Older Australians lose independence as daily life moves online, with relatives filling the gap
BAILINGUP, Western Australia — For 72-year-old Wendy Trow, helping her 85-year-old sister stay afloat online has become part of daily life. As more services ...
BAILINGUP, Western Australia — For 72-year-old Wendy Trow, helping her 85-year-old sister stay afloat online has become part of daily life. As more services move to websites and apps, older Australians say they are losing a measure of independence and leaning on family, neighbours and retirement village staff to keep up.
Ms Trow lives next door to Majorie Jones in the small town of Balingup, and the role she has taken on is now familiar across the country. She helps her sister deal with online government aged care services and banking. It is a quiet, constant job.
“My sister is a very smart lady, but she's never used computers in her life, and so she just goes into a shell when she's required to do something,” Ms Trow said.
When cheques disappeared, the pressure rose
The strain sharpened when the bank stopped using cheques. That was, in Ms Trow’s words, the final straw for her sister. Banking had once been a familiar, physical routine. Now it sits behind screens.
“Her children are fantastic, but they don't live in Balingup, so it's fallen to me to do that,” she said. “Suddenly she had to give up her financial independence and trust me to do the right thing.”
That change carries more than inconvenience. For people who spent a lifetime handling their own money and paperwork, the shift can strip away confidence as well as access. A simple task can become a dependency. A bill. A login. A locked screen.
And then the waiting begins.
A growing burden on carers and neighbours
The digital divide has pushed responsibility onto the people around older Australians. In towns like Balingup, that often means a sister, a neighbour or staff in retirement villages stepping in when online systems become the only option.
Patricia Sparrow, chief executive of the Council on the Ageing Australia, says the divide is isolating older Australians. The peak body has been raising concern about the effect of services shifting online, especially for people who do not use computers and do not have nearby family to help.
For many, the issue is not a lack of intelligence or willingness. It is familiarity. Some older people have never needed to navigate digital banking, government portals or app-based services. When those systems replace face-to-face or paper options, the gap widens fast.
The consequences reach beyond convenience. They touch daily autonomy, money management and the ability to deal with essential services without asking for help. For older people who once lived entirely independently, that can be a hard adjustment.
Ms Trow’s sister is not alone, and the support network around her is doing the work that digital systems no longer do. The question now is how long that informal safety net can keep up as more everyday services move further online.
