Bipartisan support for Aged Care Task Force recommendations required ‘as a matter of urgency’: StewartBrown

While the 2024 federal budget disappointed aged care stakeholders by failing to address the recommendations of the Aged Care Task Force, aged care accountants StewartBrown, whose task force included senior partner Grant Corderoy, believes that the government remains committed to the proposed reforms.

In response to the budget sent last Friday, StewartBrown said the budget’s exclusion of any financial initiatives to improve the financial sustainability of the aged care sector “appears to reaffirm” the government’s commitment to fully or partially implement the recommendations of the Aged Care Task Force increase the pool of financial resources.

The main chart shows that aged care providers continue to lose money on day-to-day living and accommodation, which takes into account the recommendations of the Aged Care Task Force.

Direct care is in surplus, and the loss of money for daily living and housing is causing operating results to decline.

The report noted that Minister for Health and Aged Care Mark Butler mentioned the Task Force Report in his budget media releases, and Minister for Aged Care Anika Wells also mentioned it in a post-budget webinar from the Department of Health and Aged Care Elders, which took place on Wednesday, the day after the budget was adopted.

The Department’s website also appears to suggest support for the Task Force. “The new Elderly Care Act will put older people at the center of elder care. It will also support the Government’s response to the Aged Care Task Force. These reforms are crucial to creating a sustainable sector that provides high-quality care,” it says.

With this in mind, writes StewartBrown, a “bipartisan approach” to the task force’s recommendations should “be a central goal and be achieved collectively with the utmost urgency.”

There have already been price increases for the Daily Accommodation Charge and Refundable Accommodation Deposit over the last three years due to an increase in the Maximum Permissible Interest Rate from 4.01% to 8.34%, but “there has been little or no negative consumer reaction”, – emphasizes StewartBrown.

The report shows that delayed implementation of the recommendations will increase the financial pressures the sector is already facing.