Hello, I am very new this whole situation and any help would be very appreciated.
I have recently taken over as power of attorney and guardian for my uncle with Dementia.
He is now in aged care and I organsied an income and assets assessment which has come back. He does not have very much money and they have still determined that he will be on the highest possible rate. On this rate he will only be able to afford 3 years.
My question is how often do I need to do another income and assets assessment to get this fee reduced. Do I have to do them or does the aged care facility update this? Also wondering what this figure needs to be in order for him to be considered concessional / low fee.
Hi Steve 2323,The government deems that a person has to have total assets under $48,500 in order to get full financial support for their aged care costs. However even those people who are fully government supported are still required to pay the basic daily fee which is 85% of the age pension.With regards to the income and test you will have to do this on your uncle’s behalf as aged care homes do not do so. As your uncle’s assets decline the means testd fee that he will be required to pay will reduce so perhaps it is worth doing the assest test annually.We are unable to give financial advice on this website but we highly recommend that people get independent financial advice from an aged care financial specialist who can give good advice in these situations. Two advisers that we recommend are Affinity Aged Care Financial Services and Sydney Aged Care Financial Advisers. Both are based in Sydney but have offices nationally.I hope this helpsThe agedcare101