Closing soon! Royal Commission into Aged Care is calling for submissions from the public into the Terms of Reference.  Submissions close Tuesday 25 September and you can have your say by completing an online form here

Extracts from our submission are below:

We support policy directives to allow people to age in place and remain at home as long as possible. The current aged care system assumes that people have secure and affordable housing as they age, and as the latest Census data shows, this is increasingly not the case.

We are concerned about the difficulty in delivering in-home aged care services to the increasing numbers of older people in insecure housing, including people at risk of homelessness in private rental, rooming housings, couch surfing, in overcrowded dwellings and other temporary housing.

We are concerned about the difficulty in navigating the service system, and the lack of service coordination that prevents early intervention for people at risk of homelessness.

We are concerned at people being prematurely admitted into residential care due to a lack of housing options.

We strongly urge that retirement housing, including retirement villages, residential parks and land lease communities, be included in the Commission’s Terms of Reference.

Many retirement housing providers are now delivering in-home aged care packages to their residents, which has raised concerns about consumer choice, complex contracts and quality.

Some retirement housing operators have also transitioned entire retirement housing communities to aged care facilities without the consent of existing residents.

Other key areas of concern that should be considered in detail by the Royal Commission in relation to retirement housing include:

• Excessive and unfair fees, particularly exit fees;
• Inadequate access to justice, including external dispute resolution;
• Lack of mandatory minimum training and accreditation standards;
• Unfair contract terms and complexity of contracts; and • The adequacy of retirement housing regulation.