Disability Care and Support Scheme Public Inquiry 

Submission by Carron M. Smith 5 March 2011

Carers and Carers Payment

Under the current schemes if a Disabled person requires care from another person, the Disabled person has to be registered as a beneficiary of Centrelink for the carer to receive payment.   If the Disabled person is receiving benefits from another scheme the scheme has to pay for such care. E.g. cleaning, lawn mowing etc.

Severely injured people particularly those with a brain injury or those having suffered life changing injuries often do not want strangers in their homes, often finding it hard to communicate with others and suffering forms of depression or Post Traumatic Stress.  It is then that family members take up the responsibility of everyday tasks whilst still holding down their own employment particularly where the injured party can still be relatively independent by staying alone at home but unable to complete domestic chores.  These duties can range from extra washing, cooking, mowing lawns, cleaning and all associated tasks with running a home.

These valuable carers of injured claimants of other schemes receive no compensation or no payment.

1.	 A carer’s payment should be allocated by all schemes.
2.	This payment paid to carer depending on the injured person’s ability and injuries.
3.	Payment reviewed quarterly with documentation verified by the claimant’s Treating Doctor. 

Facts To Consider.

Likely costs of scheme providers outsourcing of domestic help all provided fortnightly

1.	 Cleaning                      $100.00
2.	Lawn Mowing             $50.00
3.	Ironing                          $30.00
                             Minimum Total    $180.00

The minimum current rate that Centrelink is paying to Carers of Disability Support Pensioners is $110.

$55 per week is not nearly as much as these carers should be receiving but $55 per week helps when the
Family member becomes the carer with little choice and no option.