EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of
accommodation charge top-up supplement) Determination 2008
The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the funding of aged care services. Persons who are approved under the Act to provide residential aged care services (approved providers) can be eligible to receive residential care subsidy payments in respect of the care they provide to approved care recipients.
Subsection 44-16(1) of the Act provides that the Residential Care Subsidy Principles 1997 (the Principles) may provide for additional primary supplements.
Section 21.25D of the Principles describes the ‘accommodation charge top-up supplement (ACTUS), which is an additional primary supplement. The section also describes the circumstances in which the ACTUS is payable.
Certain residents who receive an income support payment have their accommodation charges capped under subsection 23.81P(6) of the User Rights Principles 1997 at a lower rate than that for residents who do not receive an income support payment.
These residents are post-2008 reform residents who entered care (or re-entered care with a break in residential care as defined in subsection 44-5D(2) of the Act of more than 28 days) after 19 March 2008 and before 20 September 2008. For those residents who are re-entering care after 19 March 2008, they must also have first entered a residential care service for the provision of residential care (other than respite care) after 30 June 2004.
These residents are paying less in accommodation charges than the applicable maximum rate set out in step 1 in section 4 of the Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of accommodation supplement) Determination 2008. Depending on the resident’s assets, the accommodation supplement will go some way (and in some cases, all the way) towards making up this gap. However, in some cases the accommodation supplement will not equal the gap between the applicable maximum rate and the maximum daily accommodation charge that can be paid by the resident. The ACTUS seeks to remove any potential disadvantage to approved providers who are providing care to these residents by paying the provider the ACTUS.
Subsection 44-16(3) of the Act provides that the Minister may determine in writing the amount of additional primary supplements or the way in which the amount of the supplement is to be worked out.
The ACTUS is equal to the applicable maximum rate, less the amount of accommodation supplement paid for the care recipient for the day, less $19.56 (which is the maximum daily accommodation charge set out in subsection 23.81P(6) of the User Rights Principles 1997). In many cases, because of the assets of the care recipient, this amount will be negative. In this case, subsection 4(2) of the Determination provides that the ACTUS will be $0.00. In the remainder, the ACTUS, when added to the maximum daily accommodation charge payable by the resident and the accommodation supplement, will equal the applicable maximum rate.
This Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.