Retirement villages

Residents of a retirement village or complex generally pay a standard service fee. This covers services such as gardening, window cleaning, and an alarm.

These costs cannot be included in Disability Allowance as these are the same for all residents and are not directly related to their disability.

In some circumstances a person living in a retirement village or complex may be able to have the cost of a medical alarm included in their Disability Allowance.

There is also an ability to include certain costs that are included in the standard service fee when:

• a disability is one of the reasons the client moved from their own accommodation into a retirement village complex and
• the client was getting Disability Allowance for the cost before moving and that same cost still exists in the retirement village

When a client's move to a retirement village is partly caused by their inability to carry out tasks they are getting Disability Allowance for, and there is an ongoing cost for the same tasks in their new accommodation, the client may get Disability Allowance for these ongoing costs.

Only the costs associated with maintaining the clients own immediate area can be considered. Do not consider costs associated with maintaining communal areas.

You can use discretion for the amount of Disability Allowance that can be paid. It would generally be expected that a client's maintenance costs in a retirement village should be less than their costs were in their previous accommodation. Generally, the space to be maintained will be smaller.

The client may have had a large property with an expansive lawn area, and/or high maintenance gardens, and the costs for this would be high due to the level of work required.

The client's costs for a much smaller lawn and garden area in the retirement village complex would be expected to be lower as the work involved will be less.