When you receive your Home Care Package (HCP), you may be unclear as what you can spend it on.
The package is paid to the provider directly by the government and you’ll get monthly statements with all the details. While the list (published here) can give you a good idea as to what you can and can’t spend your HCP on, there are some things that you may be surprised to learn.
Madryn Sanderson from Absolute Care & Health, who says there are a wide range of things that the HCP can be used for, shares her insights.
Aimed at your care needs and goals
“The client has a huge amount of choice, but the main consideration is that the expenditure has to be aimed at meeting their care needs and goals,” says Madryn.
“The provider and the client need to work together to determine how that service or purchase is linked to these.”
Home modifications
“For example, if somebody needs home modifications such as grab rails or things to support their safety and ability to move around their home, that can be included,” explains Madryn.
“Or they may only have an over the bath shower and it's no longer safe for them to climb in – then they may well be able to have their bath replaced with a walk-in shower. But expectations beware – it’s unlikely they could have the whole bathroom retiled to match!”.
Activities of daily living
Support with bathing, toileting and mobility is another area that you can allocate money from your HCP to. As is the cost of personal alarm that will notify someone if you have a fall.
It can also help you keep doing the things you love to maintain your social and community connections. “Getting out and going to the cinema, the theater, whatever it is you enjoy doing; you can have support to do that from a carer if you're not able to go alone,” says Madryn. “Or you can pay for transport if you can no longer drive yourself. Many Home Care Package recipients use a Cabcharge card which can be invoiced directly to the provider.”
However, the tickets themselves or membership fees (such as to your footy club or to the theatre) unfortunately cannot be covered by the HCP.
Food preparation
Whether you have a carer coming into your home to prepare meals for you or you are having meals delivered (such as Lite n’ Easy), you can use your home care package to pay for a portion of that.
What can cause some confusion is that your shopping bill generally can’t be claimed, explains Madryn.
“You're not allowed to use the HCP money for the actual ingredients, but you can use it for the portion of the cost of preparation and delivery, which is interesting,” she says.
Similarly, if you order groceries from Coles or Woolworths online, you can claim the delivery cost from your Package.
Light gardening
While a garden makeover isn’t covered, light gardening can be, as that is related to maintaining safety. Think mowing, light weeding, removing dangerous overhanging tree branches – these can potentially be covered.
Staying connected
As for the tech side of things, you can use part of your HCP package to improve your technical literacy.
“If somebody wanted support to learn how to use a device so they could order their delivery meals, or so they could Skype or FaceTime with their family, that could potentially be included,” says Madryn.
Unspent money rolls over to the next year, but it doesn’t ever get paid out if you cease being on a package.
