Scrap price caps on home mods, say peaks
Peak bodies have major concerns about the lifetime cap for home modifications under Support at Home, telling Community Care Review it will deter older people from using the scheme and see premature entry into residential facilities.
The ability for older people to accrue funds is currently a feature that allows them to make costly home modifications possible and will not be available under the proposed home modifications funding scheme from 1 July 2025, said Occupational Therapy Australia professional practice advisor for aged care Christina Wyatt, who is calling the $15,000 lifetime cap in Support at Home’s Assistive Technology and Home Modifications Scheme “grossly inadequate.”
“Major modifications can cost upwards of $50,000, while even smaller changes, like handrails or step modifications, can quickly consume the lower tiers of funding,” Ms Wyatt said.
Both Ms Wyatt and Home Modifications Australia director Steve Pretzel have called for the price cap to be scrapped, with Mr Pretzel telling Community Care Review it was a “real shock,” when the news first dropped.
“It was a real surprise to us when the minister announced that back in October last year, throughout all of the consultations about the new Support at Home program, the idea of a price cap had never been mentioned, and had it been, we would have been in a position to push back on it at a time when the whole program was being developed,” he told CCR.
Mr Pretzel also noted the importance of accrued funds in making home modifications financially accessible, allowing people to afford the more expensive but necessary modifications to things like their bathrooms.
“If you can’t access your bath safely, then you might be forced to move prematurely into an aged care facility or even worse, have a fall, perhaps break a hip and that can be for many older people the end of their independence entirely,” he said.
It’s not just older people who will be impacted by the price cap, Ms Wyatt explained to CCR, as home modifications are also necessary for providers to ensure a safe work environment for carers.
“Often in the work that occupational therapists do, they’re not only making sure that the environment is safe and accessible for the person living in it, but they’re also thinking about the carer needs of that older person,” she said.
“They’re thinking about how that environment will be able to support the people giving services or the carers, whether that’s a family carer or an unpaid carer, how they can then support that older person with the assistance they provide. So part of the thinking we have is ensuring that all stakeholders who are involved in that older person’s life are able to be facilitated by that environment.”
If the lifetime cap is kept in place, Ms Wyatt and Mr Pretzel both told CCR it would likely create a bigger economic burden, as home modifications play a critical role in reducing hospitalisations.
“We absolutely can improve the ability for people to stay at home if we set the environment up well for them and we continue to modify and adjust that environment as their changing ageing needs require.,” Ms Wyatt told CCR.
“What that means is people will stay home for longer – which is exactly the remit of this new program as far as I understand. It will stop people from going prematurely into residential aged care, which is a significant cost to the Commonwealth Government and they’ve spoken at length about how it is a significant cost to have a person in a bedded facility versus comparatively cared for at home.
“And we absolutely know that it will reduce the cost and the presentations to hospital through injurious falls or other declines in function and wellbeing that would result in a person needing to seek hospitalisation or acute care – and potentially even primary care services as well because they’re not being well cared for and supported in their environment.”
For Mr Pretzel, the lifetime nature of the cap will see older people less likely to install smaller modifications like grab rails, as there will be fears the funds will be needed for bigger changes.
“If the price cap is a lifetime cap, then it’s going to act as a disincentive for people to make even simple modifications now when they need them, because they’ll be thinking, well, I don’t want to spend money on a grab rail or a threshold ramp over the sliding door because I might need that money for something more important later, and by deferring or refusing those simple modifications now, they’re putting themselves at risk again,” he told CCR.
This story was edited for clarity.
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