Co-payments for aged care services, such as showering, dressing and continence care, will be scrapped from October 1.

Aged Care Minister Sam Rae says the changes will provide more help in aged care.

As of October 1, older Australians will no longer face out-of-pocket costs for help with these services under changes the Albanese government will make to the Support at Home aged care program.

As part of the upcoming federal budget, these essential personal care services will be moved to the scheme’s clinical care category.

“Showering, dressing, continence care – these aren’t optional extras, they’re the basics of ageing with dignity and no older Australian should miss out because of cost,” Mr Rae said.

“Older Australians, their families and providers told us these services needed to be protected. We’ve listened and we’re acting.”

Health, Ageing and NDIS Minister Mark Butler will outline further details on the aged-care package during his address to the National Press Club – where he is expected to announce sweeping changes to the NDIS – later on Wednesday.

Greens will not back NDIS reforms

Ahead of Mr Butler’s speech, Greens leader Larissa Waters criticised the government for targeting the NDIS as part of its efforts to rein in spending.

“Our system of care is being diminished, while Labor wastes billions on (defence pact) AUKUS and let the 1 per cent opt out of paying their fair share,” she wrote.

“The Greens will not support Labor trying to balance the budget off the back of disabled people.

“Taking from disabled people to give to people in aged care is a cynical political exercise from Labor.

“Pitting people who genuinely need care against each other while leaving $17 billion in the pockets of gas corporations they’re too cowardly to tax is shameful.”

NDIS ‘design’ problem: McKenzie

Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie said earlier the NDIS was suffering from a “design problem” and must be addressed as more than just a “cost-shifting exercise”,

The NDIS was introduced by the Gillard Labor government in 2013 and is a taxpayer-funded service that supports Australians living with disability. It costs $50bn per year and is expected grow to $100bn within a decade.

Senator McKenzie told Seven’s Sunrise the opposition was committed to working with the government “to get the NDIS under control”, ensuring it was sustainable into the future and delivered the essential services needed by Australians with a severe and permanent disability.

She claimed the majority of NDIS providers were unregistered, leading to compliance and standards issues, and said the system was rife with “rorting”.

“Even the NDIS itself said 10 per cent of claims were non-compliant, and that means that’s $5bn, that’s their own assessment,” she said.

“So we need to get it on sustainable footing. It’s a design problem, but it can’t just be a cost-shifting exercise from the government back onto states. It needs to fix the problem at its heart, which is around design.”

Earlier, Labor MP Josh Burns told the same program that the government had no choice in reforming the program.

“The reason why we have to is because the NDIS is there for people with a severe disability, a permanent disability, and it needs to be there for the future,” he said.

“I mean, if we if we don’t do anything, if we let it just grow, it’s going to be the biggest government program, the most expensive thing government does in Australia, and it’s just not sustainable, so it needs to be there for the future.”

The ballooning NDIS cost has made it a key area of focus in efforts to rein in federal spending, with Treasurer Jim Chalmers describing the scheme as one with the Albanese government’s wholehearted support but also “a really big part of our pre-budget deliberations”.