Financial assistance in palliative care

Patients with palliative care needs will often need to stop work as their disease progresses, and carers may need to stop or reduce their work in order to provide care. Household costs may increase, for example, additional heating or cooling to keep a patient comfortable, equipment rental charges, medications, dressings and medical bills. Sources of financial assistance may include:

• government financial assistance—information is available from Centrelink. A social worker can assist with applications
• private health insurance funds—these may cover some of the costs of home nursing care and medications
• early unrestricted access to superannuation benefits—people with a life-limiting illness who are expected to die within 24 months can apply for unrestricted access to their superannuation benefits; see Department of Human Services
• small funds—Cancer Councils and some disease-specific organisations have small funds available to pay one-off expenses (eg phone or electricity bills, funeral expenses).