How is funding for Aged Care being spent?

A new report suggests funding in aged care could eventually double in the coming decades because of an expected rise in the numbers of older people requiring residential services. But nursing groups say the central issue isn't so much funding levels - it's accountability in how the current money is being spent.

How much funding actually goes to the care and quality of life for residents Source: Getty Images

Aged care nurses have been saying for some time they are overworked and under-resourced.

Recently, they've been fighting for a wage increase, like nurses in Queensland who say the one percent lift offered by their employer, Regis, isn't enough.

Speaking outside the Fair Work Commission earlier this year, where unions have taken their fight for higher pay, aged care chef Mark Castieau said the wages did not match the job.

Just over 23 billion dollars in federal funding is provided for aged care each year, with three-quarters of that going to residential facilities.

But a new report from the Ageing Research Collaborative at the University of Technology Sydney suggests that is not enough.

The report, commissioned and funded by the Aged and Community Care Providers Association [[ACCPA]], concluded that the whole system is buckling under increased demand and spiraling costs.

It is the larger providers in particular that nursing groups are keen to see an increase in transparency and accountability apply to.

They say there are questions about how much money is being paid to providers - and how much of it actually goes to the care and quality of life for residents.

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