All About Aged Care

28/12/2025

Happy New Year to all our clients, friends and colleagues. May 2026 be a year of good health, happiness and success for all of you.

Thank you to all of you for your support, friendship and collegiality.
2025 had many challenges and we relied on all of you to navigate them.

We hope that 2026 will see a return to some sort of normality and more beds will become available, especially for concessional residents.

The Australian Government Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has published it new fees and charges schedule for 1 January 2026. A copy is attached.
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-12/schedule-of-fees-and-charges-for-residential-care.pdf

08/12/2025

How Will The Social Media Ban Impact Grandchildren Communicating with Grandparents in Aged Care?
This Wednesday sees the landmark introduction of Australia’s teenage social media ban.
This legislation is and will be controversial. Most pundits expect tech savvy teens to easily circumvent the law.
As with all legislation there are likely to be unintended consequences. One of these could be that it might restrict the ability of grandchildren or great grandchildren to communicate with their grandparent.
Messaging and communication such as WhatsApp are exempt though, as it is considered a messaging app and not a social media platform for the purposes of this law. Other apps exempt from the ban include Messenger, Discord, Roblox, YouTube Kids, and Google Classroom.
As long as our clients in care remain on these apps rather than on Tik Tok they will still be able to communicate online with their loved young ones.

08/12/2025

My Aged Care Review

The new Inspector-General of Aged Care Services, Natalie Siegel-Brown last week delivered her first formal review. She sought to answer whether My Aged Care, as the single-entry point to the aged care system, is fit-for-purpose in facilitating timely access to aged care services and supports for all older people in Australia, regardless of their location, background and life experiences.

Her review addresses questions like:
Is the doorway into aged care open to everyone? Is it easy to find, easy to use, and fair? And crucially: Does it reflect the rights and dignity now enshrined in the new Aged Care Act 2024 (the new Act)?

Her report concluded:
“The findings are clear: for many, it is not and does not. Enhancements have been made and a lot of effort invested in improving the doorway, but still, many older people — particularly those from diverse backgrounds, remote communities, or with limited digital literacy, struggle to access and navigate the system. “

If you are seeking to place a loved one in the Perth metropolitan area, and are struggling to navigate the system, give us a call on 9429 8830. We can help.

https://www.allaboutagedcare.com.au/

17/11/2025

Much has been written recently about the shortage of beds in aged care and the effect this is having on hospital beds. Simply put, hospital administrators say that there are thousands of elderly patients who are occupying hospital beds who should be relocated to a bed in an aged care facility. These patients are being unkindly termed “bed-blockers”.

Unfortunately, there are insufficient available beds in aged care facilities to allow this to happen.

This is not the whole truth. There are beds available for most would-be residents provided they are able to pay the Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) or Daily Accommodation Payment (DAP) required by the facility.

Unfortunately, the subsidy paid by the government to facilities for supported residents is usually less than half of what a facility can receive from fee paying residents. This means financially straitened facility operators have little incentive to offer supported beds.

There is an obvious (but not complete) answer to this problem. The government needs to allocate enough money to aged care so that subsidies match the economic realities.

If you need help for a loved one in this increasingly difficult environment, please book a consultation here https://calendly.com/lewis-chiat

10/11/2025

Last week saw the new Aged Care Act 2024 come into force.

It has been hailed as the biggest change in aged care in Australia in a generation.
It is said to usher in a new “rights-based charter” for elderly Australians needing care, either in their own homes or in residential facilities.

While this noble goal may be achieved eventually, at present what we are seeing is confusion and concern.

A particular concern is the new fees and charges which have been introduced and the requirement for co-payments from most new consumers.

The changes are not easy to understand, and the government’s messaging has been slow and added to the confusion.

Now, more than ever, consumers need to reach out to an industry expert for help.
Contact us if you or a loved one needs advice or help to navigate the maze

30/10/2025

On 1 November 2025 the new Aged Care Act 2024 will come into force.

For people who are already resident in aged care facilities on 31 October 2025 there will be no material change to the fees charged. So too, those new residents who have an annual income of less than $34,672 and assets of less than $63,000.

Everyone else entering care after 1 November 2025 will face higher costs.
Prof. Michael Woods, Jin Sug Yang, Louise Malady and Assoc. Prof. Nelson Ma of UTS Sydney have published in The Conversation of 21 October 2025, a very useful summary of these costs (shared below).

If you would like to know how we can help you find quality care for your loved one please message us.

https://theconversation.com/changes-are-coming-for-residential-aged-care-heres-what-to-know-265676

14/10/2025

When the answer is “NO”

The below excellent article from Hello Leaders newsletter of 8 October 2025, very succinctly deals with a problem which often manifests itself when seeking permanent residential placement.

We are often told after submitting an application for placement that the facility in question is “unable to meet the care needs of [y]our client”. This is ‘aged care speak’ for “we think your client will be too difficult to look after”.

There is no easy answer to this response as we are not privy to the operational considerations that contribute to the making of such decisions. All we can do as placement consultants is knock on enough doors and hope that one or more will open.

Clearly though, it is vital that government provides sufficient funding to facilities to ensure that those in need – and often those with challenging behaviours are the most in need – can be looked after in comfort and with dignity.

Aged care’s quiet exclusion: When the system rewards those who say “no” | Hello Leaders AUS https://helloleaders.com.au/article/aged-cares-quiet-exclusion-when-the-system-rewards-those-who-say-no

13/10/2025

Just 31 days to implement 633 pages of the new Aged Care Rules 2025

Late last year the Aged Care Act 2024 (Act) was passed.

The Act was originally due to commence on 1 July 2025 but shortly before that date the government announced the Act’s introduction was postponed to 1 November 2025.

Ostensibly, the reason for the postponement was to provide more time for providers to get ready for the changes wrought by the Act. More cynical industry insiders said the real reason was that the government itself wasn’t ready to implement the Act.

On 23 September 2025 the government finally published the Aged Care Rules 2025 (Rules).

These are the “nuts and bolts” the industry will have to follow to ensure proper compliance with the Act and its goal of person-centred care.

The Rules consist of 14 chapters and run to 633 pages.

We can only sympathise with our industry colleagues who have now have 31 days to get on top of these and create the manuals and training programs to ensure compliance.

17/09/2025

Finding beds for residents who are eligible for a concessional (i.e. a government supported) bed is proving to be a real challenge at present. The attached article in the Sydney Morning Herald by Aged Care Guru, Rachel Lane, (she really is!) explains why we have this problem.
Unfortunately, only more money from the government can help fix it.

https://www.smh.com.au/money/super-and-retirement/why-this-new-policy-could-mean-you-miss-out-on-aged-care-20250916-p5mvdl.html

17/09/2025

The Department of Health, Disability and Ageing has released its revised schedule of fees and charges payable from 20 September 2025 by recipients for home and residential aged care.
These fees and amounts are indexed every 6 months.

A link to the full document is attached below.

The Basic Daily Fee for residential care will increase to $65.55 per day.
The Home Exemption Cap, beyond which asset level residents are liable to pay a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD), is now $210,555.20.
The Maximum Prescribed Interest Rate on unpaid RAD will reduce from 1 October 2025 to 7.61% per annum.
https://www.health.gov.au/sites/default/files/2025-09/schedule_of_fees_and_charges_for_residential_and_home_care_from_20_september_2025.pdf

07/08/2025

Today, 7 August, is Aged Care Employee Day. It's our chance to thank and pay our respect to the thousands of dedicated women and men who work in aged care.
On our regular visits to aged care facilities all across the Perth Metropolitan area we are constantly in awe of the love, respect, kindness, care, compassion and patience shown by these special people for the residents of the facilities at which they work.
On behalf of our many clients who are in your care and their families and us, thank you!
You are all ACE.

08/07/2025

In what is being described as a "landmark" decision, Justice Woodward, the President of the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal, yesterday ruled that some retirees living in a Lifestyle community village were entitled to have their deferred management or exit fees voided.
The Tribunal found that there had been insufficient notification given to purchasers of these costs in their contracts. Although a formula had been specified in the purchase contract, this was held not to be sufficient.
The formal orders have yet to be made. We suspect the decision will be appealed given its wider implications.
However, it does for now, even the playing field between residents and community operators.
Give us a call if you are affected.

A tribunal has ruled that the housing provider’s exit fees for some of its residents breached tenancy laws and in some cases were “harsh”.