Age Care Reforms Announced

On 20 April 2012, the Prime Minister and the Minister for Social Inclusion and Minister for Mental Health and Ageing, announced the ‘Living Longer Living Better’ plan, a 10-year plan beginning on 1 July 2012.

To make it easier for older Australians to stay in their home while they receive care, the Government will:

  • Increase the number of Home Care Packages- from 59,876 to almost 100,000     (99,669).
  • Provide tailored care packages to people receiving home care, and new funding for dementia care.
  • Cap costs, so that full pensioners pay no more than the basic fee.

To make sure more people get to keep their family home, and to prevent anyone being forced to sell their home in an emergency fire sale, the Government will:

  • Provide more choice about how to pay for care. Instead of a bond which can cost up to $2.6 million and bears no resemblance to the actual cost of accommodation, people will be able to pay through a lump sum or a periodic payment, or a combination of both.
  • Give families time to make a decision about how to pay, by introducing a cooling-off period.
  • Cap care costs, with nobody paying more than $25,000 a year and no more than $60,000 over a lifetime. This measure will not affect people already in the system.

To ensure immeditate improvements, the Government will also:

  • Increase residential aged care places from 191,522 to 221,103
  • Fund $1.2 billion to improve the aged care workforce through a Workforce Compact.
  • Provide more funding for dementia care in aged care, and more support for services.
  • Establish a single gateway to all aged care services, to make them easier to access and navigate.
  • Set stricter standards, with greater oversight of aged care.

Implementation of the reforms will be overseen by a new Aged Care Reform Implementation Council. The new reform package will be implemented in stages to enable providers and consumers to gain early benefits of key changes and have time to adapt and plan for further reform over the 10 years.

Home care

  • Home Care packages will increase from 59,876 to 99,669 over the next 5 years
  • Under new means-testing arrangements for Home Care packages, which will start from 1 July 2014, a consistent income test will be introduced. This will ensure that people of similar means pay similar fees – regardless of where they live – with safeguards for those who can least afford to pay.
  • The means test will not include the family home, which remains exempt.
  • People currently receiving a Home Care package will not be subject to the new arrangements while their current care continues.
  • In addition, to protect care recipients with higher than average care needs, an indexed annual cap of $5,000 for single people on income less than $43,000, and on a sliding scale of up to $10,000 for self-funded retirees, will apply to care fees. A lifetime care fee cap of $60,000 will be introduced.

Residential care

  • From 1 July 2014, the maximum accommodation supplement that the Government pays to aged care providers when people are unable to meet the cost of their accommodation will be increased from $32.58 to around $52.84 per day. As a result, the Government expect aged care places to increase from 191,522 to 221,103.
  • There will be more choice about how to pay for their care. Residents can pay for their accommodation in a lump sum, periodically, or a combination of both. A new cooling off period will mean that residents will not need to decide how they are going to pay until they have actually entered care.
  • From 1 July 2014, residential care means testing will be strengthened and improved. The treatment of the family home will not change from current arrangements.
  • An annual cap of $25,000 and a lifetime cap of $60,000 will apply to care fees.

Source: Hon Julia Gillard, Prime Minister & Hon Mark Butler, Minister for Social Inclusion & Minister for Mental Health & Ageing, Media Release.

 

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