The government has maintained it has not reduced funding but will review individual cases to ensure they are not adversely affected by the new arrangements.

Stroke victim Margot Harker, of O'Connor, started her petition on change.org eight days ago and already has more than 23,000 supporters.

She says she would rather commit suicide than go into a nursing home, something she fears will be the ultimate result of the funding changes.

"I'd probably kill myself before that. It's an appalling decision to make," she said.

The 68-year-old historian is referring to new funding arrangements which come into place from July 1 for people who receive in-home care.

Recipients will be moved from federally-funded Home Care Packages to a program called Consumer Directed Care. The funding will come as individual packages rather than as block funding to service providers, leading some recipients to fear they will receive less funding and fewer hours of care.

Assistant Minister for Social Services Senator Mitch Fifield said funding had not been reduced but he would review the complaints.

"I'm going to put in place a system to assess, on a case-by-case basis, circumstances where people have been told they are going to get less than they were getting before, which shouldn't be the case," he told ABC Brisbane 612.

Ms Harker, whose left side was paralysed by the stroke in 2011, has carers come into her home for 90 minutes in the morning and for an hour at night to help her dress, undress and to help prepare meals.

Her service provider has told her that under the new arrangements, she will either have to pay $2185 a month, cut her hours or move into a nursing home.

Ms Harker said she could not afford the extra costs or remain in her home on reduced hours. She could also not contemplate leaving her home, which has been modified for her use.

Her home meant "everything to me; it's my independence".

"I've made it a beautiful nest," she said. "I can play music and the grandchildren can come and run around and destroy the joint and I'm good with that. I've got my cat and my garden."

Ms Harker said she spent three months in a nursing home while waiting for her unit to be modified and had to lock her door day and night because of dementia patients entering her room.

"I felt like I was in jail," she said.

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW adviser Charmaine Crowe said under the current arrangements, service providers used the block funding to "cross-subsidise" clients, particularly those in the highest-care need category such as Ms Harker.

Ms Crowe said there were estimates as many as 20 per cent of care recipients would receive fewer hours and be forced into nursing homes under the changes.

She said that would not save the government money when it paid subsidies of about $56,000 a year on each nursing home resident compared to about $40,000 for the highest level of in-home care recipient.

"It is far cheaper for the government to provide these home care packages and give people the care they need in their homes than it is to have them in a nursing home," Ms Crowe said.

Senator Fifield said the new system would be fairer as money would be attached to the individual rather than the service provider.

"Previously, because there was no transparency, what some aged care providers were doing was taking money from one person's package and topping up another person's package. So what that means is someone was getting less than they should have been and someone else was being topped up," he said.

Ms Harker welcomed the government being open to a review but said it was too soon to determine whether it would result in adequate funding.

"It's too early to claim total success, but it is a very good first step on the way to a more humane, rational and economically viable outcome," she said.

Ms Harker can allow herself at least one bit of wry humour – she has achieved her goal of more than 22,000 supporters for her change.org petition because she wanted to beat a "Save Johnny Depp's Dogs" petition which attracted almost 22,000 supporters.

"And I think I'm more important than Johnny Depp's dogs, as much as I love dogs," she said.

Ms Harker said her petition was running at about 1000 supporters in the initial days when it virtually overnight went up by 10,000 supporters and beyond.

Change.org campaigns director Nathan Elvery confirmed the organisation did alert people on its 2.5 million database to various petitions based on what they had signed previously. He said change.org did highlight Ms Harker's petition but that was a routine practice and was not based on any political bias.