Depending on your financial situation, you may be asked to pay part, or all, of your residential aged care fees if it your income and assets allow you to do so.
The fees for aged care you may be required to pay include:
- A Basic Daily Fee
- A Means-Tested Care Fee
- Accommodation Fees
- Additional Optional Services Fees
Anyone seeking to gain government assistance for aged care accommodation fees are required to have both their income and assets assessed by Centrelink.
How the Centrelink Asset Assessment for Aged Care Accommodation Works
Your income and assets assessment test will be carried out by the Department of Human Services or the Department of Veteran’s Affairs and will determine how much assistance you are eligible to receive from the Australian Government.
Your assessable income includes:
- Government Income Support Payments – Aged Pension, Service Pension or Income Support Supplement
- Income From Financial Investments – Deemed, Not Actual
- War Widow or Widower Pensions
- Net Business Income
- Net Rental Property Income
- Family Trust Distributions
- Dividends From Private Company Shares
- Some Disability Pensions
- Deemed Income From Excess Gifting
- Superannuation and Overseas Pensions, and Income From Income Stream Products Such as Annuities and Allocated Pensions
Your assessable assets include:
- Bank, Building Society and Credit Union Accounts
- Cash
- Term Deposits
- Cheque Accounts
- Friendly Society Bonds
- Managed Investments
- Listed Shares and Securities
- Loans and Debentures
- Shares in Unlisted Public Companies
- Gold and Other Bullion
- Household Contents and Personal Effects
- Foreign Assets Including Investments, Business Interests and Real Estate
- Investment Property
- Special Collections Such as Stamps, Art Works or Antiques
- Private Trusts, Family Trusts and Private Companies
- Net Retirement Village Entry Contributions
- Refundable Deposits Paid for Accommodation in an Aged Care Home
- Gifts Over $10,000 in One Financial Year or $30,000 Over Five Financial Years
To begin your assessment you will need to first lodge a request for a combined assets and income assessment form (SA457) after which you will receive a notice of residential aged care advice for your situation, valid for the following 120 days.
You can choose to lodge your request for asset and income assessment prior to moving into an aged care facility if you wish. However, the Department of Human Services or Department of Veteran affairs must be notified of any changes in your financial situation. Depending on the changes to your situation you may be sent revised fee advice or asked to submit another assessment form.
If you are a couple seeking government assistance, it is important to know that you will be assessed on half of your combined income and assets, regardless of who owns the assets.
Part 2: What You’ll Need to Pay
The amount you will be asked to pay for aged care accommodation depends on the results of your Centrelink assets assessment.
Depending on your assessment results, you will be placed into either one of the three following categories:
- No Accommodation Fees
- Contributions to Your Accommodation Fees
- Full Payment of Your Accommodation Fees
If at any time you are unable to pay your aged care accommodation fees due to financial hardship you can apply for financial hardship assistance. If this is the case the Australian Government will pay your fees in part or on full.
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Financial hardship assistance will aid in covering your basic daily fee, means-tested care fee and accommodation, but will not contribute to any optional extra service fees.
If you have any concerns about aged care call us on 1300 944 011 to speak to an expert aged care consultant.
Hi, I hope you found this article useful.
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Thanks - Shane
