Abbott gov cuts home care funding - pensioners being forced into nursing homes

Well while the Tradies are getting splashed with a few free $ to go and buy new PC's and power tools, ill pensioners relying on home care plans are facing being forced into a nursing home against their will as the gov has cut funding to the home care service they rely on from July 1st.

I would refer you to one such pensioner, Margot Harker:

It fills me with fear. One side of my body is paralysed from a stroke, writing this is really hard – but I need your help. The government has effectively cut funding to thousands of disabled pensioners, giving us 8 weeks notice and forcing us out of our homes. 

I can't believe the government is doing this. I'm working very hard to recover from a stroke that means I need carers to help me around home. But last month I was informed that my home care funding plan will be changed from July 1 – which means I have to come up with thousands of dollars in contributions in a few weeks or be forced into an aged care facility. 

I don't have that kind of money - I'm a pensioner!!!. This is a cruel policy that's forgotten the 20,000 other pensioners like me who are relying on a bit of help to stay in our homes. My entire life is in my home. 

This isn't just cruel. It doesn't even make financial sense. It's going to cost the government more in the long run by forcing so many people out of their own homes and into expensive aged care facilities. People's health declines quickly in those facilities compared with their homes and it'll just add to the cost of the health system. 

I was just starting to come to terms with my disability after having the stroke. Now my whole life has been turned upside down. I've thought about suicide, and am so depressed about having to lose my home. 

Please, please help me and thousands of other disabled pensioners by signing my petition to Tony Abbott and Mitch Fifield. Don't force us out of our homes. sign petition here  

Update:

The Canberra times has picked up the story. The gov says it hasn't cut funding, more bloody Abbott Doublespeak. Yeah just like he hasn't cut funding to hospitals. Do they think we're fuckin stupid? 20% of care recipients will be forced into nursing homes from lack of care, but the gov maintains it "hasn't cut funding". I call bullshit.

Ms Harker, whose left side was paralysed by the stroke in 2011, has carers come into her home for 90 minutes in the morning and for an hour at night to help her dress, undress and to help prepare meals. 

Her service provider has told her that under the new arrangements, she will either have to pay $2185 a month, cut her hours or move into a nursing home. 

Ms Harker said she could not afford the extra costs or remain in her home on reduced hours. She could also not contemplate leaving her home, which has been modified for her use. 

Her home meant "everything to me; it's my independence". 

"I've made it a beautiful nest," she said. "I can play music and the grandchildren can come and run around and destroy the joint and I'm good with that. I've got my cat and my garden." 

Ms Harker said she spent three months in a nursing home while waiting for her unit to be modified and had to lock her door day and night because of dementia patients entering her room. 

"I felt like I was in jail," she said. 

Combined Pensioners and Superannuants Association of NSW adviser Charmaine Crowe said under the current arrangements, service providers used the block funding to "cross-subsidise" clients, particularly those in the highest-care need category such as Ms Harker. 

Ms Crowe said there were estimates as many as 20 per cent of care recipients would receive fewer hours and be forced into nursing homes under the changes. 

She said that would not save the government money when it paid subsidies of about $56,000 a year on each nursing home resident compared to about $40,000 for the highest level of in-home care recipient. 

"It is far cheaper for the government to provide these home care packages and give people the care they need in their homes than it is to have them in a nursing home," Ms Crowe said. more 

Another budget flop.