Saturday 21 April 2012

Aged care reform 'fails to fix staffing shortfall

 Home Care subsidy package to be means tested from July 1, 2014; 'care fee' to be introduced.
Family home will be exempt from means testing.
Means testing to reduce government funding of package from 84 per cent to 76 per cent.
Recipients to pay basic fee of up to 17.5 per cent of the single basic pension.
Full pensioners won't pay care fee.
Indexed caps of $5000 and $10,000 will apply to care fees of part pensioners and self-funded retires respectively, together with lifetime indexed cap of $60,000.
Care fee cannot be greater than cost of care.
80,000 new home-care packages by 2021/22.
Annual government subsidy will range from $7500 to $45,000.
$880.1 million over next five years to expand home care.
On July 1, 2015, HACC Program, the National Respite for Carers Program, Day Therapy Centres and the Assistance with Care and Housing for the Aged Program will be consolidated under a new Home Support Program.
Home Care Support Program to focus on prevention and re-enablement.
$6.7 billion over five years for HACC Program for older people.
$3 billion over five years for joint state-commonwealth Home and Community Care Program in Victoria and Western Australia.


The reforms, announced on Friday, allocated $115 million each year to improve the pay and conditions of some of the lowest paid workers in the country. ''We should all have a Bex and good lie down before we think about the benefits that will deliver to the system,'' Martin Laverty, the chief executive of Catholic Health Australia, said.


There were about 300,000 aged care workers in Australia in 2010. About 100,000 are expected to retire over the next decade. The sector has a 25 per cent rate of staff turnover and is estimated to need 827,100 workers by 2050 - more than double the current aged care workforce.

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