Caring for someone
Legislation
There are two pieces of legislation which the Carer Support Section helps to administer. The first is Part VB of the National Health Act 1953 which pertains to the Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit (DNCB). The second is the Aged Care Act (1997) as it relates to residential respite care.
Part VB of the National Health Act 1953 (NHA) which provided arrangements for Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit was repealed with effect from 1 July 1999 under the Assistance for Carers Legislation Amendment Act 1999 (ACLAA). The Aged Care Act 1997 relates to residential respite care and is still current.
Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit
The Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit (DNCB) was introduced in 1973 to provide some assistance to people who provided care for frail aged and other people with a disability who have been assessed as requiring nursing home level of care. On 1 July 1999, the DNCB was incorporated into Carer Allowance which is administered by the Department of Family and Community Services and delivered by Centrelink. Carer Allowance combined the DNCB and the Child Disability Allowance and brings a number of improvements for carers including broadening of eligibility criteria.
Residential Respite Manual (Aged Care Act 1997)
Background to the Aged Care Act 1997
The Aged Care Act 1997 underpins the new Residential Aged Care Program.The Residential Aged Care Program is based on an alignment of the previous hostel and nursing home programs. It builds on the strengths of these programs, through improved funding, user charging and regulatory arrangements that will apply across the whole Australian Government funded residential aged care sector. The new system enables and encourages aged care services to provide high quality care and accommodation, ensures access and affordability, targets funding at those in the greatest need and allows flexibility and responsiveness of services to individual needs.
The Residential Respite Care Manual is an appendix to the Residential Care Manual (1999) and explains the residential respite care components of the Aged Care Act 1997.
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