Abstract
In many European countries, cash benefits play an important role in the provision of long-term care. In contrast, when long-term care insurance was established in Japan, this did not include the introduction of cash benefits. Since then, however, the situation regarding long-term care in Japan has changed greatly. Against this background, the purpose of this paper is to examine the role of cash benefits in long-term care focusing on the example of Austria, which introduced a tax-funded system that provides long-term care benefit payments without prescribing how these are to be spent. The analysis suggests that the role that cash benefits play in long-term care is greatly influenced not only by the cash benefit system itself (such as with regard to the amount of cash benefits paid, the existence of restrictions, etc.), but also by the expansion of the supply of long-term care services and policies providing support for family caregivers.
