What will be assessed as income?

For the purposes of the aged care income test, a resident's income will be assessed in the same way as it is for income support pension purposes.

This means that:

• for all residents, income deemed on financial assets will be assessed;
• for Centrelink income support pensioners, and self-funded retirees who do not have qualifying service, disability pension will be counted as income;
• for DVA service pensioners, and self-funded retirees with qualifying service, disability pension will be exempt income; and
• for DVA aged pensioners and ISS recipients, disability pension and war widow/ers pension will be counted as income (unless they are a female veteran with qualifying service).

Deprived income generated from deprivation that occurred prior to 20 August 1996 will not be included in the income total provided to DH&FS.

It should be noted that in the case of ISS recipients a special discount is applied to the amount of income assessed by DH&FS.    More

Note:  special pension income and asset test assessment rules have been introduced that relate to persons who enter high level care and pay an accommodation charge.  Similarly, special arrangements also apply to persons who paid an accommodation bond to enter high level care and then decided to switch to an accommodation charge when the latter payment was introduced.  For details on the income assessment of these persons, refer to DI C13/98.