Imagine discovering you’d been paying thousands of dollars more per year for something than you should have been.
For many people, that’s the sort of discrepancy they couldn’t help but notice, but it can happen – and it did. In this case, the mismatch arose from a few basic mistakes in information lodged by one couple with Centrelink.
At the centre of the mix-up was a man suffering from dementia who had recently moved to an aged care facility. The man’s wife noticed by chance that the value of the couple’s assets was overstated by $400,000.
As assets are used to assess fees payable, this discrepancy affected the accommodation contribution required from the couple. They were paying $126 a day plus the basic daily fee, and a means-tested care fee. What they should have been paying was roughly $45 a day plus the basic daily fee.
A discrepancy of $81 per day very quickly blows out to thousands of dollars.
The Centrelink miscalculations were the result of two errors in the assessment by the couple. The first was a straight overstatement in cash assets of $50,000. The amount had been withdrawn more than two decades earlier and used it to buy a motorhome, which they later sold but the $50,000 wasn’t taken off their assessment.
Second, a superannuation account from which the couple had been drawing a pension for a similar period – over two decades – was accidentally tagged as being in the accumulation phase. That added to the fees the couple should not have been paying.
Correcting errors in the Centrelink assessment
The finer details of this particular story are, understandably, not public but Centrelink has told YourLifeChoices that they can only assess aged care costs based on the information provided by the retiree.
“Once aged care costs have been assessed, it’s important for customers to continue to keep their personal and financial details up-to-date with Services Australia or the Department of Veterans Affairs, if applicable,” Services Australia General Manager Hank Jongen said.
“This is because changes to a person’s circumstances can change how much they pay towards their aged care costs.
“We encourage people to carefully check [the letter from Services Australia] to ensure the information and assets that we’ve used to assess their aged care costs are correct. The letter has contact details for customers to let us or the DVA know if the personal and financial information used is incorrect out out-of-date.”
The experience of this couple’s story serves as a reminder. When dealing with Centrelink (or any institution), it’s important to make sure your details are recorded correctly.
In cases such as this, that includes financial details. Given the Robodebt disaster, many people are understandably wary of disclosing personal financial details to Centrelink. But this story shows that the consequences of errors can cut both ways.
What can we do?
What is recommended is checking that Centrelink representatives record all your provided details correctly when you provide them. And it would pay to do a periodic check on these to make sure they remain correct.
Services Australia also allows people such as a friend or family member to have an authorised representative to deal with Centrelink on their behalf. Aged care recipients can also appoint a person or organisation to support them in their dealings with My Aged Care. This is especially important if, like one half of the couple in this story, the recipient has dementia.
Such checks and appointments would, of course, require making contact with Centrelink, which is more often than not a challenge in itself. But doing so could well ensure you’re not thousands of dollars out of pocket.
Have you discovered incorrect details recorded by Centrelink? What was your experience of attempting to get them corrected? Let us know via the comments section below.
Also read: Centrelink accused of ‘refusing to take calls’
Disclaimer: This article was amended on 22nd Feb to include a quote from Services Australia and to remove the suggestion that it was a Centrelink error that contributed to this case. All content on YourLifeChoices website is of a general nature and has been prepared without taking into account your objectives, financial situation or needs. It has been prepared with due care but no guarantees are provided for the ongoing accuracy or relevance. Before making a decision based on this information, you should consider its appropriateness in regard to your own circumstances. You should seek professional advice from a financial planner, lawyer or tax agent in relation to any aspects that affect your financial and legal circumstances.