On 12 September 2024, the Federal Government introduced the Aged Care Bill 2024 to parliament. If passed and made law, the bill would have a start date of 1 July 2025. This summary is intended to help war widows and families of veterans who access or will likely access aged care services. The summary provides an overview of the key changes, and the impacts of these changes.
What’s the impact?
If passed, the bill will replace the numerous aged care laws currently in place and centralise the system into one piece of law. Importantly, the government have confirmed that no person who currently access aged care services will be left worse off, and they will be grand parented into the new system. This means that if you currently receive aged care services, or are assessed for needing aged care services before 1 July 2025, the quality of service and amounts you pay will stay the same or improve.
Additionally, the bill is ‘rights-based,’ meaning the rights of people receiving aged care services are defined, the obligations of aged care providers and workers are defined, and the penalties and enforcement of ensuring these obligations are met and rights upheld are administered by the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.
Key changes
- We know that a proportion of our members access the Commonwealth Home Support Program (CHSP) or Restorative Care, which both provide at home care and support with household tasks. The CHSP and Restorative Care will be combined to form the ‘Support at Home Program’ which centralises entitlements in one program, while also increasing the amount and type of entitlements provided. This change will not be fully implemented until 2027.
- The lifetime contribution cap, meaning the maximum amount a person is expected to contribute to their care, is increasing from $80,000 to $130,000. This, like all other changes, does not impact people who are approved to receive aged care services before 1 July 2025.
- People who receive aged care services and have entitlements through holding a DVA Gold or White Card will still be able to access those entitlements. The new bill does not limit or prevent DVA Gold or White Card holders from continuing to receive existing entitlements.
Why is this being done?
Aged care is one of the largest and fastest-growing areas of government spending, and the demand for aged care will keep increasing as the population ages. At the same time, both major political parties and the aged care sector agree that existing levels of funding have not been sufficient to deliver the quality-of-care Australians expect. Further, the government is seeking to address recommendations made by the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety.
DVA aged care experience survey
Are you, or a family member accessing home and residential aged care services? DVA has recently published a survey which seeks to understand the experiences one might have accessing both home and residential aged care services.
The Accessing Aged Care Support Services Survey seeks to understand your individual experience accessing Aged Care services and supports, how the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) can help, and ideas for improvement.
The results will help them better understand how clients make decisions, find information and the pain points they experience during the process. The survey can be completed by veterans and veteran family members or another person on their behalf and is voluntary and anonymous.
You can find the survey here on DVA’s website.
