Bills Digest no. 128 2008–09
Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support
for Carers) Bill 2009
WARNING:
This Digest was prepared for debate. It reflects the legislation as
introduced and does not canvass subsequent amendments. This Digest
does not have any official legal status. Other sources should be
consulted to determine the subsequent official status of the
Bill.
CONTENTS
Passage history
Purpose
Background
Financial implications
Main provisions
Contact officer & copyright details
Passage history
Date
introduced: 18 March
2009
House: House of Representatives
Portfolio: Families, Housing, Community Services
and Indigenous Affairs
Commencement:
1 July 2009
Links: The
relevant links to the Bill, Explanatory Memorandum and second
reading speech can be accessed via BillsNet, which is at http://www.aph.gov.au/bills/.
When Bills have been passed they can be found at ComLaw, which is
at http://www.comlaw.gov.au/.
To broaden the eligibility
criteria for access to Carer Payment for people caring for disabled
children.
Carer Payment (CP) is an income support payment for people who
provide constant care to a disabled adult or a child with a
profound disability. It is targeted at carers who cannot support
themselves through employment due to the demands of their caring
role. CP is only available to full-time carers who have low enough
incomes to qualify under the pension income test. If they have a
partner their combined private income must be below about $68 000
for even a small part payment to be possible. The care must be
provided in the home of the person being cared for.
CP was first introduced in December 1983 but it was only
available to people caring for adults until July 1998[1]. At that time eligibility
was extended to people caring for a narrowly defined category of
profoundly disabled children aged under 16 years. Carers could also
qualify if caring for two or more children with a disability who
individually would not qualify them for a payment.
In July 2006 eligibility for CP was broadened to carers of
children with severe intellectual, psychiatric or behavioural
disabilities who required constant care or supervision[2]. However, even with this
change only 7 000 children are presently being cared for by CP
recipients. This is quite a small number considering that there
were 113 549 carers receiving Carer Allowance to assist them with
the costs involved in the care they provided to a child (or
children) with a disability in June 2008.
However, the care requirements for Carer Allowance are far less
rigorous then the care requirements for CP. The care requirements
for CP, caring for an adult are also less rigorous than the CP care
requirements, caring for a child. The origin of this is the concern
that in many cases the care required by a child can be present just
because the child is very young. Governments have been wary about
providing CP to a parent fulfilling a normal parenting role. CP,
caring for a child, has been targeted at carers of severely
disabled children and the care arising from the illness or
disability.
In 2007 the Howard Government introduced a Carer Adjustment
Payment (CAP) of up to $10 000. The CAP was available where a
family had a child aged up to 6 years who was diagnosed with a
major disability due to accidental injury or severe illness. CAP
was an interim payment available while a review of CP for carers of
children was being conducted and it was to terminate on
30 June 2008.[3]
Funding was provided in the 2008 Budget for CAP to continue to be
available past that date.
This trial payment represented a significant departure from
existing policy on assistance to carers. It appears to have been
prompted by the case of a young eye cancer sufferer from Melbourne.
In March 2007 the then Prime Minister announced on Melbourne radio
that the child s family would receive an ex-gratia payment of
$10 000 to help with the costs of adjusting to their son s
disability. [4]
A Review Taskforce headed by Anthony Blunn was established in
March 2007 to examine the effectiveness of CP as a safety net for
carers of children with profound disabilities or severe medical
conditions. The report of the review released in early 2008
concluded that CP did not provide such a safety net and recommended
changes that are now the subject of this Bill.[5]
The changes essentially seek to broaden the qualification
criteria and base them on the level of care required. The new
Disability Care Load Assessment (Child) Determination to be
introduced by this Bill is intended to provide an objective tool
for assessing the care requirements of care recipients. When
dealing with children, the task of assessing care requirements is
complicated by the fact that all children need a certain level of
care appropriate to their age and level of maturity. A child can
require a lot of care just because it is very young. It is the
extra care that a child with a disability needs, over and above a
child of the same age without that disability, that is to be
assessed.
At present the number of children whose carers are eligible for
CP is about 7 000. It is anticipated that the changes in the Bill
will allow another 19 000 carers of disabled children to qualify
for CP.[6]
The Bill contains amendments that propose to delete the existing
method of determining eligibility for CP, caring for a child, with
a new method. The existing method is based on medical criteria
relating to the child s disability or medical condition. The new
method bases eligibility on the level of care required. The Bill
provides for the Secretary to devise a disallowable legislative
instrument called the Disability Care Load Assessment (Child)
Determination. This will include:
- a test for assessing the functional ability, behaviour and
special care needs of a child that includes a section to be
completed by a treating health professional.
- a method of rating the child s care needs, and
- a method of providing a qualifying rating for the carer that
takes account of the care provided by the carer and the assessment
of the health professional.
The proposed movement away from focussing on the child s actual
medical condition to the care requirements is consistent with the
application of care requirements for qualification for Carer
Allowance. The previous focus on the child s medical condition was
probably driven by the desire to confine access to CP, caring for a
child, to those cases where the child had a very profound and
serious condition.
The test to be devised by the Secretary will probably be like
other tests used in determining qualification to payments. To
assist with assessing the child care requirements, the Carer
Allowance payment uses the Child Disability Assessment Tool (CDAT).
CP, caring for an adult, uses the Adult Disability Assessment Tool
(ADAT). Both names of these tools are a bit misleading as they do
not just assess the medical condition or disability but involve
assessments of the care requirements and needs arising from the
care receiver s medical condition/disability. The use of such tools
is beneficial as it provides for consistent assessments of care
needs and care requirements between cases. No two care situations
are the same and the same medical condition or disability affects
individuals differently. The capacity of a person to cope with a
medical condition or disability does vary between individuals and
therefore their care needs vary.
The measures in this Bill were announced in the 2008 Budget as
part of a broader package of carer assistance measures.[7]
The Bill has been referred
to the Senate Community Affairs Committee for inquiry and report by
7 May 2009. Details of the inquiry are at:
http://www.aph.gov.au/senate/committee/clac_ctte/soc_sec_improved_support_for_carers_09/index.htm
The measures in this Bill will cost an estimated $271.5 million
over the four years 2008-09 to 2011 12.
Schedule 1 contains amendments that delete the
existing method of determining eligibility for CP when caring for a
child and replace it with a new method. The existing method is
based on medical criteria relating to the child s disability or
medical condition. The new method bases eligibility on the level of
care required.
Item 3 adds new section 38E
which provides for a legislative instrument called the Disability
Care Load Assessment (Child) Determination. This will include:
- a test for assessing the functional ability, behaviour and
special care needs of a child that includes a section to be
completed by a treating health professional,
- a method of rating the child s care needs, and
- a method of providing a qualifying rating for the carer that
takes account of the care provided by the carer and the assessment
of the health professional.
This item also adds new section 38F which
provides for a legislative instrument that determines which people
or classes of people are treating health professionals.
Items 7 and 9 repeal the definition of
profoundly disabled child in existing subsections 197(1), (2),
(2AA) and (2A) that form the basis of the existing eligibility
criteria for CP when caring for a child.[8]
Item 10 inserts new sections 197A to
197H, 197J and 197K. They, along with existing sections
198, 198AA, 198AB and 198AC, set out the range of circumstances
where a person may qualify for CP. New section
197A lists all these circumstances, most but not all of
which relate only to care of children. The section reads as
follows:
- The following sections set out the circumstances in which a
person is qualified for a carer payment:
- section 197B (child with a severe disability or severe medical
condition);
- section 197C (2 or more children each with a disability or
medical condition);
- section 197D (disabled adult and one or more children each with
a disability or medical condition);
- section 197E (child who has a terminal condition);
- section 197F (exchanged care of children);
- section 197G (short term or episodic care of children);
- section 197H (extension of short term or episodic care of
children);
- section 198 (disabled adult, or disabled adult and dependent
child);
- section 198AA (hospitalisation).
- In addition, sections 198AB and 198AC allow a person to
continue to qualify for a carer payment in certain short-term
circumstances.
The basic qualification conditions for CP in these new sections
remain much the same as in the existing legislation. Basically the
carer must:
- provide constant care to a care receiver who has high care
needs,
- provide that care in the home of the care receiver, and
- be an Australian resident.
However there is a new feature included in these new sections.
The constant care provided by the carer must severely restrict the
carer s capacity to undertake paid employment. This is set out in
paragraph (1)(d) of new sections 197B, 197C and
197D and paragraph (1)(c) of new section
197E. This explicit provision is new but there is already
a current limit on the number of hours per week that a carer can
cease to provide constant care under section 198AC(4):
198AC.(4) If:
- a person is qualified for carer payment because the person is
personally providing constant care for a care receiver or care
receivers; and
- the person temporarily ceases to provide that care in order to
undertake training, education, unpaid voluntary work or paid
employment; and
- the cessation does not exceed 25 hours per week;
the person does not cease
to be qualified for the carer payment merely because of the
cessation.
So in effect opportunities for employment have always been
limited by the requirement to provide constant care. Ceasing care
for no longer than 25 hours in a week would limit time for
employment and travel time quite severely. The practical impact of
this new provision is not explicitly discussed in the Explanatory
Memorandum, but several examples are provided on pages 7 to 20 that
help in this regard.
New sections 197C to 197H set out variations on
the basic qualification provisions in new
section 197B to cater for more complex situations
where there are multiple care providers or receivers or short term
or episodic care requirements. The underlying principles that flow
through these provisions require that:
- the care level provided be rated as intense under the
Disability Care Load Assessment (Child ) Determination whether
there is one care receiver or multiple care receivers (including
combinations of children and adults),
- the care must be constant but may involve caring for different
care receivers at different times (for example exchanged care of
children), and
- the care must severely restrict the carers capacity to engage
in paid employment.
Items 11 to 15 amend the parts of
section 198 that presently set out the
qualification conditions for CP when caring for a child. These
parts are superseded by the qualification conditions set out in
new sections 197A to 197H.
Item 16 replaces existing section 198AA which
concerns qualification for CP while a care receiver is in hospital
with new section 198AA. The new section includes
the new qualification categories provided for in new
sections 197A to 197H and removes the 63 day time limit on
qualification for CP while the care receiver is in hospital where
the care receiver is a child.
Item 18 inserts new section
954B. This section provides for automatic eligibility for
Carer Allowance (CA) where a person qualifies for CP when caring
for a child. In some situations the CP recipient may not otherwise
meet the eligibility requirement for CA.
Item 29 inserts new clauses 137 to
141 into Schedule 1A of the Social
Security Act 1991. These clauses are savings provisions that
ensure that no carers are disadvantaged by the changes to CP
qualification provisions. They also ensure that beneficial changes
in this bill flow through to existing recipients of CP.
Schedule 2 makes amendments to the Social
Security (Administration) Act 1999 that are necessary because
of the changes to CA eligibility provided for in new
section 954B (see above) of the Social Security Act
1991.
Members, Senators and Parliamentary staff can obtain further
information from the Parliamentary Library on (02) 6277
2410.
Dale Daniels
8 May 2009
Bills Digest Service
Parliamentary Library
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