Many families wrongly pay for care at home or long-term residential care fees for loved ones. This may be because they have been incorrectly advised or because they believe they have to pay.

Here are the top 10 most common reasons that this may happen:

1. Loss of independence – many older people (and their families) have never received benefits or social support of any kind and they feel that asking for help and support will compromise their independence. They may have worrying memories from their childhood.
2. Selling the family home – if either the person needing care or their partner (and in certain other circumstances other people resident in the property) continue to live in the family home it must be disregarded at assessment, it cannot be used for care costs.
3. Adding together the income and savings of a couple for care fees – Only the income and savings of the person requiring care, plus 50% of any joint savings should be assessed to decide who should pay for care fees.
4. Not seeking local authority care needs and financial assessment – if savings [assets] are below £23,250 then the local authority may contribute toward care fees.
5. Agreeing to pay top-up fees to care homes – a local authority must be able to recommend suitable care homes within the assessed care needs budget. If they cannot, the council may have to pay the top-ups.
6. Joint owners agreeing to Deferred Payment Arrangements [DPA’s] – there is no obligation on joint owners to agree to a DPA for care fees. Bear in mind that if this agreement is in place, then the full amount deferred must be paid within 90 days of the person receiving care dying.
7. Misunderstanding of different types of care – NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) is delivered by registered nurses free of charge. Adult Social Care (ASC) is delivered by non-nursing care support workers, which must be paid for, subject to financial assessment.
8. Changing care needs – when the health of a person receiving care deteriorates, family and care providers may fail to consider that the changes could mean their loved one should be assessed by the NHS for CHC. Funding.
9. Preparing for an NHS CHC assessment – If CHC is requested, the family may believe their loved one’s care needs alone will ensure eligibility and fail to prepare for the multi-disciplinary team [MDT] meeting called by the NHS to discuss it.
10. Appealing an NHS CHC Refusal – this must be requested within 6 months of the decision date, but many families don’t do this. Yet 20% of those who challenge are successful, with better preparation it is likely that figure would be far higher.

If you believe you may have been asked to wrongly pay care fees or want to find out more then contact me.

You may well be right!

Use this link to book a free, no-obligation 30-minute call to find out:

https://calendly.com/sunrisecareadvisers/30-minute-conversation