My mother has moved into an aged care facility. The RAD is $550,000. We have just sold her house and after paying off a reverse mortgage, she will only have $385,000 to pay toward the RAD. She has no other assets and is on the pension.
Until the house settles her daily payments are$75 DAP + $51 daily fee (much more than her pension of $66/day).
After the house settles her daily payments will be $23 DAP + $51 daily fee (again, more than her pension of $66/day).
She had an Income & Assets assessment before she went into aged care. As her assets are above $169,000 she doesn’t get a government funded place.
However, I don’t understand how she is to afford it without government assistance given she can’t pay the full accommodation deposit. Is there government assistance in this scenario?
Hi awoods,
The purpose of the Income and Assets assessment is to give you the exact contribution that the government is prepared to make towards your aged care costs and as you have identified, because your mother has assets above $169,079.20, she will need to pay for her accommodation. I am not able to give financial advice and due to the complexities of aged care funding we always advise you get specialist aged care financial advice to ensure you make the best decision about how to fund your mother’s ongoing fees. However a couple of suggestions you may think about discussing with the aged care home: Accommodation costs can vary depending on the type of room you choose and if you can negotiate on the price with the home. Perhaps your mother could pay less RAD eg $250,000 and then pay the balance in a DAP from the remaining proceeds from her house sale? The advantage as I see it would be that whilst the DAP would increase it would free up funds for your mother to use. Keep in mind that only the RAD componentfully refundable - the DAP is not.It may be worth asking the home if you can put in the contract a provision that you can draw down on the RAD in the future if your mother requires more funds. Whilst the aged care home should be able to help you with this you can also call the Department Human Services at their Income and Assets contact centre on 1800 227 475.
Regards,
Jill