was due to be abolished in mid-2027 and rolled into the new Support at Home program. The new program is designed to provide a coordinated budget for more complex care, but critics have argued that the changes would make service delivery more expensive and less efficient.
Providers, including local councils, had also withdrawn services because of the uncertainty surrounding the program's future.
Aged Care Minister Sam Rae said the government was now also beginning consultation with a view to permanently keeping CHSP separate from Support at Home.
"We believe the CHSP should remain a standalone program," he said.
Mr Rae said it was important for the government to be looking at how it could use early intervention services like CHSP to take pressure off the rest of the ever-growing aged care system, which faces a shortage of beds and long waitlists.
He hoped the operators that had stopped providing services would return now they had certainty.
The program is designed to take pressure off the aged care system. (ABC News: Glyn Jones)
Health Minister Mark Butler said the CHSP program would require reform, though, because there was some overlap between it and the Support at Home program.
"There are differences in co-contribution arrangements that will have to be sorted," he said.
