Aged care and home care have become a bit of a political football: But here's why you should be paying attention to it. It’s about to impact your retirement plans more directly than ever. 

The Federal Government's Taskforce into Aged Care has just handed down its final report, and there's A LOT of noise around it. Two of the biggest takeaways from this report are firstly, the suggestion that people should be planning for their aged care and home care needs when they plan for retirement. And secondly, that we should expect to pay for the standards of accommodation and services that we want in our later years, and only expect the government to support our care needs. This will be a big shake up for the aged care system. Some might see them as positive, others will feel like they might lose out. And we won’t know which recommendations the government will adopt or how they’ll implement it until the budget leaks start. 

So today I chat with William Burkitt, Mercer Partner and Leader of Care & Living with Mercer, about how we should plan for our aged care, home care and options for ageing in place when we retire. Care & Living with Mercer provides families with support in navigating the aged care and homecare systems. 

• We talk about how the system works, grasping how both are paid for by retirees today in a simple manner. 

• The increasing hope that everyone will choose to plan their ageing accommodation better, and self-select to ‘age in place’ in their home accessing care services. 

• How families with ageing parents have to grapple with this, and how they might be affected. 

Then we dive into a big discussion on the Federal Government’s Taskforce into Aged Care’s Final Report. 

• We talk about how the recommendations in the report might lead to people paying more for their aged care accommodation and services, but probably won't lead to them paying more for care. 

• Why people might feel angry with the government and why, and whether changing the system is fair. And, how the changes might roll out. 

• Thnking about our cost of living in this stage of life when we age, with these recommendations in mind, contemplating the reality that we probably all should expect to pay our core accommodation and general lifestyle expenses all of our life, rather than expecting the government to fund them in the last year or two. 

• How the industry which has huge staffing issues and struggles to provide quality services might change if these market forces change. 

• Where the funds to pay for aged care can come from, correcting some of the media reports about it targeting your superannuation. And the role of superannuation in supporting ageing.