Should the NHS be paying for your care?
It is well known that, if you have your own capital above a certain threshold, Social Services won’t fund your care fees. What is less well known is that, in certain circumstances, the NHS will pay and this funding is not means-tested.
This means that, if you qualify, the NHS will pay all your care costs, whether the care is provided at home, in a care home or a nursing home. Because you qualify based on your health needs, your financial means are irrelevant.
In order to qualify, you have to prove that your primary need is a health need. Therefore, if you just need care because you can’t look after yourself independently any more, you are unlikely to qualify. In assessing you, the NHS will be looking at whether your needs are sufficiently complex, unpredictable or intense to justify them funding you.
In order to make that assessment, they will look at twelve different “care domains” which include cognition, behaviour, mobility and continence. If it is felt that, for example, you have a “severe” need in two of those care domains it is likely that you will receive funding.
We advise clients on their prospects of success at an assessment, as well as representing them at the assessments and any subsequent appeals.
To discuss this further, contact me on 01473 826311 or email [email protected].
