COVID-19 is fast developing into the new the-dog-ate-my-homework excuse. Even the Department of Health's Medical Cost Finder website has succumbed to the a virus that is a procrastinator's dream.
The NSW Regional Seniors Transport Card is worth $250 a year but you have to live regionally. The NSW Government's approach compared with the Australian Bureau of Statics' approach to what constitutes 'regional' produces some interesting results.
Informal carers of people moving into a nursing home can keep living in their house as a "protected person", but just how protected is protected?
Counsel Assisting the Aged Care Royal Commission have made their final submissions, making a raft of recommendations that would bring aged care in Australia up to scratch if implemented. Full implementation rather than watered-down implementation will be the next battle-ground for aged care advocates.
Despite protestations that Age Pensioners will not be put on income management compulsorily, draft legislation before Parliament does exactly that. Age Pensioners in what is currently the Cape York trial area could soon find they have no option.
The Australian Government's Medical Costs Finder website is so conspicuously inadequate as a consumer information tool, you're left wondering if it's intentional. It is certain, though, that throwing another $17 million at it will not make it fit for purpose.
Granny flat arrangements can go horribly wrong and when they do, older people can be literally left homeless. A new Capital Gains Tax exemption encourages formal granny flat agreements, which can do much to protect older people and people with disabilities living in granny flats
Malnutrition is slow killer of older people inside and outside nursing homes. It's a good idea to make sure your diet keeps you as healthy and fit as possible.
The longer a person is unemployed, the more difficult it becomes for them to find a suitable job, or even an unsuitable one. Social security arrangements acknowledge this on the one hand, but on the other compel people to keep looking when it is clear they're not going to find anything.
Comparator websites allow consumers to find the best deals on a range of goods and services, but sometimes they don't. How do you find out if you're being misled?
Lot's of roads but you can't live in roads. You can in social housing. However, despite widespread calls for social housing construction projects there was no money for those at all. Plus: not enough Home Care Packages.
Why has it taken a pandemic to expose the lack of infection control and prevention methods in the aged care industry? Why, nine months into the pandemic, is there still not a national aged care plan for COVID-19?
COVID-19 has shown that the protection of older, vulnerable people is often careless. Some industries, such as the legal sector, are taking proactive steps to identify and report cases of elder abuse especially in regard to the financial abuse of older people.
Delays and inaction by the Australian Government have got aged care to where it is today: in crisis. The Australian Government should break with this tradition of prevarication and immediately release the Aged Care Royal Commission’s report on COVID-19 in aged care.
Maybe one-off payments, maybe new pension indexation mechanisms, maybe unrestricted supply of aged care, the 6 October Budget will have lots of things in it.
Dying isn’t as easy as it used to be. When someone dies up to forty government and private organisations need to be notified, not to mention online accounts needing to be closed. There's a scheme to do it all in one fell swoop.
The aged care industry has for decades resisted meaningful monitoring of aged care quality, which shows in the ridiculously vague aged care standards the industry must comply with. The industry is now complaining how onerous it is to demonstrate compliance with the new, vague standards that came in 2019, but they also resist the replacement of standards with a suite of meaningful quality indicators that are based on information providers already collect as part of and during the course of normal operations.
Finally the Government is publishing information about COVID-19 in nursing homes across Australia. That's six months into the pandemic. But the report the Government put out tries to spin the mismanagement of the pandemic in nursing homes as .... a win!
WANT to be in control of your Home Care Package and decide who comes into your home? Care brokers are not the answer, negotiating with bona fide approved Home Care Package providers is.
Use rounding and rental affordability for some people on social security is nil, says a report by Anglicare.