The festive season can be as overwhelming as it is merry. Often it is a time when family members gather for the first time in months and catch up on each other's progress with varying degrees of joy.
Others will spend it alone, but possibly not by choice.
![Heather Watson helped find her aunt Marjorie MacLeod a place in the same nursing home as Heather's parents.](/web/20161214220127im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/t/7/e/h/o/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6gl4.png/1481238674745.jpg)
In the first few months of the year residential aged-care homes and placement agencies will be busy with queries and applications for rooms.
"It's called aged-care season because many of us see elderly relatives we haven't seen all year and may be confronted with their frailty," says Teknowcare director of aged-care solutions Denise Tomaras.
![Elderly people are expected to sell their home to fund the Refundable Accommodation Deposit, unless a spouse or ...](/web/20161214220127im_/http://www.theage.com.au/content/dam/images/g/s/t/y/b/e/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gt6gl4.png/1481326515863.jpg)
Tomaras says it is important to be aware of the signs that an elderly person is struggling at home including vagueness, weight loss, spoiled food and unpaid bills.
"Recognising that an elderly person needs assistance is the first step to start a conversation about what can be done to maintain the person in their own home. If you do suggest aged care then look for the right home early on and before any medical crises, so that your family member can make a choice before they need it and be engaged in the final decision," she says.
Anyone needing subsidised government care – either in their own home or in an aged-care facility for respite or permanently – must see an Aged Care Assessment Team (ACAT or ACAS in Victoria).
From that visit, which can be organised through your GP or the Government's myagedcare.gov.au website, will be a report which every care provider needs before they can offer support or a bed.
The price of the room or Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) is determined by the facility and can range between $250,000 and $1 million, depending on the room size, whether it is shared or single ensuite and location.
Residents have the option of paying the RAD or an equivalent daily interest charge which is currently set at 5.76 per cent and known as the Daily Accommodation Payment. They also have the option of a combination of both and may be able to have the DAP deducted from the RAD.
Generally if someone has assets above about $159,631 they will be expected to make some contribution towards the RAD. If the only major asset is their own home and there is no protected person, such as a spouse or dependent child, living in it, then the expectation is you will sell it to pay the RAD or find the money elsewhere.
Residents moving into care have 28 days to decide how to fund the RAD and then six months to pay, although the daily interest charge starts from day one.
Anything paid towards the RAD that is left when the resident leaves the facility is fully refunded to the estate.
One new development to watch for in some provider contracts is an additional daily charge of around $20 for residents who pay the RAD upfront, rather than instalments.
A further cost is if the facility offers extra or additional services rooms which enables them to charge a further $20-120 a day for things like better quality furnishings, a choice of meals, newspapers, wine with dinner.
Then there are the care costs. The basic daily care fee is set at 85 per cent of the full age pension and is currently $48.44 a day.
A person's income and assets will determine whether they make a further contribution. This means-tested care fee can range from nothing, up to a maximum $244.97 a day. It is capped at about $26,000 a year or $62,000 over a person's lifetime.
One of the big dilemmas for people moving into aged care is whether to sell the family home.
Dragonfly Financial Services director Malcolm Phillips says decisions around keeping the family home are important for the flow-on impact on both the age pension and aged-care fees.
Once sold, the proceeds of a home may reduce the pension as well as increase the means-tested care fee, says Phillips.
Aged Care Steps technical manager Lara Hansen says that while finances play a part in which facility you choose, ultimately it is a lifestyle choice.
"We don't make lifestyle choices to make money but to have comfortable accommodation. If the RAD is higher than the assets you have, all that means is you are going to have less available to your estate," she says.
Complexity of aged care is a 'minefield'
The help of an aged-care admissions specialist and flexibility of a privately owned aged-care home in Melbourne's northern suburbs helped Heather Watson achieve a rarely negotiated lower refundable accommodation deposit and find a shared room for her mum and dad.
Nine months later Heather was able to secure another room in the same facility for her aunt Marjorie, 93.
"They are all different people but they are all enjoying it in their own way," says Heather.
"Mum is 90 and has dementia and dad, at 92, recognised he couldn't keep caring for her at home. Both of them had strongly resisted the move into care for several years thinking they could still look after themselves at home and were very reluctant to even talk about it.
"However, after seeing their room and enjoying the immediate benefits of cooked meals, personal and medical care during a good respite period, he finally conceded they needed the care and he has fallen in love with the place."
While Callum and Esme MacLeod tend to stick to themselves, the very outgoing Marjorie MacLeod, 93, has embraced everything the place has to offer from the get togethers with other residents and the outings such as lunch to the local RSL and bus trips to other attractions.
"It's now so lovely to have company and join in on daily activities and not have to worry about cooking, paying bills, vacuuming and shopping," says Marjorie.
For Heather, the process of getting her nearest and dearest into care has been one of highs and lows.
"Centrelink has given us so much conflicting advice which is frustrating and time consuming. We've had figures calculated and recalculated and we are still uncertain where we stand on a couple of issues to do with the RAD which my husband and I have personally loaned to Dad," says Heather.
"It's been a minefield trying to grasp the complexity of aged care but fortunately for me, as an only child, they all, more or less, decided this was the next chapter in their lives and now we are all looking forward to a family gathering at Christmas in their new home," she says.
Bina Brown is a director of aged-care placement company Third Age Matters.