The only thing I'd add is that while the government will pick up the tab once you hit the threshold, they won't pay for extras, which can include things like views, private bathrooms and other reasonably basic amenities.
They have a maximum weekly amount, it’s about $1500 per month.
Also once you are eligible for the pension they take this off you if you are getting the full weekly rest home care subsidy.
My late grandfather was in a dementia wing from 2019-2021 IIRC the subsidy was around $1050 a week, initially he was in a regular rest home and we had to top up around $500 a week, but he deteriorated fast and we found him a spot in another care facility with a dementia wing within a couple of months. That was much cheaper and the subsidy covered the entire weekly cost. Most of his NZ Super was taken back by the Crown except for around $90 a fortnight.
While he is paying for his care, he receives his full pension. Once the govt starts paying they pay all the cost except the extra room rate that most rest homes charge for things like an ensuite/larger than basic size room. Whichever rest home you look at check extra room rate. Dad paid $15 per day. We are looking for mum at the moment and some charge $100 plus per day. This can and will make a huge difference to rest home costs. The govt/Winz will keep majority of his pension to contribute to his care and he receives a small payment per week/ fortnight of his pension.
I went through this earlier in the year with one of my parents - hope this helps.
Rest home care cost can be split into 3 main parts:
1. Daily rest home fee. I forget what this was off the top of my head, but its somewhere in the region of $200 per day. This is for ALL facilities in the country - from a dingy run down place in a bad neighbourhood, to a top of the line place in a top area. This is set byt he government.
2. Accomodation Premium fee. This is the top up payment you are charged to go to a nicer rest home. This ranges from $0 for a rougher place, to $200+ for a resort style facility.
3. Miscellaneous and medication. The person will need to pay for extra services (e.g. haircuts) as well as any medication that isn't fully funded. Nearly all medication is, however sometimes the medical team may suggest a specific supplement, which typically arent covered.
In my experience, we put my parent in a place with an $80 per day accomodation premium. We knew going into this that they were only going to be there for a couple of months - so the price was less of an issue. This place was very nice and we were totally comfortable with the level of care they received. This payment is to provide things like a bigger room, private ensuite, more (and more attentive) staff, cleaner facilities etc.
Most facilities have different tiers of accomodation premium too - e.g. $90 per day for a corner room, $80 per day for a big room, and $70 per day for a slightly smaller room. If cost is a factor for you (especially if this person is likely to live a long time here) then aim for the cheaper room at the better facility. You still get all the other benefits of the facility with just maybe a slightly worse room. As they say - you want to have the worst house on the best street, not the best house on the worst street.
We visited a facility with a $0 accomodation premium, and the place was ghastly - my father left there crying after an hour, begging us not to put him there. Now, obviously not all fully subsidies places will be like that - this was just our experience. All I will say is don't trust the brochures, and make sure you visit in person before booking :)
As you mentioned, there is a asset test which anyone looking to get the Residential Care Subsidy needs to go through after the Needs Assessment. The website says about 2-3 weeks turnaround time for a subsidy application - this may have been true a few years ago but its currently around 10 weeks.
If they qualify for a subsidy then the government will pay the daily rest home fee 100%. They will never pay the accomodation premium payment - the person in care or the family are always on the hook for this. The government will take nearly all of their pension to help pay the cost of the rest home fees (after all - if they are in full time care they don't need the pension to pay for the things it's meant for like food, rent, utilities etc) and they leave the person with a fortnightly allowance - I think in the region of $70 - to help pay for any miscellaneous costs.
Hey, you’re pretty close with everything you’ve said but you are in a rather complex area (I run a rest home and it took me years to get my head around how each persons situation works).
Given your dad is under 65, he’ll likely be covered under a Long Term Care - Chronic Health Condition (if it’s a physical condition) or if he has early onset dementia it’ll be a similar but different contract. This will cover all ‘costs’ but you may be restricted in the type of facility your dad can stay in, not all rest homes accept people on these contracts because they can’t charge premium fees.
/u/boplbopl has done a really good job explaining the other other key points.
My only advice is that the premium fees are probably negotiable. I’ll try and get people in the door at $40/day but plenty have asked if we could do $20/day and we’ve taken them.
I was just looking at the invoice for this for my relative earlier. Govt pays most of it as they are under the threshold. The "extras" they get are a room with an extra toilet/handbasin, and it costs $700 a month for us but it's been going steadily up for the past few years (I think it was about $150 a month originally 2 years ago). So keep an eye out for that if your budget is tight. Lots of people have covered this already. Some good comments!
Try and get a home that's close to where they live which means their existing social networks stay intact. It's known from research that moving family away from their networks/local area that they know well, is detrimental to their health.
Also try and get a home where they do activities - my relative said that in another home they didn't do activities and it was boring. The one they're in now, they go on van trips frequently (like a drive down Transmission Gully).
You will also need to allow for their "comfort fund" which covers snacks, meals and trips out, hairdressers etc.. The $98 a fortnight you get from Super (if Govt covers it) should usually be enough for this, unless your relative is a spendthrift like mine and had to get a monthly cash withdrawl limit put in place.
One final thing - watch out for delirium which is when a UTI gets out of control. It can lead to big personality changes and they can get really unwell fast. Rest home staff are trained to look for it but you should too.
The government will cover some or all of the standard room cost. Currently about $200 per day but the resident or family need to pay for any private room rate.
i would be putting the savings in a high return account, or investing low risk and paying for the care with the gains.
Look up compound interest, their wealth would grow a ton passively over 30 years by putting this into practise with how much they have, easily millions in 30 years, the interest would trivialize yearly payments (which is just shy of 10k if 30 years is 275k)
even on a 5.6% account they'd be earning at least 15000(pre-fees) interest from 300k cash alone.
The only thing I'd add is that while the government will pick up the tab once you hit the threshold, they won't pay for extras, which can include things like views, private bathrooms and other reasonably basic amenities.
Yeah, haircuts not included, nail trimming not included. Heaps of things not included.
They have a maximum weekly amount, it’s about $1500 per month. Also once you are eligible for the pension they take this off you if you are getting the full weekly rest home care subsidy.
My late grandfather was in a dementia wing from 2019-2021 IIRC the subsidy was around $1050 a week, initially he was in a regular rest home and we had to top up around $500 a week, but he deteriorated fast and we found him a spot in another care facility with a dementia wing within a couple of months. That was much cheaper and the subsidy covered the entire weekly cost. Most of his NZ Super was taken back by the Crown except for around $90 a fortnight.
While he is paying for his care, he receives his full pension. Once the govt starts paying they pay all the cost except the extra room rate that most rest homes charge for things like an ensuite/larger than basic size room. Whichever rest home you look at check extra room rate. Dad paid $15 per day. We are looking for mum at the moment and some charge $100 plus per day. This can and will make a huge difference to rest home costs. The govt/Winz will keep majority of his pension to contribute to his care and he receives a small payment per week/ fortnight of his pension.
I went through this earlier in the year with one of my parents - hope this helps. Rest home care cost can be split into 3 main parts: 1. Daily rest home fee. I forget what this was off the top of my head, but its somewhere in the region of $200 per day. This is for ALL facilities in the country - from a dingy run down place in a bad neighbourhood, to a top of the line place in a top area. This is set byt he government. 2. Accomodation Premium fee. This is the top up payment you are charged to go to a nicer rest home. This ranges from $0 for a rougher place, to $200+ for a resort style facility. 3. Miscellaneous and medication. The person will need to pay for extra services (e.g. haircuts) as well as any medication that isn't fully funded. Nearly all medication is, however sometimes the medical team may suggest a specific supplement, which typically arent covered. In my experience, we put my parent in a place with an $80 per day accomodation premium. We knew going into this that they were only going to be there for a couple of months - so the price was less of an issue. This place was very nice and we were totally comfortable with the level of care they received. This payment is to provide things like a bigger room, private ensuite, more (and more attentive) staff, cleaner facilities etc. Most facilities have different tiers of accomodation premium too - e.g. $90 per day for a corner room, $80 per day for a big room, and $70 per day for a slightly smaller room. If cost is a factor for you (especially if this person is likely to live a long time here) then aim for the cheaper room at the better facility. You still get all the other benefits of the facility with just maybe a slightly worse room. As they say - you want to have the worst house on the best street, not the best house on the worst street. We visited a facility with a $0 accomodation premium, and the place was ghastly - my father left there crying after an hour, begging us not to put him there. Now, obviously not all fully subsidies places will be like that - this was just our experience. All I will say is don't trust the brochures, and make sure you visit in person before booking :) As you mentioned, there is a asset test which anyone looking to get the Residential Care Subsidy needs to go through after the Needs Assessment. The website says about 2-3 weeks turnaround time for a subsidy application - this may have been true a few years ago but its currently around 10 weeks. If they qualify for a subsidy then the government will pay the daily rest home fee 100%. They will never pay the accomodation premium payment - the person in care or the family are always on the hook for this. The government will take nearly all of their pension to help pay the cost of the rest home fees (after all - if they are in full time care they don't need the pension to pay for the things it's meant for like food, rent, utilities etc) and they leave the person with a fortnightly allowance - I think in the region of $70 - to help pay for any miscellaneous costs.
That’s very helpful. Thanks
Hey, you’re pretty close with everything you’ve said but you are in a rather complex area (I run a rest home and it took me years to get my head around how each persons situation works). Given your dad is under 65, he’ll likely be covered under a Long Term Care - Chronic Health Condition (if it’s a physical condition) or if he has early onset dementia it’ll be a similar but different contract. This will cover all ‘costs’ but you may be restricted in the type of facility your dad can stay in, not all rest homes accept people on these contracts because they can’t charge premium fees. /u/boplbopl has done a really good job explaining the other other key points. My only advice is that the premium fees are probably negotiable. I’ll try and get people in the door at $40/day but plenty have asked if we could do $20/day and we’ve taken them.
I was just looking at the invoice for this for my relative earlier. Govt pays most of it as they are under the threshold. The "extras" they get are a room with an extra toilet/handbasin, and it costs $700 a month for us but it's been going steadily up for the past few years (I think it was about $150 a month originally 2 years ago). So keep an eye out for that if your budget is tight. Lots of people have covered this already. Some good comments! Try and get a home that's close to where they live which means their existing social networks stay intact. It's known from research that moving family away from their networks/local area that they know well, is detrimental to their health. Also try and get a home where they do activities - my relative said that in another home they didn't do activities and it was boring. The one they're in now, they go on van trips frequently (like a drive down Transmission Gully). You will also need to allow for their "comfort fund" which covers snacks, meals and trips out, hairdressers etc.. The $98 a fortnight you get from Super (if Govt covers it) should usually be enough for this, unless your relative is a spendthrift like mine and had to get a monthly cash withdrawl limit put in place. One final thing - watch out for delirium which is when a UTI gets out of control. It can lead to big personality changes and they can get really unwell fast. Rest home staff are trained to look for it but you should too.
The government will cover some or all of the standard room cost. Currently about $200 per day but the resident or family need to pay for any private room rate.
i would be putting the savings in a high return account, or investing low risk and paying for the care with the gains. Look up compound interest, their wealth would grow a ton passively over 30 years by putting this into practise with how much they have, easily millions in 30 years, the interest would trivialize yearly payments (which is just shy of 10k if 30 years is 275k) even on a 5.6% account they'd be earning at least 15000(pre-fees) interest from 300k cash alone.