ANIKA WELLS MP
MINISTER FOR AGED CARE
MINISTER FOR SPORT

TRANSCRIPT - ABC DRIVE ADELAIDE - 23 APRIL 2025

E&OE TRANSCRIPT
RADIO INTERVIEW
ABC DRIVE ADELAIDE
WEDNESDAY, 23 APRIL 2025

SUBJECTS: Home Care Packages; Aged Care from 1 July.

NIKOLAI BEILHARZ, HOST: If you were listening to the Drive program last week, Leigh Radford, who was bringing you the program was speaking about some aged care changes that are due to come in at the start of July. He heard from Corrine, who is concerned about some of the changes. Her mum is 96 years old. Here's a little bit of what she had to say.

[AUDIO – CORRINE, CALLER]

I advocate for my 96-year-old mother who's on a home care package and has been for the past eight years, so not long really considering her age. I arranged a meeting with her home care provider. I pointed out my concerns and I was advised that the home care provider, they know very little as well. For me, that raised concerns in itself that they're not fully aware of all the changes. I raised a number of questions, and I was advised that they were valid questions and that my mother's care manager would get back to me with more information when it became available to them, so they don't know very much. I can advocate for my mother.

There's many elderly people out there at the moment that don't have somebody to ask the questions, somebody to advocate, somebody to speak for them and I'm not sure that even any of them would know that there's any changes happening on the 1st of July. The care provider talked about grandfathering for anybody on the home care package before the 20th of September 24 but couldn't provide any details going forward and how those changes would impact clients.

My understanding is anybody on a home care package after the 20th of September 24, they will go on to the new system, which is eight levels instead of four levels as it is now. I just want to raise questions because there doesn't seem to be any transparency happening with any of these massive changes happening to community’s Home Care Packages and it's only three months away and nobody seems to be able to give any answers. They can broadly tell you there's going to be changes. Yes, if you're on it before the 20th of September, don't worry. You'll not be affected because you're being grandfathered in. That's fine, but what happens going forward?

[AUDIO ENDS]

BEILHARZ: He also spoke with Christina White from Occupational Therapy Australia who says she's also in the dark on some of the changes.

[AUDIO - CHRISTINA WHITE, OCCUPATIONAL THERAPY AUSTRALIA]

Certainly, at Occupational Therapy Australia we've just as in the dark as you are unfortunately with many of these changes. We've been having tranches of subordinate legislation being brought out in stages over the last few months, but there's still a lot of gaps in knowledge and there's still a lot of information we're waiting on. We're particularly concerned around the accrual of funds, because in the current iteration of Home Care Packages program; that is one mechanism by which a lot of older people are able to use their package funding to purchase larger, more expensive assistive technology or equipment or to fund their home modifications to keep them at home under the new proposed Support at Home program; what the federal government are aiming for is a tiers of funding system for the assistive technology and home modifications available to older people. And we're really concerned to hear that they've got a plan to put in a $15,000, top end of funding, which is a lifetime.

[AUDIO ENDS]

BEILHARZ: So, if you've got experience with this, be keen to hear what your experience has been like, and do you feel like you know what is changing? 0467922891. In a moment, we'll hear from Anne Ruston, who's the Shadow Minister for Aged Care, but joining us is Anika Wells, who is the Minister for Aged Care at a federal level. Minister, thank you for your time this afternoon.

ANIKA WELLS, MINISTER FOR AGED CARE AND SPORT: Afternoon, Nikolai. I hope you're well.

BEILHARZ: When it comes to some of the gaps in details that we've heard there from Christina and Corrine, are you frustrated about a lack of detail? Do you share some of those concerns that they've raised?

WELLS: I'm really glad that older people and their advocates, like Corrine and Christina, and advocates for people like Occupational Therapy Australia are engaging with this important reform, and I am taking every opportunity to spread the word and to answer questions where I can as the Minister for Aged Care. The Prime Minister and I did a press conference about aged care and aged care reforms on the campaign trail only last Friday, and I think I would probably start by urging your listeners to be careful about where they are getting their information from. It should be directly from either their provider, or from the government, and the Department of Health and Aged Care, primarily on the website. Now, all of this information is available online, but I do appreciate that your listeners and older Australians, who are impacted by these changes and not necessarily digital natives or accessing their information online as their first course, so the Department of Health and Aged Care is writing to every single Home Care Package recipient about what Support at Home, which is what the new reforms are, what it means for them, and what the next steps are that they can prepare for. And people can expect to receive those individual letters about their care and their package from early May. Attached to that letter there's a really helpful checklist and there's three key steps in that. There's the resources that are available to learn more about Support at Home, and depending on the kind of level of detail that you're looking for, there's either short fact sheets for people who want a quick overview, or there's the full program manual for people who are interested in the details.

BEILHARZ: It's a lot for people to get their heads around.

WELLS: The first thing I would say is that people that are, as Corrine pointed out, people that are already on a Home Care Package as at 12 September, or if they were approved for a package, if they were already assessed and approved for a package from the 12th of September last year, are grandparented. That's our no worse off principle, and it really is that simple. If you're in that cohort and you were required to pay fees under your Home Care Package on the 12th of September, then you will contribute the same or less under Support at Home from 1 July. But if you were a full rate pensioner who was paying no fees under your Home Care Package at that at that time, you will never, you will never pay fees under Support at Home. For everyone who's living in residential aged care on the 30th of June 2025, our no worse off principle means you will remain under your current fee arrangement unless you choose to switch over to the new system. Everyone can rely on that no worse off principle.

BEILHARZ: On that note, we have had a question through on the text line around the no worse off scenario, saying, well will there be small out of pocket costs for a lot of services? So, there's no charge applied for clinical services, but this person says people who are using HCP funding for keeping their houses clean and safe, or using transportation services, there will be fees attached to that. Will people have to pay a portion of those fees for services that they have not in the past?

WELLS: If you are receiving a Home Care Package or approved for a package, no. You will be no worse off. You will not be required to pay any more, it'll be the same or less; and some people will find that they're actually paying less under the new reforms from 1 July. If you're a full rate pensioner and you are paying no fees under your package, then you will never pay fees under Support at Home

BEILHARZ: And on the accumulation of funding side of things, we heard that was an area of concern for Christina from Occupational Therapy Australia. Does anything change there?

WELLS: Christina and people like Christina, these are providers in the space. The Support at Home manual, which is incredibly detailed, is available online and has been for some months now, as has all the subordinate legislation and the trenches of rules, they are all cleared, and they are all online for people to review. But for the new system on 1 July, any unspent funds that people have, they will roll over. And in addition to any personal or clinical care that a person needs, recipients or their advocates like Corrine, should be talking to their provider about how to use those unspent funds to purchase things like what Christina was talking about, home modifications or assisted tech. They should do that as quickly as possible after 1 July, because as of the first quarter, one of the new changes is that the maximum amount of funds that can roll over quarter to quarter is $1,000 or 10 per cent of your budget.

BEILHARZ: Ok. Minister, I know you need to go but just one more question, because a few people are saying, well, I'm on the waiting list. What happens to me? If you're on the waiting list but you haven't been approved yet, what happens in that situation?

WELLS: If you are assessed and approved for a package, then you are part of the grandparenting.

BEILHARZ: Okay, but if you're not, if you're on a waiting list or you're waiting to hear back about your application, you will not be?

WELLS: To me, a wait list is you've been assessed and approved and you're waiting for that package to come through. If you were approved for a package, and you were approved for a package from 12 September, then you're part of the cohort.

BEILHARZ: Okay, Minister, thank you for your time.

WELLS: You're welcome.

ENDS