Continuing health care (CHC) is a subject that we are asked about more than any other aspect of elderly care.
And it’s no wonder, because the sad and desperately unfair alternative is to watch mum or dad’s home being sold and their savings – which they’ve worked hard for all their lives – being swallowed up to pay for their care.
We’ve written a lot about CHC and you can find out more about it here.
Help! – My relative is about to go into a residential home
When someone we know is told they need to go into residential care – either as a result of an unexpected hospital admission or because they are no longer coping well in their own home, what happens next?
In most cases, the very next thing that will happen, is your friendly, local social worker will turn up at your relative’s home to undertake a financial assessment – otherwise known as the dreaded ‘means test.’
You will find yourself not only dealing with the conflicting emotions of putting someone you love into residential care, but now you are being asked to share all their private financial information with a complete stranger and the Local Authority.
It is hard to imagine a more brutal system than we currently have.
It is little wonder that the current Prime Minister has promised to make reforms so that social care, like the NHS, is free at the point of need and not subject to means testing. We await the outcome of his promises with much anticipation.
Why does everyone ask about CHC funding?
It’s clear to see the attraction of NHS Continuing Health Care funding, which is free and is based upon a primary health need, rather than the amount of savings your relative has or the value of their home.
At Steene Law, we frequently receive calls from individuals who are being asked to pay care fees and, having applied for Continuing Health Care, have been declined at the first stage, known as the Checklist or at the second stage, known as the Decision Support Tool.
We have covered the process of the CHC application in more detail and you can read about it here.
We explain to people that Continuing Health Care is not always the ‘be all and end all’.
In this case study, we provide an example of why contacting a firm of solicitors when you are being asked to pay care fees is a sensible idea.
* All names are changed to protect the identities of our clients
A prospective client – we will call him ‘Karl’– telephoned us. He had been searching on the internet and was desperate for advice about eligibility for CHC.
As solicitors who specialise in social care law, whilst CHC is the most well-known benefit, there are other equally effective methods of getting the State to accept responsibility for the care needs of someone who has worked hard and paid a lifetime of taxes.
So before we went too far down the ‘CHC road’, we asked Karl to tell us more about his elderly relative, ‘Sheila’ in order to fully understand her personal situation.
We soon discovered that we did not even needed to concern ourselves with eligibility for CHC as an examination of Sheila’s assets – together with a close understanding of the law surrounding which assets should be included and which should be excluded – meant that the lady’s home was not part of the calculation of her assets.
This meant the Local Authority had to pay for ALL her care. Importantly, it also meant that the people who she loved would benefit from inheriting her home rather than seeing it disappear in care fees.
Karl was delighted with the outcome and you can read his testimonial here.
The moral of the story is this – CHC may not always be the answer even though it is often the question!If you are concerned about care fees please get in touch
We will of course investigate whether CHC may be the answer. But, we will also look at alternatives and we may find a better way of ensuring that your relative’s hard earned savings and home are not swallowed up in care fees.
As experts in both care home fees and property law, we have a whole toolkit of legal solutions that we can use to help you – including many you may not even have heard about.
Call us on 0203 653 0623. We offer a FREE 30 minute conversation and we’ll be happy to offer you our support.