The NSW aged care home charging residents $15 to watch volunteer musicians

Volunteers at a NSW aged care home were appalled to discover residents were charged $15 each to attend musical performances provided for free, in what they say should be a wake-up call for how the sector is run.

Katrina Evans has played piano at Blue Haven Bonaira in Kiama for a decade, performing “pretty much anything that brings a smile to my mum’s face”.

Her mother, 98-year-old Madeline, has lived in the facility for five years. When staff attempted to sell them a new “Additional Services” package, Evans questioned why her mother should have to pay to watch her daughter play. “Nobody should be making money off the back of a volunteer,” she said.

For two months, Evans and other volunteers wrote multiple letters to management to express concern about the charges. On Tuesday morning, they received an email from management confirming a return to “one core program, which all residents will be able to attend and participate in”.

The centre is owned by Hall & Prior, which runs aged care facilities across NSW, the ACT and Western Australia. In a statement, they blamed the move on aged care changes implemented in November, when the “expanded activity and lifestyle program” was developed with residents and their representatives.

Under the Aged Care Act 2024, providers can offer an optional Higher Everyday Living Fee (HELF) for those who would like to access extra services such as hairdressing, wine or premium menu options.

Providers can determine the cost and inclusions of the packages without government approval, but cannot charge existing residents for services or activities that were previously included.

For $20 a day – or $7300 a year – residents at Blue Haven Bonaira were offered a HELF bundle, with volunteer-provided entertainment included in the package. Residents who were not part of the bundle program could also attend shows if they paid a one-off $15 fee.

Evans said she was happy with management’s decision to overturn the HELF charge, as she believes music should be “free for all”. However, she is worried other aged care facilities “may be doing this throughout Australia, and may have misinterpreted the act” and would like more clarity from the government.

Federal Minister for Aged Care and Seniors Sam Rae said in a statement the government has been “very clear” the HELF “can only be charged for services that go above and beyond what a provider is already required to deliver”.

Rae said charging for volunteer performances “clearly falls short of the community’s expectations” but added such cases were rare and “providers mostly act reasonably”.

Dr Christa Wood runs Alchemy Chorus South Coast, a dementia-inclusive choir which performs at aged care homes across the community. She said residents “absolutely love it”, and join the singing or get up to dance.

She initially assumed there was a misunderstanding about residents being charged, and was stunned when staff both confirmed and defended it. In their statement, Hall & Prior said the fee was intended to “assist in offsetting the additional costs associated with supporting residents to attend activities, supervision requirements, venue cleaning costs and engaging external entertainers and service providers”. The performances take place on-site.

“It’s terrible,” Wood said. “It’s creating a two-tiered system in a retirement village [between] those who can attend a performance because they can afford it and those who can’t.”

Wood said there had been a noticeable drop in attendees across all volunteer sessions, affecting the atmosphere of shows and “denying people that opportunity to feel some joy”.

Blue Haven Bonaira was originally built and operated by Kiama Council, opening in 2019 as one of the largest council projects in the country. Evans said the $106 million complex, boasting landscaped grounds and water views, is known by locals as “the Hilton Hotel of Kiama”.

After it pushed council into heavy debt, the facility was sold to for-profit aged care provider Hall & Prior in 2024, which officially took over in April last year.

The opposition’s Health and Aged Care spokeswoman, Senator Anne Ruston, said the case was “just another example of the fundamental flaws in Labor’s Aged Care Act”.

“Either the system is operating exactly how Labor intended, or they botched the design. Either way they need to go back to the drawing board and take the time to fix the mess they’ve made,” she said in a statement.

Rae said he has referred the matter to the Aged Care Quality and Safety Commission.

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