Aged Care Accommodation Supplement to be finalised

The aged care accommodation supplement for significant refurbishment is an important mechanism to encourage greater investment in the market through incentives for residential aged care providers to build and refurbish their facilities.

The Government is committed to making this supplement available to aged care providers.

Since taking office, we have discovered we inherited a massive blow-out in the cost of the dementia supplement, due in large part to inadequate preparation and modelling before its introduction by the previous government.

We are seeking to avoid a repeat of this situation.

The sector has had the opportunity to have a say on the draft application form for the supplement.

Originally it was envisaged that providers would be able to apply for the supplement prior to, and receive payment from, 1 July 2014.

I recognise Government consideration of the sustainability of the supplement has slowed down the application process.

In light of this, I have taken a decision that all eligible applications received before 31 July will be able to have their supplement payments backdated to 1 July 2014.

The Government has an overriding duty to all taxpayers to ensure measures are managed within budget and we will continue to carefully monitor the efficacy and sustainability of all programs.