Govt announces aged care indexation rate
The Minister for Ageing, Justine Elliot, has announced extra funding to residential aged care via the just decided annual indexation rate of nearly 2%, equating to $148 million extra funding to the residential aged care and community care sector during 2009-10.
This brings total Government funding to the sector next financial year to more than $9.9 billion and is in addition to the recent Budget initiatives.
The 2009-10 Budget included the Government’s commitment to maintaining the Conditional Adjustment Payment, which will deliver $2.3 billion to the residential aged care industry over the next four years.
It also contained an additional $728 million in revenue for residential aged care over the next four years as a result of the increases in the base rate of the age pension and viability supplements.
As a result of indexation, from 1 July, payments for residential care subsidies and supplements will increase by $130 million and community care subsidies by $18 million – an increase of nearly 2%.
