Five tips for clients when their spouse moves into aged care

Change is a constant life challenge, creating stress and needing time to adjust. A spouse moving into aged care is no different. You can support and provide value to your clients through this adjustment period by helping them know what to expect.

When an older person’s health declines, it can be a difficult time with lots of changes. If they are a member of a couple, adapting to change will affect both the person accessing care and the person who is left at home. For the person who is left at home, examples of changes they might experience include getting used to a new routine, new sleeping arrangements and home environment as well as financial and emotional adjustments.

This article shares five aspects that clients may need to consider.

1. Centrelink age pension:

Eligibility for the age pension is based on a couple’s combined assets and income. But when one person (or both) moves into care, this may see couples qualify for a “pay rise” through a higher age pension eligibility.

When a move into care is involved, illness-separated couple rules apply. These rules still assess the couple’s combined financial means but pay at the higher single rates of pension. This could see age pension payments increase by up to $13,624 per year (combined) and help to cover increased living expenses arising from funding care, as well as other lifestyle needs of both spouses.

Clients should update Centrelink (or Veterans’ Affairs) records as soon as possible after the move and advise Centrelink of the illness-separation.

2. Emotional adjustment:

Many people experience feelings of guilt and/or grief when a spouse makes a move into care. These are normal reactions, and it may take some time for clients to deal with these emotions. Lots of support from good friends and family is important, and seek professional help if needed.

3. Lifestyle change:

Daily routines are likely to change for both members of the couple. The person in care will need to adjust to a new routine, a different bed, a change in meal times and different cooking styles. The aged care staff will be able to help with tips for settling in.

For the person staying at home, the house may feel empty and lonely and a new daily routine without the care activities may need to be sorted. The daily care routine might be replaced with visiting the spouse and regaining some of their own social life.

Carefully choosing the right aged care service is important to ensure the service creates a feeling of home with a high quality of care and services, while also being easy for the spouse to visit.

If the spouse was receiving a home care package before moving into residential care, that package and any support services (such as home cleaning) that it was paying for will stop. Unspent funds are returned to the government.

The spouse left at home might wish to consider whether they now qualify for their own home care package or other home support to help maintain independence. If this is needed, contact the MyAgedCare team to arrange an assessment.

4. The family home:

If one spouse remains at home, the family home is an exempt asset when determining both age pension and aged care fees.

But that person may want to move to a smaller home, or a differently located home or a home in a retirement village or other group setting. Buying a new home for the spouse to live in will keep the former home exemptions, but any equity released may affect both aged care fees and age pension.

This might be the time to pay the spouse’s aged care accommodation cost as a lump sum (if not already paid) or consider investment strategies to maximise entitlements and protect the clients’ overall wealth.

Advice from a qualified financial planner can help to do the numbers and make recommendations on appropriate investment strategies.

5. Legal issues:

Thinking to the future, if the spouse who has moved into care was nominated as enduring power of attorney/guardian or executor of the other spouse’s will, it might be time to review and update documents with a lawyer to nominate someone else.

It might be worth reviewing the documents for both spouses, but changes can only be made if legal capacity is maintained.

Were these tips helpful?

Our members get access to checklists, conversation starters and ready-to-use client articles to help them support clients through their aged care transition. Learn more about how our Business Toolkit™ helps advisers provide expert aged care advice.

Note: All figures and information provided within this article was correct at the time of writing (August 2023).