Budget 2018: Full AAA coverage

A wrap of Australian Ageing Agenda’s extensive coverage of the 2018-19 Federal Budget.

A wrap of Australian Ageing Agenda’s extensive coverage of the 2018-19 Federal Budget.

On this page you will find links to articles from Australian Ageing Agenda and Community Care Review on the Federal Budget handed down by Treasurer Scott Morrison last week.

Our coverage includes highlights of the major measures and changes to aged care policies and programs, as well as stakeholder reaction.

Residential places to go to consumers, new bond levy for providers: The government has given its in-principle support to put residential aged care places in the hands of consumers as recommended in the Tune Review and committed $300,000 to exploring the potential impact of this measure. Funding has also been promised for mental health services for aged care residents, a trial of palliative services in residential aged care and new facilities in remote and rural areas.

Additional home care packages, reablement trial for home support: An additional 14,000 high-level home care packages will be released , but there are still nearly 105,000 people waiting in queue to receive a package, and new trial will focus on reablement in the Commonwealth Home Support Program.

Funding for providers to implement new quality standards: Financial support will be given to aged care providers to implement new quality standards over the next two years, while from July 2020, aged care providers will be required to pay for a levy for unannounced quality visits.

New measures welcome but long-term fix needed, say stakeholders: Aged care provider consumer peaks welcome many of the budget measures but there are calls for more to address aged care issues including funding and work force.

Aged care CEOs react to the budget: Aged care CEOs tell AAA which measures will provide some relief to their providing aged care services and those that will add to burdens.

Government provides more funding to improve aged care payments system: An additional $106.8 million has been allocated to the modernisation of the health and aged care payment system to replace and decommission ageing ICT systems, upgrading cyber security and the introduction of user experience improvements.

New programs in community mental health and exercise target seniors: A $20 million nurse-led pilot will trial a new mental health service to tackle social isolation among people over 75 living in their own homes while a $23 million grant aims to boost participation in sport for older Australians in the community.

Government to pilot service to help older people navigate aged care: A system navigator and streamlined assessment are among the improvements announced to the My Aged Care platform to improve timely access to services.

Treasurer expands government’s reverse mortgage scheme to full pensioners: The eligibility of the Pension Loans Scheme has been expanded to boost retirement incomes of asset-rich and cash-poor pensioners from 1 July 2019.

Government allocates $64 million to NDIS jobs fund: In order to raise awareness of job opportunities in rural and remote areas, $64 million will go towards workshops to inform school leavers about job opportunities and support Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander organisations to become registered providers.

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Tags: acar, budget 2018, home care package, my-aged-care, ndis, residential-aged-care,

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