Time to let go of the ‘family home’?

“I had the pleasure of chairing the session Hugh Mackay gave at the Perth Writers Festival on his new book, The Art of Belonging. He pointed out that, if you are living in what may be described as a traditional family set up – two people married to each other living with two or three children who belong to them both – you are now a fringe member of society.

Reference to the family home has held the aged care sector back in the past. In the late 80s, the Howard government squibbed on the opportunity/need to charge bonds in high care nursing homes due to the perceived pressure that might create for sale of the family home.

In the context of pension asset testing, we’re really talking about the principal residence inhabited by older people.

While it is a point of significance to the people concerned that they brought up their family there, it is unhelpful to cloud the policy debate with the emotive connotations of the family home.

Let’s focus clearly on trying to develop an equitable and rational policy around how the bricks and mortar owned by older people should be treated for tax purposes and to foster efficient use of available housing and care resources.

My view is that we should encourage older people to live in housing conducive to their needs as they age, and we should also free up larger accommodation for households with more people.

It is also desirable to ‘free up’ cash so that older people can pay for their increasing care needs as they age. Having said all of this, I can’t see why older people with sufficient assets and income to live comfortably for the years they have left should qualify for financial support from the state.

Accordingly, I advocate incentivising older people to reduce the volume of assets tied up in their principal residence, free up cash to pay for their care needs, promote their health and wellbeing by living in aged friendly accommodation and help solve the housing crisis without providing an associated kickback or windfall from the state to those who don’t need it.”

This blog post was originally published in Amana Life. Read more of Ray Glickman's blog Ageing from Left Field.