The aged care accountants say the fee should be floated so its value can change in response to consumers’ ability to pay and any market conditions that might create “competition or price tension”.
The basic daily fee goes towards day-to-day living costs such as meals, cleaning, laundry, heating and cooling. The maximum basic daily fee is fixed at 85% of the single person rate of the basic Age Pension and indexed twice a year in March and September. It’s currently sitting at $48.44 per day.
StewartBrown Director Patrick Reid is backing his argument by pointing to the gap between the cost of a client’s living expenses and the daily care fee income. The gap has doubled from $16.10 in 2007 to $32.12 in 2017.
This means ACFI funding for actual ‘care’ is being redirected to cover meals and cleaning.
By example prices for utilities grew on average by 72% for electricity and 54% for gas in the 10 years to June 2013.
Mr Reid, who has just joined the Board of Directors at NSW-based community provider IRT Group, maintains floating the fee may reduce the effect of shocks to the sector, such as the ACFI changes, and business cycles, like deregulation.
