Latest news with #Accommodation
The Age
01-07-2025
- Business
- The Age
How moving into aged care could boost your pension
The move into aged care sparks a flurry of financial decisions – none more emotionally charged than what to do with the family home. To preserve their investments (after all, that's what provides their income) many people sell the home to pay for aged care. It makes sense, swapping one accommodation for another, until you factor in the negative impact it can have on your pension and aged care costs. Your home has special treatment for both pension and aged care means tests. When it comes to your pension, your home is an exempt asset for two years after you move into aged care. Any Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) you pay is also exempt. So, if you keep your home and pay your RAD from your investments, you can get an exemption on both the value of your home and the RAD – potentially boosting your pension or enabling you to qualify when you didn't qualify before. Under the aged care means test, your home is only assessed up to a capped value of $206,663. That means if your home is worth $1 million, nearly $800,000 of it is effectively exempt from aged care fee calculations. Finally, while the RAD is an assessable asset for aged care, it is not deemed to earn income like the investments are, so it counts as an asset but not as income. Loading Sally has a house worth $1 million, $650,000 of investments and receives an age pension of $4250 a year. The aged care home has a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) of $500,000. If Sally keeps her home and pays the RAD from her investments, both the home (for two years) and the RAD are exempt from the pension assets test. As a result, her pension increases to $29,874 per year – a jump of more than $25,000. Her means-tested care fee will be just over $10,000 per year until she reaches the lifetime cap, which would take about eight years. After the two-year home exemption ends, the property will be counted for the pension, and her pension will be lost, but only the capped value of $206,663 will continue to apply to her aged care fees.
Sydney Morning Herald
01-07-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
How moving into aged care could boost your pension
The move into aged care sparks a flurry of financial decisions – none more emotionally charged than what to do with the family home. To preserve their investments (after all, that's what provides their income) many people sell the home to pay for aged care. It makes sense, swapping one accommodation for another, until you factor in the negative impact it can have on your pension and aged care costs. Your home has special treatment for both pension and aged care means tests. When it comes to your pension, your home is an exempt asset for two years after you move into aged care. Any Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) you pay is also exempt. So, if you keep your home and pay your RAD from your investments, you can get an exemption on both the value of your home and the RAD – potentially boosting your pension or enabling you to qualify when you didn't qualify before. Under the aged care means test, your home is only assessed up to a capped value of $206,663. That means if your home is worth $1 million, nearly $800,000 of it is effectively exempt from aged care fee calculations. Finally, while the RAD is an assessable asset for aged care, it is not deemed to earn income like the investments are, so it counts as an asset but not as income. Loading Sally has a house worth $1 million, $650,000 of investments and receives an age pension of $4250 a year. The aged care home has a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) of $500,000. If Sally keeps her home and pays the RAD from her investments, both the home (for two years) and the RAD are exempt from the pension assets test. As a result, her pension increases to $29,874 per year – a jump of more than $25,000. Her means-tested care fee will be just over $10,000 per year until she reaches the lifetime cap, which would take about eight years. After the two-year home exemption ends, the property will be counted for the pension, and her pension will be lost, but only the capped value of $206,663 will continue to apply to her aged care fees.
Glasgow Times
20-06-2025
- General
- Glasgow Times
Are refugees given priority for social housing in Glasgow?
Those who get the blame are not necessarily those who caused the problem but often can be suffering from the problem just as much as anyone else. The homelessness crisis in Glasgow has spiralled out of control and shows no sign of abating. In fact, it is getting worse. Today is World Refugee Day and while Glasgow prides itself on being supportive as a city, not everyone approves of rolling out the welcome mat. Many people have argued that migrants and refugees are getting homes ahead of the settled population. Last month, a senior councillor responded to say migrants were not given priority over local people for social housing. The reaction in some quarters was to basically call the councillor a liar. Many people feel that migrants, particularly refugees, are being put to the front of the queue for housing at the expense of people who have lived here all or most of their lives. The language usually refers to 'our own'. So, what are the facts? Homelessness has increased and Glasgow City Council declared a housing emergency in December 2023. Since then, the situation has become intolerable. In the last three months available, February, March and April, the council received 2017 homelessness applications and, of these, 763 were from refugee households. Non-refugee homeless applications outnumbered refugees by more than two to one. At the last count, there were 4236 households in temporary accommodation, including hotels. Of these, 2342 have refugee status. So bad has the homelessness crisis become, the council is forced to spend more than £40million a year on hotels for homeless people just to prevent rough sleeping. In hotels and bed and breakfasts, the council has 1721 households. Of these 1246 have refugee status. Refugees in hotels outnumber non-refugees by almost three to one. Recently, the Glasgow Times spoke to a refugee couple who spent more than a year in a hotel for homeless people. When someone, an individual or family, is granted leave to remain, they are not automatically given a tenancy. Instead, they face the same hardship as other homeless people who are not refugees. Based on the numbers, refugees are more likely to be in hotels than other people. The criteria to be moved out of a hotel into a temporary accommodation flat make no mention of refugee status. Glasgow City Council said: 'Each household's situation is unique, and we make decisions on moving to them to an alternative placement on an individual basis. The Unsuitable Accommodation Order is a factor in the decision to move a household to alternative accommodation.' When asked if there are any circumstances that give priority to someone to be allocated a hotel room or temporary accommodations, the council said there were not. When asked, 'Is there any priority throughout the processes given to people with refugee status that is not afforded to other people?' the answer was: 'No.' The largest provider of social rented homes in Glasgow is Wheatley Homes. Their allocation policy by law is based on housing need. Priority is given to statutory homeless people, people who are living in overcrowded houses, those who are occupying houses which don't meet the tolerable standard and those who have large families and people living under unsatisfactory housing conditions. Again, no specific criteria are mentioned about refugees or arriving in the city from another country. The homelessness emergency has put pressure on Wheatley Homes Glasgow's stock. It commits to give 60% of its new lets in Glasgow each year to homeless households. For 2024/25 and 2025/26, that commitment is for at least 1600 lets. The social landlord has an ambitious wider target of making 11,000 homes available to tackle rough sleeping by the end of 2026. It has several bands based on level of housing need. The top three are: Band A: Wheatley Group tenants who require urgent re-housing to prevent homelessness Band B: Statutory homeless referrals Band C: Preventing homelessness The stated policies of both the council and Wheatley, as the biggest social landlord, do not mention refugees as a category. The numbers in temporary accommodation and the extremely high number in hotels strongly suggest that refugees are not being fast-tracked into tenancies ahead of other people. There is a finite amount of available homes and the flow of people coming through the asylum system is leading to more refugees on the waiting list for housing. But there appears to be no evidence that they are getting preferential treatment. The Glasgow Times also asked the housing minister, Paul McLennan, if refugees or migrants were given priority. He said he knows from his time as a local councillor for many years that is not the case. The increase in asylum seekers in Glasgow who then get refugee status has led to more people who need accommodation. But according to the available numbers, policies and statements, they are treated the same as any other homeless person.
Sydney Morning Herald
17-06-2025
- Business
- Sydney Morning Herald
Aged care reform delays could save you thousands – if you act soon
Less than a month out from its 'once-in-a-generation' aged care reforms, the Albanese government has hit pause. The changes, originally set for July 1, have been delayed until November 1 – giving a critical four-month window to act under the current, more favourable rules. For those receiving home care, the 'no-worse-off principle' only applies to people who were approved for a Home Care Package on or before September 12 last year. Anyone approved after that date will transition to the new system once the reforms commence. While the delay will save those individuals money in the short term, the real savings lie with those considering a move into residential aged care. That's because anyone who moves into an aged care home before November 1 will have their fees grandfathered under current rules. One of the biggest changes to the cost of moving into aged care is the introduction of a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) exit fee, which allows providers to keep up to 10 per cent of your RAD over five years. That's $75,000 on a $750,000 room – the maximum that can be charged without government approval. But in many capital cities RADs commonly exceed $1 million, and some high-end homes charge as much as $3 million. On those figures, the exit fee could be as much as $300,000. Another significant change is the introduction of a daily hotelling fee – covering meals, cleaning and laundry – of up to $16. The government currently covers this cost for all residents. But under the new rules, people with modest assets will be asked to pay it themselves. Four months is a short window of time. If you are on the edge of this decision, it's time to act. Over five years, that's an extra $29,000 – another cost you can avoid by moving into care before the reforms take effect. Perhaps the most overlooked cost is the change to the lifetime cap on means-tested fees. While the reforms remove contributions towards clinical care, they replace them with a 'non-clinical care contribution' that will be more expensive for many.
The Age
17-06-2025
- Business
- The Age
Aged care reform delays could save you thousands – if you act soon
Less than a month out from its 'once-in-a-generation' aged care reforms, the Albanese government has hit pause. The changes, originally set for July 1, have been delayed until November 1 – giving a critical four-month window to act under the current, more favourable rules. For those receiving home care, the 'no-worse-off principle' only applies to people who were approved for a Home Care Package on or before September 12 last year. Anyone approved after that date will transition to the new system once the reforms commence. While the delay will save those individuals money in the short term, the real savings lie with those considering a move into residential aged care. That's because anyone who moves into an aged care home before November 1 will have their fees grandfathered under current rules. One of the biggest changes to the cost of moving into aged care is the introduction of a Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) exit fee, which allows providers to keep up to 10 per cent of your RAD over five years. That's $75,000 on a $750,000 room – the maximum that can be charged without government approval. But in many capital cities RADs commonly exceed $1 million, and some high-end homes charge as much as $3 million. On those figures, the exit fee could be as much as $300,000. Another significant change is the introduction of a daily hotelling fee – covering meals, cleaning and laundry – of up to $16. The government currently covers this cost for all residents. But under the new rules, people with modest assets will be asked to pay it themselves. Four months is a short window of time. If you are on the edge of this decision, it's time to act. Over five years, that's an extra $29,000 – another cost you can avoid by moving into care before the reforms take effect. Perhaps the most overlooked cost is the change to the lifetime cap on means-tested fees. While the reforms remove contributions towards clinical care, they replace them with a 'non-clinical care contribution' that will be more expensive for many.
