Alzheimers Care Funding and Asset Testing

A lifetime of saving has not paid off for Auckland resident Kaye Hudson.

Since her husband turned 65 four years ago, she has spent over $150,000 of their retirement savings on full-time residential care for his Alzheimers. His care had been previously funded by the Ministry of Health.

“It just makes me so angry,” says Mrs Hudson. “If the fact your husband having Alzheimers is not devastating enough, you then have to deal with how you are going to pay for it.”

Her husband, who had early onset Alzheimers in his mid-50s had been in residential care for six years fully funded by the Ministry of Health. Once he became a senior citizen his funding was cut due to elderly asset testing laws.

This has left her to pay the $714 a week care bill herself. She still works full-time, but once she retires their savings and assets will be used up until they fall under the cut-off criteria for funding. This will then leave them financially dependent on the state.

“They warned me about it at his rest home. The day he turned 65 the full-time care stopped being government-funded and I had to start paying for it myself, and I will have to until we have virtually nothing left”.

According to Work and Income New Zealand, people over 65 who need residential care are only entitled to funding once their combined assets with their partner are below $65,000. They can keep their home and car but only as long as their partner still lives there.

“It means our whole lifetime of saving and preparing for our retirement has been for nothing. We worked hard, paid our taxes and prepared for old age and will be no better off than those who didn’t.”

Sue Brewster, general manager of Alzheimers Auckland, says many other people are in a similar situation. “It is a double hit in the face for these people. Not only are they loosing their partner but also their financial security.”

She says that Disabilities and Senior Citizens Minister Ruth Dyson increased the threshold for assets by $10,000 with the Social Security Amendment Act 2006. But she feels this is not enough.

Mrs Hudson agrees, calling the Act a “token gesture”. She adds that this increase comes at a price, with her weekly care payments for her husband also increasing by $48 in the past year.

“It’s all very well allowing an extra $10,000 in assets but how useful is this when in the past year the weekly amount I pay for my husband’s care has increased three times and is scheduled to increase again in March”.

Christine Keller, also from Auckland, whose husband died after a long struggle with Alzheimers last year, considers herself “one of the lucky ones”.

“It is a sad day when you feel relief in your husband’s death. That you know you can still leave something behind for your grandchildren’s education.”

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