Income free area

If a single person receiving a pension of $877 approx moves into residential care.
Therefore their income doesn’t exceed the INCOME FREE AREA of $25792.
Does this mean they have to pay 1st level of the INCOME TESTED CARE FEE of $14.30/day with yearly max of $5,208.20 or do they not have to pay this fee?

Hi WalMac, Danni Dixon from Affinity Aged Care Financial Services has responded to your question as follows: Just to clarify the types of fees that a person may be asked to pay when in residential aged care vs home care. Where a person moves into residential care, from 1 July 2014, they may be asked to pay the following fees: Accommodation Payment (either in the form of a lump sum or daily payments)Basic daily fee- which is currently $49.07 per day is payable by all residents Means Tested Care fee- which is based on a persons assets and income and is currently capped at $26,380.51 per annum Extra services or additional services- set by the facility Where a person receives Home Care, they may be asked to pay the following fees: Basic Daily Fee which is currently $10.10 per day and payable by all Home Care recipients Income Tested Care fee which based upon a persons assessable income. Where a persons assessable income (including the age pension) does not exceed the Income Free Thres0pa) they are not liable to pay an income tested care fee. Once a persons assessable income exceeds the income free threshold they will be liable to pay and Income Tested Care Fee. Up to $14.49 per day capped at $5,276.08 pa where their income is over the Income free area but less that the upper income threshold (currently $50,455.60pa single)Up to $28.98 per day capped at $10,552.18 pa where their income is over the upper income threshold. I hope that helps.

Hi WalMac,
Apologies for delay in response. We have been receiving a lot of spam and your post got caught up in that! In residential care it is both Assets and Income that will determine your income tested fee. For example if you own a house with no dependents living there it will be included in your assets and is capped to the value of $159,631.20. Financial assets are also deemed as income. Use our Aged care fee estimator on this website to help you work out your individual situation. Aged Care Fee Estimator | agedcare101
regards Jill