The Royal Commission into Aged Care Quality and Safety has released the results from an online survey of 10,000 people outside the aged care system, conducted by Flinders University.
It’s an interesting read, and you can find the paper here.
We were particularly interested with the attitudes to aged care funding.
87% of respondents agreed the Government should be providing more funding for aged care services – the Government currently allocates around 4% of income tax collected.
And 59% of respondents would be happy for the Government to collect 8% on average (mean 8.6%, median 8%), essentially doubling the proportion of taxpayer dollars allocated.
Of the two-thirds of the survey who were taxpayers, 61% said they would put their money where their mouth is and pay more income tax to support a better-quality aged care system.
Current income taxpayers said they’d be willing to chip in an additional 1.4% income tax, plus another 1.7% per year (total rise 3.1%) to achieve high quality aged care.
For context, the Royal Commission has proposed a 1% or 2% increase to increase funding to the system.
The Commissioners, Tony Pagone QC and Lynelle Briggs AO, say this research confirms Australians understand the importance of aged care and accept part of the solution is more funding.
“It shows the general public recognise the current deficiencies of Australia’s aged care system and believe significantly more government funding should be allocated to achieve higher quality aged care, in addition to using co-contributions based on care recipients capacity to contribute,” they said.
“It shows a majority of current income taxpayers would be willing to pay more income tax to ensure a high-quality aged care system is achieved.”
While ticking a box on a website is one thing and opening your wallet is another, it’s encouraging to see Australians are recognising the value of aged care and the importance of more funding to get the system right for everyone.
Discussion1 Comment
Disappointed there is no discussion here about users, particularly wealthy ones, paying more. I pay income tax, and am happy to do so but I am not happy to pay more so that millionaires can hang onto their properties to pass down to their children. I’d rather my taxes went to social housing, health, education and funding a cleaner energy future. It is not fair for older generations (particularly the wealthier cohort) to continually ask more from younger people who are already facing enormous challenges ahead.