NHS continuing care and Fnc question, do we pay the full care costs?? 13 February 2022 at 2:42PM in Disability money matters 8 replies 304 views

leew

Afternoon all, 

I am posting this on behalf of my Mum who can't understand if she has to pay the full care costs of my Dad who's in a nursing care home. 

She has received a letter saying she's not eligible for CHC but 24hr nursing has been identified as being needed so FNC of £187.60/wk will be contributed.

It is stressing my Mum out as she thinks she now needs to pay the full care costs which she can't afford.

Any help much appreciated. 

Thanks. 

leew

Here's the letter, it also came with around 20 other pages outlining all my Dads requirements etc

lisyloo

CHC means everything is paid for by NHS.
FNC means the nursing element is paid for but the personal care, board & lodging need to be paid for by your Dad (not your mum) or by the local authority if he can’t pay

has a financial assessment been done by the local authority?
what assets are there?
the home will be disagreed if it’s in joint names and your mum lives there.
do you know if it’s in joint names? (Land registry info can be obtained for £3)
and held jointly? Or as tenants in common?
if you don’t know, then I would suggest paying £3 to the LR and posting here exactly what it says (redacting names and address).

do they have savings?
does your dad have income?
private pension? State pension? Etc.

I realise this is somewhat instrusive, but there are folks here can help if you can provide some details.

the home may well be disregarded (but depends on details).
your dads income is up for grabs (not mums) minus £25 for personal things like clothing
savings/investments of your dads are up for grabs above a certain amount (around £23k), joint savings would be assumed 50/50

we can help if you post details.

i am surprised the local authority haven’t asked for all these details already.

leew

lisyloo said:

CHC means everything is paid for by NHS.
FNC means the nursing element is paid for but the personal care, board & lodging need to be paid for by your Dad (not your mum) or by the local authority if he can’t pay

has a financial assessment been done by the local authority?
what assets are there?
the home will be disagreed if it’s in joint names and your mum lives there.
do you know if it’s in joint names? (Land registry info can be obtained for £3)
and held jointly? Or as tenants in common?
if you don’t know, then I would suggest paying £3 to the LR and posting here exactly what it says (redacting names and address).

do they have savings?
does your dad have income?
private pension? State pension? Etc.

I realise this is somewhat instrusive, but there are folks here can help if you can provide some details.

the home may well be disregarded (but depends on details).
your dads income is up for grabs (not mums) minus £25 for personal things like clothing
savings/investments of your dads are up for grabs above a certain amount (around £23k), joint savings would be assumed 50/50

we can help if you post details.

i am surprised the local authority haven’t asked for all these details already.

Many thanks for the reply, I'll do my best to answer some questions. 

Home is in joint names and my Mum lives there on her own, Dad has a pension and I think he pays costs out of that, may be wrong though. 

Mum has some savings not alot really, Dads have been spent I believe mostly on the house. 

This is what is currently being payed by my Dad/Mum



He has been in the nursing home since 2018 and has always payed this amount I believe. 

lisyloo

If house is in joint names and mum still lives there it’s disregarded.
if savings are small they are not taken
his pension is up for grabs minus around £25 for personal items (like clothing).
so this looks about right for his state pension minus the £25 he’s allowed to keep.
the care home fees may be around £700 per week, so the local authority are paying the rest.
That guesswork on my part, but it looks about right.
The fnc just means the nhs are paying for the nursing element so that letter can be pretty much ignored.

leew

lisyloo said:

If house is in joint names and mum still lives there it’s disregarded.
if savings are small they are not taken
his pension is up for grabs minus around £25 for personal items (like clothing).
so this looks about right for his state pension minus the £25 he’s allowed to keep.
the care home fees may be around £700 per week, so the local authority are paying the rest.
That guesswork on my part, but it looks about right.
The fnc just means the nhs are paying for the nursing element so that letter can be pretty much ignored.

Thank you so much for the replies, my Mum is so worried she wouldn't be able to pay all the costs. 

So just to confirm, my Mum/Dad will still be paying £473.64/mth and the NHS will pay £750.40/mth for the Fnc element.

I hope I've got that correct. 

Apologies as this is way over my head too to be honest, find it very hard to understand frankly. 

 

lisyloo

Yes, she will be paying the same.
my guess is that you dad revives £143.31 (ish) per week state pension and pays £118.41 for board/lodging & care which is paid for by your mum on his behalf.
you could check his state pension documents or bank statements.

Im also guessing he has deteriorated since 2018 to a point where the care home can claim for nursing.
this will be paid for because healthcare (the nursing element) is free.
so everything will stay the same for your mum apart from very small changes to state pension in April which happen annually (a few £s for inflation).

Savvy_Sue

If your dad has deteriorated, and no recent assessment for CNC has been carried out, please ask for this to be done. It's not easy and you may be fobbed off, so do ask for help if that's the case.

lisyloo

Savvy_Sue said:

If your dad has deteriorated, and no recent assessment for CNC has been carried out, please ask for this to be done. It's not easy and you may be fobbed off, so do ask for help if that's the case.

The assessment was 2/2/22 I.e. very recent.
i only guessed the situation has changed as this appears to be new FNC, so perhaps gone from residential in 2018 to nursing in 2022.