When one partner moves into aged care, most couples assume they’ll navigate it together. What they don’t expect is that the financial weight falls almost entirely on one side.

The aged care means test splits a couple’s income and assets 50/50. In theory, that sounds reasonable. In practice, once one partner is in care, the costs they face bear no resemblance to what the other is spending at home.

Take Jack and Shirley. They’re part pensioners, own their home, and have $600,000 in investments. Jack needs residential aged care. His Refundable Accommodation Deposit (RAD) is $750,000 — and if he pays by Daily Accommodation Payment instead of lump sum, his accommodation alone costs close to $60,000 a year at the current rate of 7.96%.

Add the basic daily fee and a hotelling fee, and Jack’s base aged care costs top $88,000 a year — before medications, clothing, or any extras.

Their combined income — age pension plus 5% returns on investments — is around $82,000 a year. Jack’s care costs more than they earn.

Even if Jack puts $300,000 of his share of investments toward the RAD, his costs drop to around $64,000 a year. That leaves Shirley with roughly $14,000 to live on — while still maintaining a home, paying utilities, rates, insurance and groceries. Those bills don’t halve just because Jack has moved out.

The gap gets filled the only way it can: by drawing down Shirley’s savings. Steadily. Year after year.

This isn’t about lifestyle. Jack needs care — of course he does. But the system as it stands can push the partner who doesn’t need care to the financial edge, simply because the one who does needed help.

It’s a design flaw worth understanding before you’re in the middle of it. If you or your partner are approaching this stage, getting advice early — before a crisis — can make a real difference to what’s left on the other side.

Connect with a retirement living and aged care specialist adviser here.