{"id":114292,"date":"2025-09-02T23:30:09","date_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:30:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114292\/"},"modified":"2025-09-02T23:30:09","modified_gmt":"2025-09-02T23:30:09","slug":"new-pension-rates-could-cost-residents-thousands","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/114292\/","title":{"rendered":"New pension rates could cost residents thousands"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s easy to think the change to deeming rates on September<\/a> 20 will only affect pensioners. The reality is that deeming affects everyone receiving aged care \u2013 whether you are getting a Home Care Package or living in an aged care home.<\/p>\n

In fact, the biggest impact is likely to fall on self-funded retirees because they typically have more financial assets.<\/p>\n

\"Self-funded<\/p>\n

Self-funded retirees will also be impacted by the changes.Credit: Rob Homer<\/p>\n

When it comes to Home Care Packages, everyone can pay a basic daily fee of about $12 a day. Beyond that, there is an income-tested care fee which full pensioners don\u2019t pay because the threshold is set at the pension level. But part pensioners can pay up to $6862 a year, and self-funded retirees up to $13,724 a year.<\/p>\n

What comes as a surprise to many self-funded retirees is the income test is not based on your taxable income, or even what your investments actually earn, but on Centrelink\u2019s deeming rules.<\/p>\n

From September 20, the deeming rates will increase by half a percentage point on both the lower and upper thresholds. Currently, singles are deemed to earn 0.25 per cent on the first $64,200 of financial assets, and couples on the first $106,200.<\/p>\n

Loading<\/p>\n

That rate will rise to 0.75 per cent. Assets above those thresholds are currently deemed to earn 2.25 per cent, and from September that will increase to 2.75 per cent.<\/p>\n

Take John, a self-funded retiree receiving a Home Care Package. He has $3 million in investments. Under the current deeming rates, he is considered to earn $66,216 a year and pays $20 a day \u2013 almost $7300 a year \u2013 as an income-tested care fee. From September, his deemed income will rise to $81,216 a year, an increase of $15,000, pushing him onto the maximum fee of $37.70 a day.<\/p>\n

The means test used to calculate contributions to the costs of aged care homes uses a combination of your assets and your income. Just like in home care, deeming is applied to your investments when calculating your income. That means many part pensioners and self-funded retirees will see their contributions rise.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s easy to think the change to deeming rates on September 20 will only affect pensioners. The reality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":114293,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[64,63,99,186,184,185],"class_list":{"0":"post-114292","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-business","11":"tag-finance","12":"tag-personal-finance","13":"tag-personalfinance"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114292"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114292\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/114293"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}