Workforce Supplement for aged care services 065-13040080

Item

Description

1

Question: When did the Workforce Supplement come into effect?

Answer: From:

• 1 July 2013 for Residential Care services
• 1 August 2013 for Home Care services

2

Question: Who was eligible for the Workforce Supplement?

Answer: Aged care providers who met eligibility criteria. These included eligible organisations that:

• were funded to deliver services under eligible programs
• provided written advice to their staff of their intention to apply for the Aged Care Workforce Supplement
• agreed to use the Aged Care Workforce Supplement exclusively to provide wage increases for staff under eligible programs and met the specified minimum commitments in the Aged Care Workforce compact
• participated in the Aged Care Workforce census and survey
• submitted an application form declaring that they meet the requirements and commitments of the Aged Care Workforce compact

3

Question: How was this determined?

Answer: The Department of Social Services was responsible for the eligibility determinations.

4

Question: Was there an application form?

Answer: Yes. Aged care providers received a letter from the Department of Health and Aged Care in mid-2013 explaining the requirements of the Workforce Supplement and how to access payments.

The application process moved to being managed by Department of Social Services.

5

Question: How much is the supplement?

Answer: For the first 12 months, the Workforce Supplement will be 1% of the service’s basic daily subsidy.

The subsidy is indexed annually:

• 2013/14 = 1%
• 2014/15 = 2%
• 2015/16 = 3%
• 2016/17 = 3.5%

Note: these rates are subject to change at Department of Social Services' discretion.

6

Question: How does this affect the system?

Answer: The Workforce Supplement is loaded and processed in the same way as the Conditional Adjustment Payment indicators and payment calculation.

The following changes support the Workforce Supplement:

• The Workforce Supplement indicator is located on the Browse CAP and Workforce Eligibility screen in System for the Payment of Aged Residential Care (SPARC)
• Payment statements display the Workforce Supplement amount
• The Aged Care Payment System processes the supplement for Home Care Packages

7

Question: How does this impact services?

Answer: From October 2013, the Workforce Supplement was paid as part of the monthly advance along with other supplements a service may have been entitled to.

8

Question: When did the supplement cease?

Answer: No new applications were able to be lodged from 26 September 2013. Existing approved applicants were supported using a transitional arrangement.

9

Question: What were the transitional arrangements made?

Answer: The government amended the Residential Care Subsidy Principles 1997 and provided for the payment of a transitional workforce supplement to eligible approved providers for the period 12 December 2013 until 30 June 2014.

Team

Responsibility

Workforce Supplement External Agency (Forms Admin)

• Consolidating a file that contains a full list of services with a recorded eligibility for the Workforce Supplement
• Sending the file to the Workforce supplement team within the Department of Social Services (DSS) and the Residential and Telehealth team within Services Australia

Workforce Supplement team within DSS

Policy and guidelines.

Residential and Telehealth team within Services Australia

• Receives the Workforce Supplement file from the external agency
• Ensures that any file errors and discrepancies identified on the Workforce Supplement exception reports are followed up with the Workforce supplement team within DSS and/or the external agency
• Upload the Workforce supplement file into the System for the Payment of Aged Residential Care (SPARC)

Error type

Contact

System related issues or errors

ICT Service Desk within Services Australia.

Policy and data file issues or errors

Workforce supplement team within Department of Social Services (DSS).

Note: manual file creation was required or a corrected file needed to be obtained from DSS.