In order to provide benefits to our veterans, even to those not receiving service pension, the service pension income assessment rules were extended to self-funded retirees who have qualifying service.
Under the service pension rules, any disability pension such veterans receive will be exempt from assessment as income for the purposes of the DH&FS income tested fees.
Special provisions were included in the aged care principles (under the Residential Care Subsidy Principles) to allow the exemption of disability pension.
Apart from certain exceptions, all future residents of aged care facilities who are self-funded retirees, receive disability pension and have qualifying service, will benefit from the exemption of disability pension as income. This also applies to the spouse of such veterans if they are a resident.
By claiming the exemption Hostel residents entering aged care after 1 October 1997 will pay significantly less fees than they would under the pre 1 October 1997 rules. Nursing home residents will also benefit by claiming the exemption.
Residents receiving hostel level care on a variable fee arrangement that they entered into prior to 1 October 1997 and residents of exempt nursing homes will however continue to have income assessed under existing arrangements.
Residents of hostels paying fees under a variable fee arrangement entered into prior to 1 October will continue to have disability pension assessed as income in the calculation of their variable fees unless they transfer to a new facility.
DVA will be responsible for income testing any self-funded retirees who, enter aged care on or after 1 March 1998, receive disability pension and have qualifying service.
Centrelink will initially contact these people and collect their income details using an income data collection form. If the resident indicates on the income data collection form that he or she may have qualifying service, Centrelink will send the form to the relevant DVA State Office who will check out the person's qualifying service status.
Where qualifying service is established, DVA will take responsibility for assessing the residents income.
Where qualifying service is not established, DVA will transfer the person back to Centrelink who will take responsibility for assessing the residents income.
Some of the residents in this group may actually be entitled to pension (i.e. their income and assets are less than the relevant limits) but they are not aware of this fact. Any such cases encountered should be encouraged to apply for a service pension.
The procedure that will enable DVA to take responsibility for income testing any self-funded retirees who receive disability pension and have qualifying service is as follows:
1.The data matching process identifies which aged care residents are income support pensioners and which are self-funded retirees;
2.Centrelink visit self-funded retirees and/or issue them with an income data collection form (form SA316). Copies of this form are available on request from the contact officer.
3.The Centrelink income data collection form and associated information advises residents that disability pension can be exempted from assessment if they have qualifying service. A tick box on the form allows residents to indicate whether they believe they have qualifying service.
4.The resident fills out the data collection form and returns it to Centrelink. If the qualifying service box has been ticked, Centrelink forward the form to the relevant DVA State Office.
5.Where it is known or is rapidly confirmed that the resident has qualifying service DVA establish an assessment for the resident with disability pension exempt from assessment as income.
To establish an assessment for a self-funded retiree, it is necessary to use the “What If” screen and the information contained on the income data collection form to determine the person's income with disability pension exempted from assessment.
The residential care details screen is then used to enter the person's file number, excess income (half excess income for a married resident) and a date of effect into a database segment from where it will be transferred to the data to be transmitted to DH&FS on a daily basis.
6.If it can rapidly be determined that the person does not have qualifying service, the claimant and Centrelink should be advised accordingly and the claimant's income data collection form details (or screen dumps) should be faxed back to Centrelink. A standard letter for advising the claimant is at Attachment E.
A fax for advising Centrelink is at Attachment D. This fax should be sent as a cover sheet for the income data collection form details. The correct State Office details etc will need to be overwritten on the header of this fax before it is used.
7.Where it is necessary for the resident to lodge a claim for qualifying service, and it will take some time to resolve that claim, DVA establish an assessment for the resident with disability pension exempt as income pending the outcome of their claim. Should the claim be successful the assessment can be left as is. Should the claim fail, the person should be transferred back to Centrelink as outlined in Step 6 and their DVA assessment deleted. From that time onward, their disability pension will be assessed as income by Centrelink.
Claims for qualifying service made for aged care purposes will need to have a form attached to ensure that examiners notify Centrelink if qualifying service is not established. A copy of the form to use is at Attachment B and these can be printed from this DI as required after deleting the reference to the attachment at the top of the page.
8.There is no need to contact Centrelink if a person does have qualifying service. However the claimant will need to be advised of the outcome and a standard letter for doing so is at Attachment C.
9.Where a person has qualifying service, DVA will have continuing responsibility to maintain the person's income details for fee purposes. More [6]
The residential care details screen shown below, can be used by examiners to enter a residents personal details. Relevant information to be entered includes: file number; excess income amount; and date of effect.
For a self-funded retiree with qualifying service, the excess income amount is income, excluding disability pension, above the person's free area. For a partnered self-funded retiree excess income will be half the couple's combined income in excess of the couple's combined income free area.
This screen is available from PIPS PC main menu under the “Other” menu item.
Initially the DH&FS reference number and facility name will not exist.
Once excess income and a date of effect have been entered, however, DVA will match these residents against details included on the next data matching file from DH&FS.
Thereafter, the person's DH&FS reference number and facility name will appear on the screen.
Where a self-funded retiree has a dependent child (as defined for pension purposes), this should be entered in the dependent child check box.
The screen can also be used to view the residential care details of income support pensioners paid by DVA (service pensioners and ISS recipients) but for these people the details cannot be altered.
Links
[1] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32728%23comment-form
[2] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32757%23comment-form
[3] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32611%23comment-form
[4] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32584%23comment-form
[5] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32779%23comment-form
[6] https://clik.dva.gov.au/csrefpopref2-18
[7] https://clik.dva.gov.au/user/login?destination=node/32768%23comment-form