EXPLANATORY STATEMENT
Issued by the authority of the Minister for Social Services
Aged Care Act 1997
Aged Care (Residential Care Subsidy – Amount of Respite Supplement)
Determination 2013 (No. 2)
The Aged Care Act 1997 (the Act) provides for the regulation and 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 44-12(3) of the Act provides that the Minister may determine, by legislative instrument, the amount of the respite supplement.
The respite supplement is an additional daily amount that is paid to residential care services for each eligible care recipient being provided with respite care through the service on that day. All care recipients who meet the requirements of subsection 44-12(2) of the Act are eligible for the respite supplement.
The purpose of the Aged Care (Residential Care Subsidy – Amount of Respite Supplement) Determination 2013 (No. 2) ‘the Determination’ is to set the amount of respite supplement with effect from 20 September 2013. This Determination also revokes Aged Care (Residential Care Subsidy – Amount of Respite Supplement) Determination 2013 (No. 1).
Consultation
Routine indexation of the supplement uses a well-established formula based on the consumer price index (CPI) as a measure of the movements in the non-labour costs of providers. As this is in accordance with the general policy for indexation of aged care payments upon which extensive consultation was undertaken, no specific consultation was undertaken with respect to this indexation.
Information about the increase in the amount of the supplement will be disseminated via electronic media to approved providers.
This Determination commences on 20 September 2013.
The Determination is a legislative instrument for the purposes of the Legislative Instruments Act 2003.