EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Ageing
Aged Care Act 1997
Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of pensioner supplement)
Determination 2008 (No. 2)
(ACA Ch. 3 No. 28/2008)
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.
All care recipients who meet the requirements of subsection 44-28(2) of the Act and who are not excluded under subsections 44-28(3), (5) or (6) of the Act are eligible for a pensioner supplement. This includes residents who receive an income support payment (but who have not agreed to pay a large accommodation bond), and residents with dependent children. Residents are also not eligible for a pensioner supplement while they fail to, or elect not to, provide information for the purpose of determining their total assessable income.
Subsection 44-28(7) of the Act provides that the Minister may determine, by legislative instrument, the amount of the pensioner supplement.
The amount of the pensioner supplement may also affect whether certain residents are eligible for the hardship supplement under section 44-30 of the Act. The amount of the pensioner supplement is used in the calculation of the income cap in section 21.37 of the Residential Care Subsidy Principles 1997, which specifies the classes of care recipients eligible for hardship supplement.
The Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of pensioner supplement) Determination 2008 (No. 2) (the Determination) commences 20 September 2008. The Determination revokes and replaces the Aged Care (Residential care subsidy – amount of pensioner supplement) Determination 2008 (the previous Determination).
The Determination contains a minor difference to the previous Determination in that the amount of the pensioner supplement has been increased from $6.64 for a particular day to $6.83.
The Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.
The pensioner supplement will be indexed on 20 March and 20 September each year to align with the indexation of the accommodation supplement.
Consultation
As the indexation of this supplement uses a well established formula for indexation, no specific consultation with industry was undertaken with respect to this instrument.