Q. My relative is leaving hospital but is not able to look after herself at home. Her social worker tells me we need to sell her house to fund 24 hour nursing care. Is this correct? A. This is not necessarily the case. Your relative could go home with a package of care, so people are there to look after her in her own home. Or she could go into a residential placement temporarily. If someone goes into residential care as a temporary resident rather than a permanent resident, Social Services have to ignore the value of her home. A temporary resident is someone who is in care for a period of up to 52 weeks. Q. If the care home situation becomes permanent, would I have to sell the house then? A. You don't have to sell the property. But unless the NHS accept that they have a funding responsibility, and your relative qualifies for NHS Continuing Healthcare, Social Services will regard your relative as a self-funder. Q. What is a self-funder? A. Social services do not fund permanent care for those with savings or property (known as “assessable assets”) above £23,250. Your relative will have to use up most of the sale proceeds of her property to pay for her own care each week. The basic position is that Social Services expect her or you as Attorney to sell the house and use the proceeds and any other savings to pay for care until these savings drop below the threshold. At this point, Social Services will help with the cost of paying for her care. But they still expect her to use her income and pensions to contribute to care costs. Q. Can I rent out my relative’s property rather than selling it? A. Yes, a lot of people do this. To rent instead of selling a property ask Social Services for a Deferred Payment Agreement. Q. If the NHS are prepared to pay for my relative’s care, would I still have to sell the house? A. It isn't that straightforward. You would ask the local Clinical Commissioning Group to carry out a comprehensive assessment of your relative's needs to see if she is eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare. The nurse assessor looks at 12 Care Domains, which are areas of care, and they rank your relative in each area. If they agree that she has eligibility then the nurse assessor will say that your relative is eligible for full funding - this could be for three months, six months, a year or longer. The NHS should pay, in full, for care for anyone with a primary health need. Q. My relative clearly has health needs, otherwise she would not have been in hospital and would not need to go to a care home. Does this mean the NHS should fund her care? The NHS does not make a decision on eligibility for NHS continuing healthcare funding simply because of someone's diagnosis, even when it is a serious diagnosis like Alzheimers. Sometimes they say no at the first instance. Martin Searle Solicitors have a great deal of experience in successfully overturning negative NHS Continuing Healthcare decisions. If the Clinical Commissioning Group local review panel decide to uphold the original negative decision, we go to NHS England for an Independent Review Panel appeal. Martin Searle Solicitors has a very good success rate in achieving funding awards for people at appeal. If you have any queries about NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding or Paying for Care, please contact our Community Care Law team on 01273 609911, email info@ms-solicitors.co.uk or visit our website: https://www.ms-solicitors.co.uk/community-care-law/nhs-continuing-healthcare/

• published: 25 Sep 2020
• views: 972