🧾 Understanding the Aged Care Income & Asset Assessment

🧠 TL;DR When someone enters residential aged care, Centrelink’s Aged Care team assesses their income and assets to determine daily fees. We audit, submit, chase, and verify this process. But this isn’t a one-time job—your aged care fees can and will change over time. If records aren’t updated, you may be significantly overcharged or undercharged. That’s why our ongoing role—keeping Centrelink records clean and fees correct—is just as critical as getting it right the first time.

📷 Day One is Important—but It’s Just the Beginning

Centrelink uses the day you enter permanent aged care to take a snapshot of your income and assets. That snapshot determines your initial daily care fees.

But life continues to change—money is spent, assets are sold, RADs are paid, funerals are prepaid, annuities start, portfolios rise and fall. Any of these events can and do change your Centrelink-assessed aged care fees.

So, while we work hard to make sure you’re assessed accurately at the start—our job doesn’t stop there. It’s an ongoing maintenance process.

🧹 Step 1: Cleaning the Slate

Before anything goes to Centrelink, we:

Audit every single detail of your Centrelink file.
Remove old, incorrect, or unnecessary data.
Update current income, assets, pensions, and authorities.

Why? Because if outdated info is on file, Centrelink will use it. That’s how people get charged incorrectly—sometimes by thousands of dollars per month.

Think of it like moving house—you wouldn’t bring your junk mail with you.

📝 Step 2: Submitting and Chasing the Assessment

We submit the Income and Asset Assessment form to the Aged Care team and then:

Chase progress every 2–3 business days.
Receive and review the Centrelink fee letter.
Cross-check Centrelink’s fee against our own calculations.

Centrelink sends this letter to:

The aged care facility (accounts team),
The resident, and
Us (as your nominee).

We verify that the fees are reasonable (typically within a $1–$2 margin), and immediately flag anything that seems off.

💸 Step 3: Intervening When Things Go Wrong

Sometimes Centrelink hasn’t finished their work before fees are due. In that case:

Centrelink will flag the status as “Means Not Disclosed” and instruct the aged care facility to charge the maximum fee (currently up to $416/day).
We then intervene directly with the facility, often saying:

“We’re managing Resident X. Based on our calculations, their fee should be $5/day. Please apply this as an interim charge.”

Most aged care providers trust our work and are happy to charge the lower figure until Centrelink finalises the letter—because we do this all day, every day.

⏳ Step 4: Why Ongoing Updates Are Essential

Here’s what many people don’t know:
Centrelink reassesses aged care fees regularly—at least quarterly, often more frequently.

You are required to:

Notify Centrelink of changes to your income and assets.
Respond to Requests for Information (RFIs).
Keep records up to date—or risk your fees being escalated or suspended.

If you don’t:

Centrelink may revert you to “Means Not Disclosed” and apply maximum fees again.
You may owe thousands in back payments or miss out on significant credits.
Recovering funds after a resident passes away can become very difficult.

This is not a “set and forget” process. It’s an active, living system that needs to be managed over time.

🔁 Real-Life Examples of Fee Changes

Here’s what can trigger a reassessment:

Paying a RAD or DAP
Selling the family home or car
Entering an annuity or investment
Receiving a large gift or inheritance
Prepaying funeral expenses
Fluctuations in super, managed funds, or shares
Centrelink asking for clarification or evidence

We stay on top of all these changes so your fees reflect your actual circumstances—not assumptions.

🧭 Why Are Aged Care Facilities So Focused on This?

You might find that your aged care provider is pushing for the income and asset assessment to be submitted immediately, or even insisting that it’s required before entry.

Here’s why:

Errors or omissions on these forms often result in people being undercharged at first.
When Centrelink later corrects the assessment, the aged care facility is legally required to backdate and recover the shortfall.
This puts the facility in the awkward position of being “the bad guy,” chasing large back payments—even though they’re just following Centrelink’s directions.
These cases are especially tricky when someone is incorrectly assessed as low means (or not at all) but is later found to be a market-price payer.

So yes—it’s great to have the assessment done before you enter care. But…

Don’t panic if it hasn’t been done yet.
You have 28 days, and when professionals like Prime Years are involved, most facilities are more than happy to work with us directly until Centrelink finalises the letter.

We liaise with facility billing teams, explain interim fee calculations, and ensure they feel confident everything is being handled by experts. In fact, many aged care teams trust our assessments more than their own checklists.

✅ Our Role at Prime Years

We go beyond one-off form filling. We:

Clean up your Centrelink record before assessment.
Submit and chase every stage with the Aged Care team.
Calculate interim fees and liaise with facility billing teams.
Track and trigger reassessments as your situation changes.
Protect your family from overcharging, debt collection, and unnecessary stress.

⚙️ What Happens If Centrelink Is Wrong?

Even after a formal assessment, errors happen:

If they assessed incorrectly, we lodge a reassessment.
A corrected fee letter is issued, and any differences are adjusted by the facility.
We follow through until everything is finalised and fair.

Want Peace of Mind?

This is what we do—accurately, proactively, and repeatedly.

For most people, aged care fees will change multiple times during their stay.
It’s not enough to “get it right once.”
That’s why we stay involved.