The question nobody asks in time
Your mother moves in. For a fortnight everyone talks about the room, the assessment, the RAD or the daily payment. Nobody addresses the plainest practical question: what about her money? Where does the pension go, who signs, and what is left for the hairdresser, the newspaper, a birthday card for a great-grandchild.
Six months later the question arrives on its own, usually badly: a withdrawal nobody can explain, a resident account with no receipts, one sibling who has handled everything and now cannot show the others what happened.
The share that stays hers
Start with the number, because families rarely know it exists. The basic daily fee that every resident pays is not an arbitrary figure — it is pegged to a set proportion of the single basic Age Pension, at 85 per cent. The arithmetic that follows is the useful part: the remaining share of that pension is hers.
Because it is a percentage rather than a fixed sum, it moves each time the pension is indexed, which is why any specific dollar figure you read will be out of date within months. Ask for the current amount rather than trusting a number. But the principle holds: she is not meant to be left with nothing, and if in practice nothing is reaching her, something has gone wrong between the pension, the provider and whoever manages her affairs.
Means-tested care fees and accommodation costs sit on top of the basic daily fee and are a separate conversation. This article is about the part that remains hers afterwards.
Who can manage it if she cannot
If your mother can still manage her own affairs, her money is hers, and being her child gives you no authority over her bank account.
If she made an enduring power of attorney covering financial matters while she had capacity, the attorney can act — the clean and cheap route, and the reason those documents are worth doing years before anyone thinks they are needed.
If she did not, the fallback is not the family and it is not the provider. In each state and territory a tribunal can appoint an administrator or financial manager, and where no suitable person is available that role goes to the public trustee. Families are often surprised and upset by this, so it is worth saying plainly: it is not a punishment, it is what fills the gap when nobody holds lawful authority. It also comes with external accounting, which in a family where siblings disagree is a genuine benefit rather than an insult.
What the home holds, and how it must be handled
Most homes keep a resident account for hairdressing, outings, pharmacy extras, the newspaper. Useful, and fine, provided it is handled the way you handle somebody else's money.
- How is it recorded? A dated entry with a receipt for every amount in and out, not a book totted up at month end.
- How often do I get a statement? Regularly, in writing, without chasing.
- Who authorises spending? The hairdresser every fortnight is one thing; a $200 purchase decided by a staff member is another.
And one practical rule that solves most problems: no meaningful cash in her room, and no bank card. Not because staff are dishonest — the overwhelming majority are not — but because in a room ten people enter every day, cash creates accusations nobody can disprove, and honest care workers are the ones who get hurt by them.
The rule that makes this different from a private complaint
This is the part worth knowing, because it changes what happens when something is wrong. Under the Serious Incident Response Scheme, certain incidents in residential aged care must be reported by the provider to the regulator — and that list includes stealing from a resident and financial coercion by a staff member.
In other words, money taken from your mother by someone working there is not a customer service matter to be smoothed over by the home. It is a reportable incident with a deadline attached, and the provider has an obligation to report it, investigate it and act. If you raise a concern of that kind and are met with "we'll look into it internally", the correct next sentence is: is this being reported under SIRS, and when?
Warning signs
Repeated withdrawals nobody can explain. A signature from a period when she could not have understood the document. A new and very attentive friend who takes her to the bank. A relative who handles everything and bristles when asked to show the accounts. A sudden change to a will or to a superannuation beneficiary.
Banks have their own processes for suspected financial abuse of older customers, and each state has an elder abuse helpline that will talk it through with you before you commit to anything. But the effective first move is the dull one: request two years of bank statements and read them. Most of what gets found is found there.
Six questions to ask
- What is the basic daily fee here, and what is left of her pension after it?
- Is there an enduring power of attorney for financial matters — and if not, who holds lawful authority?
- Does the home hold a resident account for her, and may I see the last six months of it?
- What can the home spend without asking me, and above what amount do you contact me first?
- Where is her bank card, and who knows the PIN? If the answer is uncomfortable, that is the answer.
- How do you handle a suspected theft from a resident, and at what point is it reported under SIRS?
If you get nowhere
Put it in writing to the facility manager, naming the period and asking for an itemised statement. If that does not resolve it, the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission takes complaints from family members, including anonymously, and financial matters and serious incidents are squarely within what it assesses. Free independent advocacy is available through the national aged care advocacy network. Where a criminal offence is likely, it is a police matter and you do not need the provider's agreement to make that call.
Keep copies of everything. In a home where the manager changes every couple of years, the family with the folder is the only one with a memory.
Where to start
If your mother is about to move in, settle this before you sign: where the pension goes, who has lawful authority, whether the home will hold a resident account, and how statements reach you. If she has been there for years and nobody has raised it, start by asking for the account statements. It is an ordinary request and a well-run home will hand them over.
If you would rather not run it alone, we can. For A$109 we take down your mother's situation, look for the homes in your area that answer these questions properly, and report back what they told us, with names and dates. Start here
This article is for information and does not replace legal or financial advice on your own situation. Fees are indexed and substitute decision-making rules differ between states and territories: check the current figures and the rules where your mother lives. Curalune does not allocate beds and does not guarantee availability.