Paying for care in a nursing or residential home or for carers for the patient in their own home is incredibly expensive, but where the individual has assets exceeding over £23,250 there is no alternative. Or is there?
Contact our team of experts at Compass Continuing healthcare today to see if your relative is entitled to continuing health care to pay for their care home fees in full. Our office number is 0800 008 7777. Alternatively please complete our FREE online assessment and we will contact you.
Paying for care in a nursing or residential home or for carers for the patient in their own home is incredibly expensive, but where the individual has assets exceeding over £23,250 there is no alternative. Or is there? Often people believe, and perhaps have been incorrectly informed by the NHS or social workers via the Local Authority that there is no option but to pay for care privately. This is simply incorrect.
If the individual’s need for care is a health need then there is funding available through the NHS called continuing health care. This funding pays for the individuals care costs in full, regardless of whether they are receiving care from carers in their own home or if they are in a residential or nursing home. The best news is that continuing health care is not in any way means tested so it is irrelevant if they own their own home or otherwise have assets exceeding the means testing limit of £23,250.
The problems arise in the fact that the NHS are reluctant to implement this funding, even where the individual satisfies the eligibility criteria, as the cost of the funding is very expensive for them to have to meet, in the same way that it is very expensive for the individual.
We have experienced instances of the NHs and social services team attempting to dissuade people applying for the funding where the relative ought to be eligible, and informing people that continuing health care is only available for individual’s receiving palliative care with a short life expectancy. This is incorrect as life expectancy has no relevance to the entitlement to funding.
Additionally we have encountered instances where an individual’s needs are underscored and downplayed during the assessment process so that they do not meet the criteria even though they ought to be eligible. This is obviously unacceptable as the repercussions of being denied funding are huge. A patient’s entire life savings can be swallowed up and the family home may have to be sold to fund care, where the NHS should be paying because they ought to be eligible for continuing health care.
As such it is very often necessary to utilise the appeals procedure to contest a negative decision relating to an individual’s entitled to continuing care. It is crucial at each stage to stand the strongest prospects of success of securing the funding that you have an expert fighting on your behalf who is able to identify the key aspects in your favour, gather the relevant evidence and build a strong case to be able to contest the NHS decision, and eloquently argue the position at the appeal hearing. The Compass Continuing healthcare team are all of these things and more. We are industry experts and have a high success rate of securing continuing health care funding for our clients where they ought to be eligible for the funding.
If your relative is paying privately for their care complete our FREE assessment today and an expert member of our team shall review your particular circumstances and contact you. Alternatively you can contact us by phone on 0800 008 7777.
Author: Tim Davies LLB
