SAA Radio Adelaide Mornings with Leon Byner
E & OE
BYNER:
Now there are some significant changes in aged care that come into effect on July 1 which is next Tuesday. The changes in a nutshell are that there’s the removal of a distinction between high and low care, a new government website and call centre designed to increase transparency in the sector. And if you speak to anybody who’s had to help Mum or Dad into care they’ll tell you how difficult it is to find the information you need in one place. So let’s go through some of these with the Assistant Minister for Social Services Mitch Fifield. Mitch, thanks for joining us today. Why have we removed the distinction between first of all, high and low care, when there is obviously a profound difference.
FIFIELD:
Thanks Leon, good to be with you. The main reason for the removal of the distinction between high and low care is to give consumers greater choice. At the moment a bond can only be charged for people in low care, an accommodation bond. If you remove the distinction between high and low care we’re allowing providers to charge either a bond or a daily fee, or a combination of the two.
BYNER:
So it’s going to cost people more?
FIFIELD:
It will depend on people’s needs. But people will have greater choice as to how they pay for their accommodation. So they’ll be able to work out what’s best for them if an accommodation bond is best, if a daily fee is best, or a combination of the two. But importantly, residents will have 28 days to make that decision after they move into aged care.
BYNER:
Alright, now there’s a new government website and call centre which is supposed to give a one stop shop. Is it going to deliver that? Seriously?
FIFIELD:
I hope so and it’s not going to be something that’s static. It’s something that we’ll continually seek to improve. An important feature of the website is that providers are required to put their prices and product offerings onto the website. As you mentioned in your introduction, it can be very difficult for individuals and their families to navigate the maze, to compare what one provider is offering with what another provider is offering. So there will now be much more consumer information on that website. But it’s not only going to be a website, we know it’s important for people to actually be able to talk to a human being. So there is also a call centre that people can talk to, to seek advice as well.
BYNER:
There is new means testing arrangements for people entering care which are designed to ensure that people who have the capacity to contribute to the cost, do so. But this will increase the cost of aged care for those who have the capacity to contribute more won’t it?
FIFIELD:
Look in some cases it will, and part of the rationale is that with aged care there is much greater capacity to make provision and to plan for your later life than there is say in the circumstances of someone who has a significant disability. Often you acquire disability in unexpected circumstances or you’re born with one. I have both disability and ageing in my portfolio and I think it’s more reasonable to expect someone to make a contribution where they can afford to do so for their aged care and accommodation.
BYNER:
I suspect that there are a lot of people who would love to have their parents close by and sometimes if they’ve got a bungalow or area of their house they can use to look after their loved ones they’ll do that. And what brings me to that point is that we understand that there is going to be more home care packages, government funded that allow people to receive care in their own home. What’s the criteria for that?
FIFIELD:
Yes we’re going to have more home care packages. One of the things that often surprises people is that only about 5 per cent of Australians over the age of 65 actually live in residential aged care. People have a great desire to live in their home and I think that that trend is only going to increase. I think that we’ll see a rebalancing over time of people from residential care to home care. And there will be some new arrangements in terms of paying fees for home care. So for anyone coming in after the 1st of July, a service provider could ask you to pay a basic daily fee equivalent to 17.5 per cent of the single basic aged pension, and an income tested aged care fee if you’re income is over about $24,000. But I should emphasise that for part pensioners there will be a cap of about $5,000 a year that you can be asked to pay. And for self-funded retirees there will be a $10,000 cap.
BYNER:
I want to ask briefly about some budget initiatives. One of the things that I think upset a lot of people was that some of these rebates that people get for council rates or energy costs, the Federal Government would like to discontinue them but of course this has got to go through the Senate doesn’t it?
FIFIELD:
Well there is much that needs to pass through the Senate, Leon you’re right. What we’ve done here is that we’ve terminated the payments that we previously made to the States to assist them with offering concessions on State based services…
BYNER:
Why did you do that? Because you know full well the States have got one choice where they either find the money themselves, which puts them out of pocket, because of their budgetary position as is ours, they may not be able to fill that gap and therefore people miss out.
FIFIELD:
It was actually a fairly small component of the State and Territory concession budget that the Commonwealth supported. Nationwide the support that we provided represented about 10 per cent of the State and Territory concession budgets. It was only a small proportion, so we don’t think that the states need to alter their concession arrangements. We’ve taken the threshold decision that the Commonwealth should fund and provide concessions to Commonwealth programs and the States should fund and provide concessions to their programs. Now we would have preferred not to take this decision but due to the budget deficit that we inherited we’ve had to take some difficult decisions across a range of portfolios.
BYNER:
Isn’t this incumbent upon your budget getting past in the Senate? Because there is every chance a lot of this stuff is going to get picked off.
FIFIELD:
Look, you’re either a legislative pessimist or a legislative optimist. And I’m Manager of Government Business in the Senate so I am by nature a legislative optimist. We’ve got a new Senate coming in on the 1st of July and I think that Senators of different perspectives with good will can make this a very workable Senate.
BYNER:
But again, you can’t do that until you get the permission of the Senate though can you?
FIFIELD:
We are working hard across all areas to get our budget measures through the Senate.
BYNER:
I’m sure you are. Mitch Fifield before I let you go, these changes to aged care arrangements, they’re not retrospective are they?
FIFIELD:
That’s right Leon. It’s only for people who come into the aged care system from the 1st of July. People who are already in the aged care system can stay in their existing arrangements. But if someone thinks that they can have a better deal under the new arrangements, if they leave their current arrangements for 28 days they can come then back in under the new arrangements.
BYNER:
Okay, what’s your website address and your phone number?
FIFIELD:
The website is www.myagedcare.gov.au and the phone number is 1800 200 422.
BYNER:
Mitch Fifield, thank you, that’s the Assistant Minister for Social Services.