Early planning can take away a lot of the stress and uncertainty that can arise when considering aged care at home or a residential aged care facility.
Know what your options are
The first option that probably comes to mind is a residential aged care facility. These facilities provide accommodation and care depending on your personal needs. Care can range from personal care, such as help with showering and dressing, together with occasional nursing care to continuous nursing care for those with a greater degree of frailty.
What you may not realise, however, is that there are also Home Care Packages that provide access to services that can help you to stay at home for as long as possible. Support services may include cleaning, meal preparation and transport for shopping or appointments.
Start planning early
There are a number of reasons why you should plan ahead and well before the need for aged care is imminent. For example:
in many cases, the need to move into residential care can be sudden due to a serious illness or injury (eg a stroke, heart attack, or fall), or another unexpected event
it’s not uncommon to find there are significant waitlists for residential care, particularly at the more popular facilities, and
regardless of whether home or residential aged care is required, if you wait until the last minute to seek advice, you may not be able to minimise the fees you may have to pay and/or maximise the social security benefits you may receive.
Visit local facilities
Whether you currently need residential aged care or not, ideally you should plan to visit a range of facilities in your chosen area as soon as possible and, you may prefer to do this with family members.
Becoming familiar with the alternatives can enable you and your family to have meaningful conversations regarding your options and make more informed lifestyle and financial decisions.
Importantly, we can:
determine whether care in your preferred facility is affordable, and
potentially start restructuring your assets to improve your financial position.
Assess affordability
A range of fees may be payable when accessing care services. One of the key payments when moving into residential care is the accommodation payment. This payment:
is subject to certain limits
can be paid as a lump sum, in regular instalments, or a combination of a lump sum and regular instalments, and
is published on the facilities website and at myagedcare.gov.au for potential residents to consider.
The published amount will vary between facilities and, as a general rule, it will be higher for newer places because of the money recently outlaid on building or improving the accommodation, and for facilities in more affluent suburbs.
It’s therefore important to ensure you will have sufficient assets to pay the accommodation payment required to secure yourself a spot in your facility of choice when the time comes, as well as cover the ongoing aged care fees and your living expenses.
How can we help?
There are a range of strategies that can be used to reduce aged care fees. However, caution needs to be exercised to ensure you have enough money to afford the care you’d want. We can help you to address this complex issue.
We can also assist in many other ways. This includes helping to address your estate planning needs.
Disclaimer
This information is current as at 25/07/18. This article has been prepared by Heart1Stop, a social media brand owned by Heart Mortgage Services and Heart Financial Advisers. The information contained in this article is an overview or summary only and it should not be considered a comprehensive statement on any matter nor relied upon as such. The views expressed here are not those of Heart1stop, Heart Mortgage Services, Heart Financial Advisers, shareholders, directors or staff and associated contractors and business associates. This article has been prepared without taking into account any person’s objectives, financial situation or needs. Because of this, you should, before acting on any information contained in this article, consider its appropriateness, having regard to your objectives, financial situation or needs. Any taxation information contained in this article is a general statement and should only be used as a guide. It does not constitute taxation advice and is based on current laws and their interpretation. Each individual’s situation may differ, and you should seek independent professional taxation advice on any taxation matters. While the information contained in this article may contain or be based on information obtained from sources believed to be reliable, it may not have been independently verified. Where information contained in this publication contains material provided directly by third parties it is given in good faith and has been derived from sources believed to be accurate at its issue date. It is not the intention of Heart1Stop or Heart Mortgage Services and Heart Financial Advisers that this publication be used as the primary source of readers’ information but as an adjunct to their own resources and training. To the maximum extent permitted by law: no guarantee, representation or warranty is given that any information or advice in this publication is complete, accurate, up to date or fit for any purpose; and no party of Heart1Stop or associated entities as mentioned is in any way liable to you (including for negligence) in respect of any reliance upon such information. This article may also contain links to websites operated by third parties ("Third Parties") who are not related to Heart1Stop. These links are provided for convenience only and do not represent any endorsement or approval by us.