Stolen Generations survivors will be exempt from means testing in aged care in a federal budget measure welcomed by advocates.
The government's $3.2 million budget announcement on Tuesday will exempt survivors receiving Stolen Generations Redress Scheme payments from having those payments included in residential aged care asset testing.
The move will be welcomed by advocates, including the Healing Foundation and the National Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Aged Care Council, who have long campaigned for survivors to be treated the same as those who receive payments under the National Redress Scheme for Institutional Child Sexual Abuse.
Many survivors experience a "gap within the gap" and are far more likely to face financial hardship, according to the Healing Foundation, which amplifies the voices of Stolen Generations survivors and their families.
In April, Healing Foundation chair Steve Larkin described the policy as a "discriminatory measure" that undermines survivors' safety.
Rather, he said, it concerns people's "dignity, autonomy and whether systems designed to support them late in life truly understand the historical harms they carry".
In a statement on Tuesday night, Senator Lidia Thorpe said she had raised the issue with Aged Care Minister Sam Rae, as well as making a budget submission and having it costed by the Parliamentary Budget Office.
Senator Thorpe said the redress payments are about acknowledging the "immense harm caused by governments forcibly removing our children". As such, they should not have been "treated as money to be clawed back through the aged care system," she said.
"I am happy that these payments will now be exempt from residential aged care asset testing. This is an important step toward justice for our Elders," Senator Thorpe said.
"Our Elders should not have been forced to effectively pay the state back for their own care using compensation provided for lifelong trauma and injustice.
"While there is still much more work to do to ensure our Elders receive the care, dignity and justice they deserve, this is a meaningful and hard-won reform."
The announcement comes after the federal government last month scrapped charges for basic aged care services, which had seen some older Australians paying about $50 an hour for care such as showering and getting changed.
"The reversal reduces harm," Healing Foundation chair Steve Larkin said at the time, "but original decisions highlight why aged-care policy must be explicitly trauma-informed and culturally safe, not just economically efficient".
