The Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission was touted as the new broom that would sweep away the detritus littering aged care in Australia, but it has two CEOs of major aged care providers on its Board, plus a bevy of CEOs of organisations which have their own corporate barrow to push.
The Treasurer announced a review into the retirement income system on 27 September 2019. This review was recommended by the Productivity Commission in its report Superannuation: Assessing Efficiency and Competitiveness and comes 27 years after the establishment of compulsory superannuation. The review is undertaken by a panel chaired by Mr Mike Callaghan AM PSM, with Ms Carolyn Kay and Dr Deborah Ralston as panel members.
In this submission, CPSA responds to some of the questions posed in the Royal Commission’s Consultation Paper 1.
Additional services are top-ups of the standard services provided in residential aged care services. User-pays applies, with fees and compound interest very commonly accrued against residents’ nursing home bonds. At 30 June 2018, the overall pool of money comprising refundable accommodation deposits stood at $27.5 billion. In light of the size of this money pool and, consequently, the trend for providers to market additional services aggressively, regulation is inadequate for the protection of care recipients’ consumer rights. Nursing homes are being turned into the aged care equivalent of tourist traps
CPSA supports of the Financial Services (Improved Consumer Protection) (No. 1) Regulations 2019: funeral expenses facilities, which removes the exemption for funeral insurance products from the definition of a financial product and ensures the consumer protection provisions of the Australian Securities and Investments Commission Act 2001 apply to these products.
The Newstart Allowance can no longer deliver the best means of support to Australians who need assistance the most. Newstart has not been increased in real terms for a quarter of a century and it shows. Newstart is no longer a safety net, but rather a thin cushion to soften the crash into poverty Australians on Newstart experience. Within this submission CPSA expresses concerns about the current payment rates for Allowance Payments and the mechanisms that determine these rates of payment.
The family home is seen by diverse campaigns as an obvious, and in the minds of some campaigners, magic-pudding type of funding source. Their proposals invariably involve some form of home equity release through lending. This submission sets out to show that not only is home equity release on the scale required to contribute meaningfully to the sourcing of aged care funding financially risky in the extreme, it also is unable to contribute very much at all, really.
What's the bet it won't happen? At the time of writing, the Bupa Eden nursing home had just been re-accredited on the day it was set to lose its accreditation. Two further Bupa homes faced loss of accreditation. Bupa Traralgon will lose its accreditation on 14 September 2019. Bupa Seaforth will lose its accreditation 0n 17 October 2019.
In this brief submission, CPSA offers an analysis of the nursing home staffing levels debate within the context of the impending implementation of the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC) as a replacement for the current Aged Care Funding Instrument (ACFI).
Currently around one-third of private dwellings in NSW are rented. In the past, renters were primarily young people who rented for only a short time. However, more people are now renting for longer and families and older people are making up a larger portion of tenants. With this continuing growth and variation to the tenancy demographic, it is increasingly important that there is in place a modern and efficient regulatory system for residential tenancies that is responsive to the needs of the community. A draft Residential Tenancies Regulation 2019 (the Regulation) and accompanying Regulatory Impact Statement are now available for public consultation. The proposed Regulation supports the Residential Tenancies Act 2010 (the Act).
The existing NSW Fair Trading Regulation 2012 is due for automatic repeal on 1 September 2019. The Government is proposing to remake the Regulation with some changes. Among other things, the new Regulation will provide information standards relating to funeral service providers. The draft Regulation would no longer contain a provision for a basic funeral. The basic funeral is key to ensuring that those of limited means are able to buy a dignified funeral package. A draft Fair Trading Regulation 2019 (the Regulation) and accompanying Regulatory Impact Statement are now available for public consultation. The proposed Regulation supports the Fair Trading Act 1987 (the Act).
In 2013, which much pomp, the NSW Government established the Cemeteries and Crematoria Authority to deal with the shortage of burial plots in Sydney. The main remedy it offered at the time was renewable-tenure burial plots. These are plots that will accommodate remains for a period of 25 years. Then, the lease on the plot needs to be released or the plot is cleared, as is common practice in more densely populated countries in the developed world. Six years on from those reform, there have been less than fifty (50!) renewable-tenure burials.
CPSA’s submission focusses on the impact of the shift from residential aged care services to in-home care services under way in Australia on the operations of retirement villages.
CPSA is concerned that the proposed model, the Australian National Aged Care Classification (AN-ACC), has been developed on the basis of care practices funded and shaped by the current Aged Care Funding Instrument, which may compromise the effectiveness of AN-ACC. CPSA urges that the introduction of AC-ANN be delayed until the Aged Care Commission has made its final report to the Governor-General and the Government has responded to its recommendations.
Building on the release of the Retirement Income Covenant position paper in May 2018, Government is seeking views on the disclosure fact sheet for retirement income products. Its consultation paper proposes a standardised, simplified document that outlines key metrics and features to help consumers compare different retirement income products.
Submission to the House Representatives Standing Committee on Social Policy and Legal Affairs
On 12 February 2019, CPSA's Policy Manager Paul Versteege gave evidence to the Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety. A transcript of this evidence is available on the Royal Commission's website. Paul Versteege's evidence was based on a witness statement provided to the Royal Commission.
CPSA welcomes the draft plan, noting that it is thorough and attempts to address a range of issues of concern for older people using transport in NSW. However, there are two major areas of concern that CPSA believes were not adequately addressed in the plan. These are the transparency regarding the Transport Access Program and access to information about transport services.
CPSA welcomes the opportunity to make a submission to the 2019 Budget and would like to highlight the following federal budget priorities it has identified in the areas of aged care, social services and health.