'Better deal needed' for aged care

Caregiver Fua'ao Seve says elderly people and those who look after them deserve a better deal.

She is taking part in a campaign by the Nurses Organisation and the Service Workers Union to press the Government for a big increase in funding for aged care.

Hundreds of caregivers, nurses and support workers were on the streets nationally yesterday asking the public to send prepared postcards to Prime Minister Helen Clark seeking improvements to aged care.

Employers in the resthome, private-hospital and home-care sector and the unions agree there is a crisis. There is a call for increases of up to 25 per cent.

Mrs Seve, 47, a fulltime caregiver at the Ranfurly Veterans Home & Hospital in Mt Roskill, Auckland, said it was hard to get by on her weekly after-tax pay of about $400. It is the main income in her family.

She spent $1500 on a one-year part-time care-giving course, but is frustrated that it did not produce a pay rise. "People should be trained how to do the job well in order to support our old people; especially [as] they have fragile skin and some can't talk," said Mrs Seve, a Nurses Organisation delegate.

Organiser Chan Dixon said Ranfurly was a good employer and Mrs Seve was paid at the upper end of a low-paid sector.

The "Fair Share for Aged Care" campaign follows nurses' almost-completed, successful push for "fair pay" at district health boards.

The Government has given health boards an extra $18 million to enable them to offer providers a 3 per cent increase in contracts for aged residential care.

A working party, comprising Health Ministry, union, provider and other members is studying aged-care issues.

As well as extra funding, the Fair Share Campaign calls for a well-trained workforce, improved staffing levels and fair pay.

A parliamentary report recommended a funding boost for aged care, that the Government pay for foundation skills training for caregivers and that caregivers who obtain the qualification be given a pay rise.

Residential Care New Zealand chief executive Martin Taylor said residential care for the elderly was in a crisis because of under-funding and rising costs to meet new regulations.

What they earn

* The average hourly rate in the aged care sector is $10.80, but pay for home-carers starts at $9.50.

* A report by MPs found some are effectively paid below the legal adult minimum wage of $9 because they have to pay to travel between clients' homes.