Aged care warns over dementia payment cut
An aged care provider has issued a last-minute plea to the Abbott government not to axe a special payment for dementia sufferers.
From July 31, a $16-a-day dementia and severe behaviours supplement will be scrapped because of its growing cost to the federal budget.
The cost of the Labor-created payment has blown out 10-fold because of the demand for it and if continued it was expected to have a $1.5 billion impact on the budget over a decade.
The government is now consulting the aged-care sector on an alternative option for dealing with severe dementia.
Bruce Mildenhall, the chairman of Doutta Galla Aged Services which runs eight facilities, said his organisation would have to find $800,000 when the money was ripped out of its budget.
"This is a dreadful attack on some of the most vulnerable and helpless people in our community," Mr Mildenhall said at a joint media conference with Opposition Leader Bill Shorten in Melbourne on Tuesday.
"It is a real problem for us and it is a problem right around Australia."
Mr Mildenhall said despite the government naming dementia as one of the top 10 health issues, it had "decided to bury their head in the sand".
Mr Shorten said there was a real anxiety about the cut.
"Tony Abbott thinks, or perhaps hopes, that people have forgotten his unfair budget," Mr Shorten said.
"This is a disaster for aged care throughout Australia."
