We spoke to a woman whose mother owned a home & had little else in assets, & her adult disabled son lived with her. She needed to move into an aged care facility where the Accommodation Payment (Bond) was $550,000.

The Means Test form was completed & sent to Centrelink who assessed the mother as being an Unsupported resident, ie she had to pay the Accommodation Payment in full. Initially the daughter decided to pay it as a DAP (ie interest charged on $550K @ 5.72%pa), plus the Basic Daily Care Fee & the Means Tested Fee, however this resulted in a cashflow shortfall of approximately $32,000pa, & seeing the mother had little in savings this was not sustainable. The daughter felt she had no choice but to sell the home, to pay the RAD (Lump sum), which left her mother with left over funds in the bank, which reduced her Age pension & increased her Means Tested Fee & still resulted in a $20,000pa shortfall, & dislodged the disabled brother.

Normally the disabled brother would have been a Protected resident, however he did not qualify as he had received an inheritance from his uncle which prevented him from being eligible to receive a Disability Pension.

This could have been avoided had the woman made an “Aged Care Options’ appointment with us. It would have been easy to make the brother a protected resident, & therefore her mother would have been a supported resident, & therefore not had to pay the Accommodation Payment at all, this would have saved her $32,000pa, & the home would not have had to be sold. We could have also applied for hardship. However, seeing the home was sold, we can’t unscramble the egg, it is now too late

The point we are making is ONLY complete the Means Test form to suit YOUR agenda, not the social workers agenda in hospital or the aged care facilities agenda, otherwise you may get an outcome that is far worse than it should have been