Call our team of experts at Compass Continuing healthcare today to see if your relative is entitled to free fees for care homes. Our office number is 0800 008 7777.
Alternatively please complete our FREE online assessment and we will contact you.
Who is responsible for paying fees for care home? Surely not the individual who only has a house as an asset? The NHS must pay for care for individuals who have worked all their lives and paid their taxes? Is there not funding available from the NHS to assist?
The reality is that funding to assist with paying fees for care homes is extremely limited, and being ever more restricted by the NHS on a daily basis. To make matters worse the cost of fees for care homes is extremely high. In England and Wales the average cost of a nursing home is estimated to be in excess of £800 a week, or £41,600. These fees can be even higher in certain parts of the UK and higher again still where the individual has severe needs and requires specialist assistance from an EMI home.
There is however funding available from the NHS to meet the fees for care homes and it is estimate that over 100,000 in the UK are eligible for it and should not be paying privately for their care costs.
The funding is called continuing health care and it applies where the individual’s need for care is primarily a health need. In such a case the NHS should step in an meet the fees for care homes in full.
The difficulty is that the fees for care homes are very expensive for the NHS, just as they are for the individual. With the limited budgets available to the NHS there are often issues where people who ought to be eligible for the continuing healthcare funding because their primary need for care is a health need, are being denied it. This is clearly not fair and can and should be challenged.
At Compass CHC we have encountered numerous instances of an individual’s needs being underscored and downplayed so that they do not satisfy the continuing healthcare funding criteria and are denied the funding. Equally we often hear of people having been provided incorrect information in an effort to dissuade them applying for the funding their relative ought to be eligible to receive. As an example we regularly hear people have been informed that continuing health care funding is only available for people receiving palliative care with a very limited life expectancy. This is simply incorrect. Life expectancy is not a factor for eligibility for continuing healthcare.
As such it is crucial to seek the expert guidance of an impartial party such as the team at Compass Continuing Health Care, as soon as possible in the process. We can assist individuals while they are still in hospital before any decision regarding continuing healthcare funding has been made. It is not necessary to wait for a negative outcome, we can provide advice and assistance immediately to guide you through the assessment process and help draft representations as to what the appropriate scorings should be in an effort to secure continuing healthcare funding from day 1 before any fees are paid.
Do not delay, contact the Compass Continuing Health Care team today. Our FREE online assessment is available here. Alternatively you can contact us directly on 0800 008 7777.
Author: Tim Davies LLB