Date amended:
External
Total assessable income for aged care purposes includes:
- a resident's income support payment (excluding the minimum pension supplement and energy supplement); and
their ordinary/adjusted income as per pension assessment rules.
Residents who do not receive an income support pension are assessed under the social security ordinary/adjusted income test.
The following variations to the ordinary/adjusted income as per pension assessment apply to aged care means testing:
- all periodic compensation payments are counted as ordinary income, i.e. Compensation recovery rules do not apply,
- disability compensation payments are exempt for persons or their partners regardless of whether the person has Qualifying Service (QS),
- MRCA permanent impairment and Special Rate Disability Pension payments are exempt for members, former members and their partners,
- The War Widow(er)'s Pension (WWP) is exempt for the recipient if they have QS in their own right,
- if the resident entered care on or after 1 January 2016 and pays (or is liable to pay) a daily accommodation contribution or a daily accommodation payment, income from rental of the principal home is assessable for aged care means testing (though it is exempt for pension purposes for residents who enter care before 1 January 2017).