Meeting the cost of long term care

Difficult decisions about where an elderly or disabled person is to live and how that care is to be funded often have to be made at a time of great emotional upset and distress.

You may be faced with the prospect of having to sell the family home in order to pay for care home fees and with fees typically in the region of £400 -£500 a week this can quickly eat into any hard earned Life Savings. Residents worry about what will happen if the money runs outs and families often top up care home fees in order to keep Mum or Dad in the home of their choice.

Those struggling to look after a relative at home are often overlooked and not always fully informed about the help that may be available to them.

Employing private carers can be difficult and brings with it the added complexities and legal responsibility of being an employer.

Who should be responsible for care home fees?

The legal position is that where a person's placement in a care home is primarily a health need then the NHS should be responsible for funding the cost of continuing care. This applies whatever the care setting and applies equally to people being looked after at home.

It is the responsibility of the Primary Care Trust/Strategic health Authority in your area, to determine who qualifies for free NHS care.From October 2007 there is a National Framework for determining care needs and you should ensure that a Continuing Care assessment has been carried out.This should normally be done when someone is discharged from hospital into a care home.It should also however, be considered when someone goes into care from their own home. Continuing care assessments need to be reviewed regularly and at least annually for existing residents.

If your needs are said to be social rather than health care needs then the Social Services Department will carry out a financial assessment of your means to determine how much you have to pay towards the cost of your care.

If your Capital, including the value of your home is over £23,250, then you will be self funded and may have to meet the full cost of your care yourself.

• It is however possible to challenge decisions about funding and anyone with significant nursing needs can ask for a review of their case even if they have been in a care home for a number of years.
• There are many people in care who should no longer be paying fees but whose cases have not been reassessed for some time. This is particularly the case for those suffering from advanced dementia.
• In some cases you may be able to claim repayment of care home fees which have been wrongly paid.
• There may be alternatives to selling the family home and the local authority can disregard the value of the home and certain business assets in various circumstances.

Browell Smith & Co offers a comprehensive advice about all aspects of care home funding.

• We can help to challenge the decisions of Primary Care trust and the Health Authority in relation NHS funding issues and claim repayment of care home fees where it is accepted that the NHS should have been paying.
• We can advise those looking after relatives at home about a variety of issues.
• We can advise you about Local Authority charges, how much capital you are allowed to keep, alternatives to selling the family home and Social Security Benefits.
• We can help you plan for the future and advise about Inheritance Tax, Lifetime Gifts, Family Trusts and Will Planning.

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• Click here to register your claim online (one of our specialist team will contact you within 4 working hours)
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