Volume 10 Edition 8 Financial Care Services Newsletter

Volume 10 Edition 8 – 31 August 2020

Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles

Activities you can pursue at home in lockdown

Now that you have finished watching all those ‘must see’ movies and the complete series of every television show that you ever enjoyed, you might have time for some important tasks.

Here are some challenges for a productive day in lockdown.

The first challenge is to find your Will:
either the original signed document or the photocopy that you keep at home.

Then check that the people named in your Will as executors and beneficiaries are all alive and well. If your extended family has changed since you made this Will maybe now is the time to revise your Will.

Lockdown provides few distractions so you could have time to think about how you would like your assets distributed when you move on.
In the springtime, you could call your solicitor and have your new Will prepared.

The second challenge relates to who would look after your financial affairs if you became too frail to do your own banking.

The options are clear. You could grant some one of your choosing an Enduring Power of Attorney.
If you later become frail in mind and/or body your Attorney could manage your finances for you.

You need to ask your solicitor to prepare and witness your Power of Attorney document.

Alternatively you could do nothing now and allow your family to ask VCAT to appoint an Administrator if you ever become really frail.

After some background checking, VCAT could appoint a family member as Administrator. This is a voluntary unpaid role as Administrator for a relative or close friend.
At least once every year, the Administrator must submit accounts of your finances to the Public Trustee together with the lodgement fee from your money.

If no suitable family members are available then VCAT could appoint the Public Trustee as your Administrator. The Public Trustee charges fees for administering your finances.

VCAT could also appoint a Guardian to select your residential aged care placement if your family are unable to help you.

In summary, now could be the time to update your Will and do that Power of Attorney.
Your local solicitor will be ready to help as soon as the severe lockdown ends.
Finally please tell your family where to find your Will and Power of Attorney documents.

Still in lockdown at home in a Melbourne winter

Staying home is fine if you live in a harmonious and caring household. But isolation can be challenging for seniors who live alone or even elderly couples who rely on family for social support.

Vulnerable people including frail seniors, may continue to have help to stay at home. The cleaner and the personal carer may still come as often as you need them.
But not every family are happy to have a series of masked carers entering the home of their frail relatives each week.

What are the options for ensuring care for our frail seniors?

One option is for another adult to move in with the senior as a companion or full time carer.

If you live with a frail senior and provide extensive personal care and support then you might qualify for the Carer Allowance. This Centrelink Carer Allowance is an acknowledgement that you are meeting a care need. Currently the Carer Allowance is $131.90 per fortnight: a contribution to your petrol costs and extra expenses as carer.

Carer Pension is available to if your carer duties prevent your working full time. Carer Pension is paid at the same rates and subject to the same means testing as the Age Pension.

Your carer duties are unlikely to last forever, one day you might be full time in the conventional paid workforce.
So to help you prepare for full-time work, Centrelink allows carers to be away from your care recipient for up to 25 hours each week for part-time work or study. Beware, Centrelink count any earning from work in your ‘income’ for the Income Test on your Carer Pension.

The first step to claiming a Carer Allowance and possibly also a Carer Pension is to prove that your frail relative needs extensive care to stay at home. To qualify, the ‘care recipient’ would be so unreliable as to be unsafe at home alone and/or unable to safely move around in the house without assistance.

Another option is to have your elderly relatives come and live with you.

At Centrelink, hosting a long term Age Pensioner guest could equivalent to a ‘granny flat arrangement’.

One member of the host family might qualify for some support as ‘carer’ if this becomes a permanent arrangement. The senior’s care needs might meet the Centrelink criteria for a host to claim the Carer Allowance.

Remember how you collected your biggest pay rise when the last of your children finally moved out of home. The reverse could also be true. An additional person at home all day to be fed and maintained in a nice warm room adds to the costs of food and energy for heating, or cooling.

Thus some form of agreement before the senior guest settles into your home could save your relationships and the hosts’ housekeeping budget.

A senior in residential aged care would pay 85% of the full single rate of Age Pension as a ‘basic fee’ to cover meals, laundry, cleaning and utility bills. Thus a long term Age Pensioner guest could contribute the ‘basic fee’ amount to her hosts’ housekeeping account.

In August 2020, the ‘basic fee’ is $52.25 per day, $731.50 per fortnight. The other $212.80 per fortnight of the full single Age Pension rate would be available for personal expenses such as pharmacy and hairdressing.

Well before your senior relative guest becomes a ‘permanent resident’ in your home, a granny flat agreement could be worthwhile.

Maybe your ‘guest’ exits her rented home and becomes a ‘granny flat resident’. A non-home owning granny flat resident could pay her hosts some ‘rent’ and collect Rent Assistance from Centrelink.

An Age Pensioner homeowner might want to sell her ‘former home’ and make a large payment to her ‘granny flat hosts’. Centrelink have extensive rules about granny flat ingoing payments.

Another Age Pensioner homeowner might want to retain her ‘former home’ as a rental property and make regular ‘rent’ payments to her ‘granny flat hosts’. Please remember that the Centrelink rules would count the net rent received as ‘income’ for the Age Pension means tests.

Beware, once Centrelink realise that the Age Pensioner has been out of her home for a full year, her ‘former home’ is counted as an ‘investment property’. The ‘former home’ could be valuable enough to cut, or possibly cancel, her Age Pension.

Where can we get help with our granny flat agreement?

Christine at Financial Care Services is an independent adviser experienced with granny flat arrangements.

Christine also understands the fee scales for Commonwealth regulated aged care, Centrelink Age Pensions and DSP, and the DVA means tested Income Support Supplement.

A consultation with Christine at Financial Care Services could help you clarify your granny flat proposal and consider the potential aged care and Pensions implications of your proposal.

Contact Financial Care Services now to arrange to arrange a granny flat consultation. Call Christine now on (03) 9808 0338 to book your granny flat appointment.

Then again, if your relatives are so frail in mind and/or body as to need fulltime care you might look for residential aged care.

Melbourne usually has ample residential aged care places available for both ‘respite’ and ‘permanent’ entrants.

Today’s aged care facilities offer single rooms with private bathrooms as dignified homes for frail seniors. These aged care facilities are totally different to the 1950’s nursing homes that your parents feared entering.

Christine Hopper at Financial Care Services, is ready to help you navigate the paperwork challenges of aged care entry

Christine has neat handwriting just right for inserting your data into small printed spaces. She helps clients complete Centrelink forms.
Assistance with completing the Commonwealth aged care means testing forms is available to clients of Financial Care Services.

The team at Financial Care Services are here to answer your Age Pension questions and guide your understanding of aged care costs.

Financial Care Services is an independent advisory service specialising in retirees of modest means and aged care entrants.
Our core values include working with clients in claiming DVA and Centrelink entitlements.

Help with Centrelink challenges is available from Christine Hopper at Financial Care Services, the specialist adviser to seniors in transition to new lifestyles.

Christine could help you with collating your supporting documents and then mailing your form to Centrelink.

Christine charges fees based on the work involved in advising you about pensions and aged care fee solutions.

To make an appointment for confidential, independent and professional advice about aged care, retirement lifestyle costs, granny flat or Age Pension issues please contact Christine Hopper or call +61 3 9808 0338.

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Christine Hopper
Financial Care Services Pty Ltd
Independent aged care, strategic lifestyle and Social Security advice for seniors in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
Telephone – call +61 3 9808 0338
Email – contact info@financialcareservices.com.au
Address – mail to 172 Warrigal Road, Camberwell Victoria 3124
Website – visit financialcareservices.com.au
LinkedIn – connect https://www.linkedin.com/in/christinehopper1
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Past newsletters – see http://financialcareservices.com.au/newsletters/
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Disclaimer: The information contained in this newsletter is of a general nature only and does not constitute “financial advice”.
All eligibility for Commonwealth benefits will be determined by Centrelink or DVA, based on your personal position as documented and the legislation and Regulations in force at that time.