EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Aged Care (Residential Care Subsidy – Amount of Concessional Resident Supplement) Determination 2010 (No. 2)
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 44-6(4) of the Act provides that the Minister may determine, by legislative instrument, the amount of the concessional resident supplement.
The concessional resident supplement is a daily amount that is paid to services for each concessional resident and assisted resident occupying a place in the service.
A concessional resident is a person who is a pre-2008 reform resident and who is considered unable to afford to pay an accommodation bond or an accommodation charge or otherwise meets the requirements of section 44‑7 of the Act. An assisted resident is a person who is a pre-2008 reform resident and who can only afford to pay a small accommodation bond or a small accommodation charge or otherwise meets the requirements of section 44-8 of the Act.
The purpose of the Aged Care (Residential Care Subsidy – Amount of Concessional Resident Supplement) Determination 2010 (No. 2) (the Determination) is to set the concessional resident supplement rate for concessional and assisted residents with effect from 20 September 2010. This Determination also revokes Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of concessional resident supplement) Determination 2010 (No. 1).
The difference between the Determinations is that the amount of concessional resident supplement for a day has been increased in accordance with increases in the consumer price index (CPI) as a measure of movements in the non-labour costs of providers.
Consultation
The Department of Health and Ageing undertook extensive consultation on the policy, which included policy on increases in the rates of supplements, that was implemented through the Aged Care Amendment (2008 Measures No. 1) Act 2008 and related instruments.
Further consultation was undertaken as part of the Review of the Conditional Adjustment Payment and is ongoing in relation to funding arrangements.
Indexation of the supplement uses a well established formula based on the CPI as a measure of the movements in the non-labour costs of providers. As this is in accordance with policy upon which extensive consultation was undertaken, no specific consultation was undertaken with respect to this instrument.
Information about the increase in the amount of the supplement will be disseminated via print and electronic media to approved providers.
The Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.