Care home fees

tezmac

Hello i hope some one can help,my father has been in a care home for a few years now,his savings will drop to the 14000-23000 in a couple of months,im struggling to work out how much he shoud pay when this happens,he currently pays 463 per week,ive worked out he wll roughly pay about 40 quid a week less, is this right?thanks for any help.

Katykat

Well, he will pay a sliding scale until he gets down to £13500, & then he should pay nothing. Do you know about Continuing Care? In a nutshell, anyone who has MEDICAL NEEDS, ie they are in a care home because they are ill, rather than they have gone to live there voluntarily, SHOULD get their fees paid by the NHS. I say SHOULD, because it is by no means easy to get them to pay, but some people have challenged this and won. Here'sa link to the fight for CC website.

http://freenursingcare.findtalk.net/general-chat-f1/

Torry_Quine

Katykat wrote: »

Well, he will pay a sliding scale until he gets down to £13500, & then he should pay nothing. Do you know about Continuing Care? In a nutshell, anyone who has MEDICAL NEEDS, ie they are in a care home because they are ill, rather than they have gone to live there voluntarily, SHOULD get their fees paid by the NHS. I say SHOULD, because it is by no means easy to get them to pay, but some people have challenged this and won. Here'sa link to the fight for CC website.

http://freenursingcare.findtalk.net/general-chat-f1/

That's not actually true about not paying anything when your funds drop. Even then the vast majority of state pension and any pension credit is taken by the Care Home leaving a small amount for personal spending.

Katykat

It used to be so that state pension was "confiscated", but thats changed now. They are allowed to keep it all, but any other allowances are stopped, ie Attendance allowance, not too sure about pension credit, but I imagine that is stopped as it is means tested.

Just looked on DHS website, Pension credit is not stopped apparently, only the allowance for severe diablement.

HoofeHearted

Torry_Quine wrote: »

That's not actually true about not paying anything when your funds drop. Even then the vast majority of state pension and any pension credit is taken by the Care Home leaving a small amount for personal spending.

Yes you are correct. They take your State Pension+Private Pension+any other income. For every £250, or part of £250 of capital between £14,250 and £23,250, you’ll be assessed as though you have an extra £1 a week income. No income is assumed for capital below £14,250 for means test purposes.


Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) of £22.30 a week is allowed to be retained for "spend".


Hope that helps.

Torry_Quine

Katykat wrote: »

It used to be so that state pension was "confiscated", but thats changed now. They are allowed to keep it all, but any other allowances are stopped, ie Attendance allowance, not too sure about pension credit, but I imagine that is stopped as it is means tested.

Just looked on DHS website, Pension credit is not stopped apparently, only the allowance for severe diablement.

Would be nice but sadly not true, the state pension is taken into account and mostly used for fees to the home as my relative can attest.

HoofeHearted wrote: »

Yes you are correct. They take your State Pension+Private Pension+any other income. For every £250, or part of £250 of capital between £14,250 and £23,250, you’ll be assessed as though you have an extra £1 a week income. No income is assumed for capital below £14,250 for means test purposes.


Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) of £22.30 a week is allowed to be retained for "spend".


Hope that helps.

Not much is it.

monkeyspanner

tezmac wrote: »

Hello i hope some one can help,my father has been in a care home for a few years now,his savings will drop to the 14000-23000 in a couple of months,im struggling to work out how much he shoud pay when this happens,he currently pays 463 per week,ive worked out he wll roughly pay about 40 quid a week less, is this right?thanks for any help.

That would depend on his income as well as capital. If your Dad has a private pension as well as state pension you could well be right.
If he has only a state pension and state benefits I would have thought the reduction would have been considerably more. Assuming he is in England then the calculation would have been as posted above. If he is in receipt of Attendance Allowance it will not be payable after 28days when the council assist with care home costs.

One thing to watch out for is the councils standard rates payable dependant on different levels of care needs. It is possible that these rates will not cover the cost of his care. If this is the case the council will ask for a 3rd party top-up (the resident if under the savings limit is not allowed to pay a top-up). If you cannot pay this top-up the council may suggest a move to a cheaper care home. Prior to forcing a move they should carry out an impact assessment this should take into account the affect on your father of any such move and this can include things like his physical and domestic needs and also things like would relatives be able to visit.

The 3rd party top-ups do not necessarily have to come from relatives or friends you can also approach charities to help fund the gap. e.g. charities for ex-servicemen.

In the first instance you need to contact he social services in your local council inform them that your fathers savings are approaching the savings limit and their funding assistance will be required and get a care needs assessment done. Once this is done the councils financial assessment can be completed and you will be able to see where you and your father stand.

A good source of help in this area is www.counselandcare.org.uk they have agood online guide for care home funding and operate a helpline.