Tony Abbott (Warringah, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do not intend to detain the House long at all on this bill because the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009 is about as uncontroversial as a piece of legislation can be. That does not necessarily mean that there will not be any contention in the House, but I am fairly confident that the contention will be over other aspects of social security policy, not about the particular provisions of this bill. Essentially what this bill does is change the criterion for carers to go on the carer payment from one determined by medical classification to one determined by the actual level of care provided. As well, it changes the terminology of disability to something more appropriate and more sensitive to the modern ear. It is essentially housekeeping. It will benefit many thousands of people over time, as the costings reflect. The opposition support this bill and we commend it to the House.

Annette Ellis (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is indeed a pleasure to rise this evening to speak in support of the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009. As has probably been said by other members, the earlier bill, the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009, provides part of the government’s response to the report of the Carer Payment (child) Review Taskforce. It gives effect to a number of measures aimed at improving assistance to carers from 1 July this year. The bill we are debating tonight is the companion bill to the improved support for carers bill, which has passed through the House already. This bill now comes in, as the previous speaker said, to put into effect most of the provisions required for carers in this area. I am really very pleased to see this happening and to be part of the clarification process in the parliament tonight.

As most members will be aware, a committee I chair recently provided a report to the parliament on the role of carers in our society. Through that process we had the opportunity—and the privilege, I might add—to speak and listen to literally hundreds and hundreds of carers around the country. We had the opportunity to hear precisely what they had to say about their lives, the impact of the caring role on their lives and the sorts of things that they saw as important in attempting to lighten the load or to make their journey through their life of caring a little bit more bearable and manageable. Many of the things that are in this bill answer some of those questions and will make things a lot better for many carers. For instance, the amendments will include the removal of references in social security law which, from 1 July this year, will be redundant and the replacement of those references with the new terms necessary for the proper administration of the changes to be introduced.

There are a couple of things I would like to mention briefly, if I may, which really will have a great effect on the day-to-day lives of these people. One of them is the 63-day rule. Amendments made by this bill will provide that carers who qualify for the carer payment under the new qualification provisions will be able to take advantage of the existing benefits for carers. For example, under the 63-day rule, carers can temporarily cease to provide constant care but remain qualified for the carer payment. What this new provision will mean is that, if you are in a caring role and the person for whom you are caring has a period in hospital or a period of respite care for up to 63 days per annum, the carer payment will continue to be made. That makes life a whole heap easier. The cost of caring does not necessarily dissolve into nothing just because the person you are offering that care to is not literally in your house or under your care. As I said, they could be in hospital or respite care or a similar type of arrangement. I think this is a really sensible provision and will be very welcome for a number of people out there.

One of the other provisions is the special backdating for the carer payment. Given that this is a new regime, a new order of things, and knowing the frantic lives that these people lead, it may take a little while for some of them to access the new forms and the new transitional arrangements. Between 1 July and 1 October this year, if there is evidence in an application from a treating health professional indicating that the carer would have been qualified for the payment within that period—had they known that they could in fact have made that application or had they had the time to make the application—the application can be backdated, as a transitional arrangement under the new rules. So between 1 July and 1 October this year there is a little bit of flexibility, given the right circumstances, for the carer in question to be accommodated through the application process, should that be required. Again, that makes it just that bit easier for these people and offers some understanding of the types of situations that they find themselves in and the pressures that we all know they face. I do not know how other members feel, but I know that in my own life sometimes I can be very busy. Sometimes paperwork flows through your letterbox and you are not really sure how quickly you will be able to look at it. If you are in a caring role, I tell you, it can be all the more difficult. It is hard enough in normal life, let alone in those sorts of circumstances.

I am really very pleased to see that we are now progressing. As I said, the original bill has gone through the House, and I believe it is now in the other place. We now have this machinery piece of legislation which will put into place the provisions that were alluded to in the earlier bill. This bill makes them all technically possible. I am very, very happy to think that we are going to see this happen, that we are going to see the progress brought about by these legislative changes. I have only mentioned a couple of them in brief, but I know that for the carers that we have spoken to through our inquiry process and the people that we all know in our constituencies this is really going to make a difference. That is what we are all here for, I believe, as parliamentarians. In cases like this we can actually make a practical difference to the lives of people who really need assistance. So I welcome this bill. As technical as it may be in some cases, it will put into action the provisions of the previous piece of legislation. Importantly, it builds on the work of the Carer Payment (child) Review Taskforce, which set this in train in the first place. I am proud to be a member of the government that set that up. I am proud that we are now seeing the provisions come in and that the benefits will flow through to those who have caring roles in our community. I welcome this legislation into the House.

Sussan Ley (Farrer, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Justice and Customs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Like the previous two speakers, I welcome the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009. It is insignificant and technical in itself, but it is part of a very important range of measures that will make life easier for carers. As our opposition spokesman said a few moments ago, there would be few less contentious pieces of legislation to go through the House. So, of course, we in the opposition welcome the measures in this bill and the changes that they will help bring to the lives of carers.

I was privileged to be part of the Standing Committee on Family and Community Affairs for a short while last year and to commence work on the inquiry that was tabled recently. I recognise the previous speaker, the member for Canberra, for her chairmanship of that inquiry. The report was called Who cares…? It really puts so much of what carers feel, believe and passionately want into words. It was a privilege to be part of that committee. As members of parliament, every day we hear and see the results of people struggling with the caring role. I just want to touch on a couple of the special moments for me as part of that committee and the moments that encouraged me to work harder for carers. They were the representations made by young carers—those who are children struggling with school or in some cases young people at university and who are actually the carers in their family. One particular young lady said:

… I have been caring for my father since I was 12 years old and he retired. Over those years I did not have any support. It was not until the start of this year that I found community options. So for seven years I was doing it on my own and attending high school. It was not actually until I started university—and I am doing psychology—that I realised that dad could have a mental illness. I went to his GP and I said, ‘Dad could have depression’. I was told that, because I do not have a medical degree, I did not know what I was talking about. So for six months dad went undiagnosed. Subsequently he took himself to hospital with suicidal thoughts. That was a big shock to me personally. For 12 months dad did not have any treatment. I just want to say that, because of that, I would really like GPs to consider that carers are a big part of the lives of the people they look after.

I do not read that third-party quote to criticise GPs at all, but simply to say that the issue of carers and those that they look after is a community-wide issue and everybody involved needs to be aware of this. All carers that come to see me in my office without question, apart from being exhausted, talk about their responsibility. They talk about the positives as well; it is not all negative. They have such low expectations and they feel this is a burden that they have to carry very much on their own. If every other chain in the process—including GPs, advocates, workmates and everybody involved—recognised the enormous load that the caring role places on individuals and offered a bit of support here and there, it would make an enormous difference.

One of the other things that came out of my work on this committee was a forum we held in my home town of Albury where people stood up and for a few minutes gave a snapshot of their lives and the caring role. One member of the committee—I actually cannot remember who it was—said, ‘You all seem so calm,’ and one particular woman said, ‘That is because we are all so medicated.’ It really struck me that in order to get through the day a lot of carers are themselves quite understandably struggling with their own health issues. They really do need support.

Without making this a political statement, in New South Wales we do certainly notice a lot less support than the government just across the border to the south gives to its carers and their families. With the New South Wales budget on its way tomorrow, I really do hope that further support for this important area is maintained. It needs to be increased, because along the border—and my electorate is on the border—between New South Wales and Victoria the frank advice that people are receiving in New South Wales is to take their family to Victoria where the state government actually does a lot more for their children in school and gives them the respite that they desperately need. Respite is an enormous issue for everybody—and I am sure this is common across the board. For people under 18, there are day programs and places for people to go with their disabilities and have special treatment. That is catered for reasonably well. The problem arises for families when their young person turns 18, is no longer entitled to the same level of support or the support changes and—more importantly—the facilities are not there in the community.

Just because somebody has a disability does not mean they want to live at home when they turn 18 and become a young adult. They still need to make their own way in the world and they need that level of independence. There is nowhere which supports them, which allows them their independence, which gives their family that much needed ongoing respite and which keeps them safe and looks after them. I do hope that we as a parliament focus more attention on the needs of carers and that we look at the needs of those young adults. Good things have been done for autism and packages have been put together, and they have made a difference for young people. There is early intervention at school, which is a critical time in a young person’s life, but at the moment I am really detecting that some support for young adults with disabilities at the stage of life where they do want to gain some independence is simply not out there. I conclude by thanking those on all sides of the parliament who work hard for those carers in their electorate. I encourage each and every one of them to continue to support them in whatever way they can.

Chris Trevor (Flynn, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I rise to support the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009. As you will be aware, Mr Deputy Speaker Adams, the measures in this bill are part of a 2008 budget measure of which the legislative component has financial impacts as follows. The total resourcing of all portfolios for the 2008-09 year is $15.5 million; in 2009-10, $72.8 million; in 2010-11, $89.9 million; and in 2011-12, $93.3 million.

Pursuant to schedule 1, ‘Amendment of the Social Security Act 1991’, from 1 July this year a person will be able to qualify for carer payment if one of the following circumstances apply: (a) care is provided to a child with a severe disability or severe medical condition; (b) care is provided to two or more children each with a disability or medical condition; (c) care is provided to a disabled adult and one or more children, each with a disability or medical condition; (d) care is provided to a child who has a terminal condition; (e) the care of two or more children each with a severe disability or severe medical condition is exchanged between the separated or divorced parents of the children; (f) care is provided to a child or children on a short-term or episodic basis; (g) care is provided to a disabled adult or a disabled adult and a dependent child; or (h) care is provided to any of the above while they are in hospital.

The qualification provisions for carer payment where care is provided to a child with a severe disability or severe medical condition, or care is provided to two or more children each with disability or medical condition, or care is provided to a child with a terminal condition, replace the current qualification provisions for care provided to a profoundly disabled child or two or more disabled children. Qualification for care provided to a disabled adult and one or more children each with a disability or medical condition is a new qualification provision that is additional to the current qualification provision for care provided to a disabled adult and a dependent child of the disabled adult.

This schedule repeals references to the terms ‘profoundly disabled child’ and ‘disabled child’ where the use of the terms are associated with carer payment from the Social Security Act. These terms are replaced with terminology related to the new qualification provisions inserted by the improved support for carers bill. The amendments contained in this schedule ensure that provisions contained in the Social Security Act, such as the care receiver’s income and assets tests, will apply to a person who makes a claim for carer payment after the commencement of the improved support for carers bill.

Amendments are also made to special benefit provisions to ensure that the improved qualification criteria for carer payment is reflected in the relief from the activity test that is applied to people who are not residentially qualified for carer payment. This schedule also makes amendments so that a person who is qualified for carer payment for care provided on a short-term or episodic basis is not qualified for a pensioner concession card but is qualified for a healthcare card. Finally, the provisions that relate to who can be the principal beneficiary of a special disability trust are amended in line with the improved qualification criteria for carer payment.

The Rudd Labor government is committed to improving significantly the level of assistance for carers of children with disability or severe medical conditions. This bill delivers on that commitment. The changes in this bill are the latest in a series of recent support initiatives that have been extended to carers. The 2008 one-off payment legislation delivered $1,000 to carer payment recipients and certain other pensioners with a caring role, and carer allowance recipients were, generally, paid some $600 for each person cared for. Then the Economic Security Strategy legislation of late 2008 provided some $1,400 to carer payment recipients and, generally, $1,000 to carer allowance recipients for each person cared for. These new budget measures are part of an $822 million package from the 2008 budget to support and recognise carers.

The amendments will deliver a new, fairer set of qualification criteria for carer payment paid in respect of a child based on the level of care required rather than the rigid medical criteria currently used to assess qualification for the payment. Estimates are that some 19,000 more carers will have access to carer payment from 1 July 2009.

As at January 2009 there were 2,795 carer allowance recipients and 941 carer payment recipients in my electorate of Flynn. The 2006 census recorded for my electorate of Flynn 4,562 people in need of assistance. That is the number of people with a profound or severe disability. People with a profound or severe disability are defined as needing help or assistance in one or more of the three core activity areas of self-care, mobility and communication. The 2006 census also recorded over 9,000 people in my electorate of Flynn who in the two weeks prior to census night spent time providing unpaid care, help or assistance to family members or others because of a disability, a long-term illness or problems relating to old age.

As the father of a son with a disability who cannot live without a life-sustaining medication I congratulate these wonderful people for their efforts. I sincerely hope that this legislation goes a long way to rewarding them for their efforts. I commend this bill wholeheartedly, from the bottom of my heart, to this House.

Judi Moylan (Pearce, Liberal Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Being able to address matters in relation to the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009 is a great opportunity to speak on behalf of all those people who undertake the important role of caring within our community. These changes to legislation will certainly impact on a great number of people who care for others and, in particular, for children who have special care needs.

The bill proposes to move from focusing on a child’s actual medical condition to focusing on care requirements, and this is consistent with the application of care requirements for qualification for carer allowance. The new Disability Care Load Assessment (Child) Determination, to be introduced by this bill, is intended to provide an objective tool for assessing the care requirements of care recipients. Assessing care requirements in relation to children is complicated by the fact that all children need a certain level of care appropriate to their age and level of maturity. However, children with severe illness or those recovering from an accident may need considerable extra care.

Despite the broadening in 2006 of eligibility for carer payments to carers of children with severe intellectual, psychiatric or behavioural disabilities requiring constant care or supervision, it became apparent that, in fact, few families qualified for the carer payment. Although there were 113,549 carers receiving carer allowance to assist them with costs involved in caring for a child with a disability in June 2008, the narrow criteria meant that in practice only 7,000 children were being cared for by people receiving the carer payment, so there has been an obvious disconnect due to the tight eligibility criteria.

A recent report following an inquiry by the House of Representatives Standing Committee on Family, Community, Housing and Youth, of which I am deputy chair, highlighted the great hardship encountered by many carers, who felt that they were not being adequately supported in the caring role. The Who cares …? report made it clear that there were common concerns amongst carers regardless of what kind of caring role they undertook. They were united by the challenge they faced, and it became abundantly clear that insufficient attention was being paid to caring for the needs of carers. One of those needs is to simplify the maze of bureaucratic red tape and the hoops that carers must jump through to access support. No group could be more worthy of clearing a more certain path than those caring for children with a serious illness or disability.

The care requirements for carer allowance are far less rigorous than the care requirement for carer payment, and the care requirements for carer payment for a person caring for an adult are also less rigorous than the care requirements for caring for a child. The differential was explained away by an assumption that all parents of young children engage in the caring role. However, the assumption did not take into account the additional care responsibilities of those parents who care for children who have a disability or severe medical condition.

In an endeavour to rectify this, in 2007 the Howard government introduced a carer adjustment payment of up to $10,000. The carer adjustment payment was available where a family had a child aged up to six years who was diagnosed with a major disability due to an accidental injury or a severe illness. Carer adjustment payment was an interim payment available while the review of carer payment for carers of children with a medical condition was being conducted. It was to terminate on 30 June 2008, but funding was provided in the 2008 budget for carer adjustment payment to continue to be available past that date.

A review task force headed by Anthony Blunn was established in March 2007 to examine the effectiveness of carer payment as a safety net for carers of children with profound disabilities or severe medical conditions. The terms of reference recognised that a carer payment is an income support payment for carers who, because of the demands of their caring role, are unable to support themselves through substantial participation in the workforce. The report of the review, released in early 2008, concluded that carer payment did not provide the intended safety net and recommended changes that are now the subject of this bill.

Some of the 32 recommendations in the Blunn review were changes to eligibility requirements and a new assessment process to recognise the level of care required by the care receiver and provided by the carer; better support for carers through improved service delivery, including case coordination and more accessible information about payments; increased support for carers to participate in the workforce through improved access to the Job Network, help with childcare arrangements and assistance for employers; and increased recognition for carers through carer recognition legislation and a national action plan for carers. It is interesting to note that there have been many inquiries into and reviews of this issue over the years, and in every case they have come up with very similar conclusions.

More recently, the bill was referred to the Senate Standing Committee on Community Affairs. A submission was made to that committee by the Disability Services Commission of Western Australia, which was very positive about the benefits of the changes that we are discussing tonight and the way in which they would make for better support for carers. The Director General of the Disability Services Commission of Western Australia, Dr Ron Chalmers, commented specifically on the bill’s ability to ease the financial hardship for carers.

As I said earlier, few people are eligible for the carer payment in its current form. The changes outlined in this bill will ensure that a further 19,000 carers of children will now qualify for a carer payment. This is a very welcome change indeed. The bill changes the way eligibility is assessed for carer payment for those caring for a child. Currently eligibility is based, as I said, on a child’s disability or medical condition. The new methodology for assessing eligibility will be through the disallowable legislative instrument referred to previously, called the Disability Care Load Assessment (Child) Determination. Instead of focusing solely on a child’s medical condition, this takes into account the care needs and is consistent with the way in which applications are assessed for carer allowance. It is also pleasing to see for the first time access to carer payment for a carer caring for a child up to the age of 16 who has a short-term or episodic illness. This may include mental illness conditions or medical conditions such as cancer and the many other illnesses that often beset children. This new instrument for determining eligibility will provide a test for assessing the functional ability, behaviour and special care needs of a child. That includes a section to be completed by a treating health professional, a method of rating the child’s care needs and a method of providing a qualifying rating for the carer that takes account of the care provided by the carer and the assessment, again, of the health professional.

Item 10 of this bill inserts new sections along with changes to existing sections. It sets out the criteria for qualification for a carer payment, and it includes some new items. Some of these are: a child with a severe disability or medical condition; two or more children, each with a disability or medical condition; a disabled adult and one or more children, each with a disability or medical condition; a child who has a terminal condition; exchange care of children; short-term, episodic care of children; extension of short-term or episodic care of children; disabled adult or disabled adult and dependent child; hospitalisation; and some short-term circumstances. In order to qualify for these payments, the carer must provide constant care to a care receiver who has high care needs, provide that care in the home of the care receiver and be an Australian resident. This section has not changed. However, there are new sections that take into account the impact of caring on a person’s ability to undertake training, education, unpaid voluntary work or paid employment.

Limitations are currently in place on the number of hours a carer can work before they cease to provide constant care for the purpose of receiving carer payment. I think one of the toughest hurdles for carers is the need to make a choice between continuing to work in the paid workforce and the need to give full-time care. So often, the care needs are such that continuing to work in the paid workforce, even on a part-time basis, is simply not a choice at all. And the limited options for carers to participate in the paid workforce are further exacerbated by the severe shortage of places in day-care facilities or carers who can come into the home to relieve the principal carer. These are issues that I think need further airing and further community discussion. Financial hardship is a major ongoing concern for many carers and the Who cares …? report actually recommends a significant increase in the base rate of carer payment.

We have also asked that the Treasurer consider easing the tax burden on carers. The financial support received by carers can be quickly consumed by specialist medical services, medication and/or equipment required by those they care for—for example, buying a wheelchair, adapting a house and the myriad other additional costs that carers must fund. They soon add up, and it is easy to understand how rapidly financial stress can build up in families who find themselves in these circumstances.

Financial isolation of carers is further exacerbated by employment limitations. Currently, there are significant disincentives for carers to earn supplementary income because any additional income reduces quite sharply the amount of income support they receive. Carers should be able to look to the future with at least some degree of certainty and maintain a reasonable standard of living, and this bill does go one step closer to providing greater certainty and better support.

In conclusion, the changes outlined in this bill will be very welcome to those caring for children with a disability or severe illness. However, the whole issue of how we support, value and treat our carers will need much more attention in the future. Many of the issues raised in the 2007 task force report commissioned by the Howard government are again canvassed in the latest report, Who cares …? As I said in my speech to the House during the tabling of that report, if we are to answer, ‘We care’—that is, those of us in this place responsible for the legislation—then we need to confront the issues facing carers head on and match the rhetoric with reality. It will need all the political will we can muster to ensure a better future for carers and those they care for, just as this legislation will assist many in the community who provide extra care to children. I welcome the measures that are outlined in this bill. The changes recommended in the task force report will make a difference to the lives of carers now and into the future; in the meantime, these incremental changes are very welcome.

Jenny Macklin (Jagajaga, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Families, Housing, Community Services and Indigenous Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

in reply—First of all, I thank all the members for their contributions to this important debate. The Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) Bill 2009 provides part of the government’s response to the report of the Carer Payment (child) Review Taskforce, and gives effect to a number of measures aimed at improving assistance to carers from 1 July 2009. The improved support for carers bill will extend qualification for carer payment to around 19,000 more carers from 1 July 2009 by delivering a new, fairer set of qualification criteria for carer payment paid in respect of a child, based on the level of care required rather than the rigid medical criteria currently used to assess qualification for the payment.

This bill, the Social Security Legislation Amendment (Improved Support for Carers) (Consequential and Transitional) Bill 2009, makes amendments as a consequence of the measures contained in the improved support for carers bill. This companion bill makes minor amendments of a consequential and transitional nature. The amendments made by this bill include removal of references in the social security law that from 1 July 2009 will be redundant, and replaces those references with new terms and references necessary for the proper administration of the changes introduced in the improved support for carers bill.

Amendments made by this bill will provide that carers who qualify for carer payment under the new qualification provisions will be able to take advantage of the 63 days, or the pro-rata equivalent, for carers qualified on a short-term or episodic basis on which carers can temporarily cease to provide constant care and remain qualified for carer payment.

This bill provides that nominated visa holders who cannot qualify for carer payment as they do not meet the residency requirement can be granted an exemption from the activity test in relation to special benefit if they are providing care to a child or children who meet the criteria contained in the new qualification provisions.

The bill also amends the provisions that relate to the nomination of the principal beneficiary of a special disability trust under the Social Security Act 1991 or the Veterans’ Entitlements Act 1986 to reflect the changes made by the introduction of the improved qualification criteria for carer payments.

Lastly, the bill also provides for the backdating of carer payment for people who qualify for carer payment under one of the new qualification provisions. A person who makes an application before 1 October 2009 will be able to have their carer payment backdated to the date they became qualified for carer payment. The earliest date at which they can become qualified is the date of implementation of the new qualification provision, which is 1 July 2009. We look forward to these provisions becoming law to support carers doing a very important job in our community, caring for children who have very serious illnesses.

Question agreed to.

Bill read a second time.

Message from the Governor-General recommending appropriation announced.