Aged care in Australia

My wife is Australian (also Canadian) and her mother and family is in Australia. She is getting up there in age and currently has a broken hip that is getting taken care of soon we hope.

My brother in law (in Australia) is looking into care homes for her - hopefully not needed right away but we anticipate it will be eventually. The system he is describing is very different from what we have here in Canada. I'm looking for some insight from any Aussie who might have some experience with this.

A kind member here directed me to this site:

https://bestagedcareaustralia.com.au/aged-care-cost/ballarat/

On that site there is this summary:



So from what I gather there are 3 costs:

1 - The mandated daily rate of $66.80 per day.
2 - Some unknown fee based on income and assets.
3 - The large (!) refundable down payment - I have no idea what this is actually for - it says it's fully refundable when the person moves out or dies.

The last two numbers could be sort of balanced out to maybe have less of a lump sum down payment, and more of a daily payment.

For anyone who has experience, does that sound about right?

The lump sum has really caught us off guard, as no such requirement exists here - I just visited my 96 year old step-father in his retirement home last night, and he pays about $112 a day, which includes his accommodation and all meals. The only thing he pays extra for is phone/internet. This isn't nursing care, just a place to live with meals, which is what we are looking at for my wife's mother also.

I understand that the way retirement payments are made in Australia are very different from here, with the Australian Superannuation giving people a chunk of money. It seems like this requirement for a several hundred thousand dollars down payment is there to sort of take advantage of that lump sum that people tend to get on retirement.

The problem is, my mother in law was a housewife for most of her life, so has no lump sum. All the money she has is tied up in her current retirement community "unit" that she owns but is more of a condo than a house. She has said that with the fees they are charging her if she sold it she wouldn't get much money. She is able to scrape by on whatever small government pension she gets.

Thanks for any input or clarification - we are hoping to find some sort of alternative, such as having people help her in her current home.

Thanks!

Thanks for the link - if nothing else this seems to give me more of an idea what this huge downpayment is for - they appear to make interest off that money and that subsidizes the cost of the room?



Not sure who is paying 8.43% interest...but it seems this number goes up twice per year and is set by the government.

So if I read all this right, using their example, I would have a daily rate for the room comprised of the following:

1 - The mandated daily rate of $66.80 per day.
2 - Some unknown fee based on income and assets - to be determined.
3 - The DAP - $115.48

So without knowing #2, it looks like the total so far for a $500k room paid daily, would be at least $182,28, so over $66k per year.

I guess this explains why some of our friends who have elderly parents are bringing in people to care for them at their parent's homes, or taking them into their own homes.

Again if anyone has first hand experience, please share.