Last week, Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said there would be "no change" to the treatment of the family home in aged care means testing, indicating the value of the family home would remain at around $197,000 in the test, a fraction of the nearly $1 million median price of residential dwellings in Australia.
For the last two years, DCM has been advocating for Plan B, greater consumer contributions for aged care accommodation and daily living expenses, particularly to factor in the increased value of the family home, to make funding more equitable.
The current cap rate has been in place since 2014, 10 years ago.
We asked leading aged care experts: does continuing to cap the value of the family home for means testing pass the pub test?
Tracey Burton, Uniting NSW.ACT
To deliver an aged care system that meets the needs of seniors to age with dignity now and into the future as the population ages in a sustainable and fair way "requires people with significant means to contribute more to the cost of their care as well as the costs of daily living," Tracey Burton, Executive Director of Uniting NSW.ACT, told The SOURCE.
"Uniting NSW.ACT believes it is essential people with means contribute more to both these elements of our aged care system. We simply can’t leave it to the younger generation of taxpayers.
"The three things that need to change are the actual means testing formula, the yearly and lifetime caps on contributions to care, and the calculation of the Basic Daily Fee for those with means.
"Uniting eagerly awaits the release of the Aged Care Taskforce report and is hopeful these three important reforms are included and will be embraced by Government.”
Cam Ansell, Ansell Strategic
In last year's National Care and Support Economy Strategy, the Federal Government committed to having a responsible conversation about how we fund aged care as the Baby Boomers enter the system, including reasonable consumer contributions, Cam Ansell, Managing Director of Ansell Strategic, told The SOURCE.
"If they continue to avoid that conversation for political motives, aged care services will be inadequate for older Australians and unaffordable for a shrinking taxpayer base."
Grant Corderoy, StewartBrown
"Increasing the value of the family home will not alter the overall funding dynamics to any great extent," Grant Corderoy, Senior Partner with aged care accountancy experts StewartBrown, told The SOURCE.
"The assets test is used to determine the Means-tested Care fee which is in relation to the cost of providing direct care services but not everyday living and accommodation services. As it is an offset to the AN-ACC subsidy (by reducing the subsidy) it does not change the funding for care delivery or the financial sustainability of the sector," he said.
