1997-1998
Australia's Commonwealth Department of Health and Family Services, Budget Document 1997-98
The 1997-98 Budget Carers Package brings an significant increases in the financial assistance available to carers and expands dramatically the financial resources available for needs-assessment, information and advice.
Fact Sheet 14
Extension of Support for Carers - National Carer Action Plan
The 1997-98 Budget Carers Package brings in significant increases in the financial assistance available to carers and expands dramatically the financial resources available for needs-assessment, information and advice. These measures include expanded funding for dementia services and will also result in better and fairer targeting of the Child Disability Allowance.
Financial Assistance
The package of changes to financial assistance arrangements include:
- more than $20 million per year for a 28 per cent increase in the rate of the Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit from July 1998 to align it with the rate of the Child Disability Allowance. In current rate terms this will mean an increase of around $16.60 per fortnight;
- extension of the Carer Payment to a carer (usually a parent) providing constant care to a child under 16 years with profound disabilities. (Carers of children under 16 years are currently not eligible to receive the Carer Payment.);
- extension of the Carer Payment to a carer who is required to care for an adult as well as care for or supervise the care of a child. This situation may occur where an adult is incapable of providing care to a child, but the adult's needs alone don't currently qualify the carer for the Carer Payment. This initiative will take effect from March 1999; and
- alignment of the arrangements for the Carer Payment, Domiciliary Nursing Care Benefit and Child Disability Allowance so that they all allow someone to be temporarily "out of care" for 63 days a year before the payment to the carer is affected. This will enable a person to receive respite care for nine weeks a year without their carer losing their payment.
Information and advice for carers
Funding of $1 million in 1997-98 and $2 million per year in 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01 has been allocated for needs-assessment, information and advice for carers.
This initiative will provide continued funding for the information and support program which enables the development and distribution of carer resource materials, including education programs for carers, and information about government programs in support of carers. It will enable the Carer Resource Centres that are currently being established in each capital city (with funding from the National Respite for Carers Program) to effectively provide for the information needs of all carers.
Targeted support for people with dementia and their carers
Experience has shown that people with dementia and their carers are best served through mainstream services. However, because of the long-term progressive nature of dementia and the cognitive impairment and behaviours associated with the condition, people with dementia and their carers have special assessment, education and support needs.
To address these special needs, the Carers' Package includes continued targeted support:
- $1 million a year to be provided to Aged Care Assessment Teams to allow them to retain the psychogeriatric expertise needed for the early and accurate recognition of signs of dementia and to assess the associated care needs. This funding will predominantly be given to teams in country areas to maintain this psychogeriatric expertise and thus capacity to assess people with dementia in the community; and
- $1.3 million a year to major organisations to enable them to continue to provide education and support to carers of people with dementia.
Child Disability Allowance
Changes to the Child Disability Allowance criteria will result in a fairer and better targeting of the allowance.
These changes involve:
- changing the current program objective of the Child Disability Allowance from "encouraging family rather than institutional care" to " providing recognition of a child's disability and its impact on the family ";
- limiting the arrears payment to six months from 1 January 1998. This follows the Government's review of its previous decision to reduce the payment for Child Disability Allowance arrears from 12 months to three months;
- the introduction of child disability tables as the basis of assessment for new Child Disability Allowance applicants to allow better targeting of the payment to families who have children with disabilities. The tables will measure functional ability or level of disability at an age-appropriate standard. In addition, a list of manifest and chronic medical conditions will provide fast-track entry to the Allowance for children with more severe conditions. The introduction of the child disability tables will mean:
- from 1 July 1998 all new claimants will have their eligibility assessed against the new tables;
- those Child Disability Allowance applicants who do not qualify under the new disability tables but who have a chronic medical condition, will qualify for a Health Care Card to assist in meeting the costs of medication;
- a single rate of Child Disability Allowance will be paid to the carers of children who do not individually qualify for the payment on the basis of the tables but whose cumulative scores reach the threshold criterion; and
- current Child Disability Allowance customers will have their eligibility reviewed on the basis of the current eligibility criterion of "substantially more care and attention" before the introduction of the child disability tables. Those customers who remain qualified for Child Disability Allowance at 1 July 1998 will be able to continue receiving payment until 30 June 2003 without undergoing medical reviews in that period. Non-medical reviews however may still be required. This will provide a delayed implementation of the child disability tables for existing recipients and a substantial adjustment period before the new program arrangements will apply to current customers.
Background
The Budget changes are part of an expanded program of measures being introduced for carers under the National Carer Action Plan. The program is explicitly targeted at carers and focuses on their needs. The National Carer Action Plan has three elements:
- respite care (including funding for Carer Resource Centres and a regional network of Carer Respite Centres);
- financial assistance for carers; and
- carer needs-assessment, information and advice.
In line with a pre-election commitment to review carer income support arrangements, the Government Budget package of measures will assist some of the most needy carers and those carrying the heaviest caring load.
The program gives support and assistance to relatives and friends who care for those in the community who cannot manage alone because of illness, disability or frailty. There are about 540,000 principal carers of people with a severe or profound handicap in Australia.
Contact: Warwick Bruen, Assistant Secretary, Aged & Community Care Division. Phone: (06) 289 5182
Top of page
