Help & Info

Team levels in our homes are based on the assessed care and support needs of the residents living on each community in the home. This assessment includes not only each resident’s physical needs but also the support they need to meet their emotional, psychological and social needs. Team levels are analysed on a monthly basis to ensure they are sufficient to meet the needs of the residents, this monthly analysis includes a review of nurse call bell response times, the time it takes our team to complete a medicines round, feedback from residents, team and relatives and a review of accidents, incidents and near misses as well as reviewing the outcome of quality observations such as dining observations, internal compliance activity and feedback from external partners.

Please contact your home of choice for more detailed information regarding the management structure at the home and the team arrangements on specific care communities.

If your mother has capital of over £23,250 (in England; £24,000 in Wales) she will not qualify for assistance from the Local Authority until such a time as her capital is below this amount. Any private care fees will therefore have to be met from existing capital and income. (If she has assets below £23,250, she would get increasing help on a sliding scale down to the lower limit of £14,250, where no contribution is needed).

Most savings and assets are included in a means test, but some confusion has surrounded the subject of whether or not a person’s home is included. To help clarify the situation, a person’s home is not included in the means test if:

• a child under 16 lives in the property;
• they’re in the first 12 weeks of needing permanent care;
• care is being provided on a temporary basis.
• another parent still resides in the home;
• a relative over 60 resides in the house;
• a disabled relative lives at the property;

The 12-week property disregard

As mentioned above, a persons’ property is excluded from the means test for the first 12 weeks following admission to a care home (once a permanent contract is established). This means that when an individual is assessed if any support will be given by the local authority, the value of the individual’s property will not be included.  If the remaining capital falls inside the current threshold, then the local authority should assist you with the payment of your care fees.  If additional money is needed to ‘top-up’ the money provided by the local authority, the individual is able to pay this themselves.

If the property is sold within these 12 weeks, the disregard ceases to apply from the date of sale.

The money paid out by the local authority during the first 12 weeks is not normally repayable.

Deferred Payment Agreement (Government Loan Scheme)

If, after the first 12 weeks, the property has not been sold, the local authority can continue to pay towards the care fees, under the “deferred payment agreement”, but this money is repayable once the property is sold.

You can choose a care home that is more expensive than your local council usually pays for a person with your assessed needs, but you may need to find a way to pay the difference.

If the council can suggest a place that meets your needs and you still want to move into a more expensive care home then they can ask a third party (usually a relative or friend) to pay the extra. This is called a ‘3rd party contribution’. You are not able to pay this yourself as you have been financially assessed to pay what you can afford.

Council Tax is usually payable on properties left unoccupied by people who have moved to receive personal care, whether in a hospital, care home or elsewhere. However, generally speaking, the residents of care homes, or those whose main home is a hospital, do not have to pay Council Tax so please check with your council to see if you are eligable for any discounts or exemptions.

More details about these arrangements can be found in the leaflet ‘Council tax – a guide to your bill’, available from the Department for Communities (www.communities.gov.uk) and your local government website.

Possibly, as most state benefits are means-tested. Attendance Allowance is an exception; it is a non-means tested, tax-free state benefit, payable to all individuals over the age of 65 who have needed care (defined as help with essential daily tasks, such as washing and dressing) for longer than six consecutive months.

Attendance Allowance is available at two rates; a lower rate, for those who need help during the day or the night and a higher rate, for those needing care during both the day and night. The current weekly figures (2017/18) are £55.10 lower rate and £82.30 for the higher rate. Claim forms can be obtained from larger Post Offices, Citizens Advice Bureaux or downloaded from the website at www.direct.gov.uk.

Individuals needing care under the age of 65 will still qualify for an allowance, but this is paid in the form of Disability Living Allowance.

The NHS will cover the cost of any nursing care provided by a registered nurse that a person in a nursing home is assessed as needing. This cost is a flat rate of £155.05 a week in England and £140.90 a week in Wales (for 2017/18), and is called NHS-funded nursing care (formerly known as the registered nursing care contribution).

Anyone entering a nursing home may be assessed to see if they qualify for NHS-funded nursing care. If they do, this money will be paid directly to the nursing home. The assessment is repeated annually thereafter, and it is possible that individuals may lose the contribution if they no longer require nusing care.

Continuing Health Care

Some people with ongoing health needs may be entitled to all their fees in a nursing home being paid by the Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG). To be eligible, a continuing care health assessment is conducted by a designated nurse from the CCG and is taken to a panel for discussion on whether the individual meets certain criteria. The assessment should be conducted with the knowledge and input of the resident, next of kin and other professionals involved in the person’s care. In some circumstances, the assessment process can be fast-tracked, eg when a person is diagnosed as terminally ill with a life expectancy of one month or less.

As mentioned previously, if your mother’s capital and savings and/or income push her outside the means test thresholds, she will generally be responsible for the funding of her own care fees until such a time as her money falls below the appropriate threshold.

However, with careful planning it may be possible to structure her finances in such a way that her care fees can be paid indefinitely, without worry about the money running out. Most families wish to ensure that their relative can stay in their chosen care home for the rest of their lives as well as safeguarding as much of the existing capital as possible. Speak to an Independent Financial Advisor or consider an organisation that specialises in care fees planning, such as some from the list below. Please note that we do not endorse one particular organisation.