DIGNITY IS NOT FOR SALE: Keep ordinary care and community life accessible to all Uniting aged-care residents

Uniting NSW.ACT is considering additional charges for services and activities at its residential aged-care homes. Some of what has been proposed raises a fundamental question: what counts as a genuine optional extra and what is simply part of living with dignity, connection and belonging?

ABC Investigations reported proposed charges at Uniting's The Marion aged-care home in Leichhardt including: $8.80 a day for an in-room television; $132 for an additional fortnightly activity; $66 for a monthly one-hour conversation with a carer; and $220 for a music concert. A package of additional services costing $44 a day was also described.1

These arrangements were reported as proposals under review, and we welcome the fact that Uniting is reviewing them.

We also recognise that Australia's Higher Everyday Living Fee (HELF) framework allows aged-care providers to charge for services that are additional to, or of a higher standard than, those ordinarily provided. We accept that genuinely additional or premium services may reasonably cost extra.

But where should that line be drawn?

For someone who is frail, living with dementia or largely confined to their room, television, music, conversation and opportunities to participate in activities can be important sources of comfort and human connection.

We are concerned about the possibility of creating a two-tier community, where people living alongside one another have different opportunities for comfort, companionship and participation simply because one resident can afford additional fees and another cannot.

An older person's financial circumstances should not determine whether they can participate meaningfully in the community in which they live.

What we're asking Uniting NSW.ACT to do

We call on Uniting NSW.ACT to:

1. Reconsider its proposed Higher Everyday Living Fee arrangements and clearly distinguish genuinely additional or premium services from ordinary aspects of residential life.
2. Guarantee every resident meaningful access to ordinary comfort, companionship, recreation and participation in community life, regardless of their ability to pay additional fees.
3. Ensure residents who cannot afford additional fees are not disadvantaged, isolated or excluded from ordinary activities and shared community life.
4. Clearly explain what every resident can expect as part of the standard offering and how Uniting will prevent a two-tier system developing within its homes.
5. Put its values into practice by ensuring that financial sustainability, dignity, compassion and equality go hand in hand.

Uniting NSW.ACT is an organisation of the Uniting Church. That matters to us.

The question is not simply what Uniting may charge for under the Higher Everyday Living Fee framework. It is what an organisation of the Uniting Church believes it should charge for.

We believe financial sustainability and compassion can coexist. We are not asking for premium services to be provided without charge. We are asking Uniting to ensure that ordinary dignity, companionship and belonging never become premium products.

Please sign this petition and ask Uniting NSW.ACT to reconsider these proposals.

Put people before packages. Put compassion first. Dignity is not for sale.

1. Source: ABC Investigations, Aged care residents face bills for TVs, hot breakfasts and soft drinks under new fees, 14 October 2026.