EPO Care

Can I avoid paying nursing home fees?

The avoidance of care home fees is a topical problem and there is a lot of confusion about the responsibility for paying them. If you live in or need to move into a care home because you need continuous nursing for a serious physical or mental health problem, then you may qualify for NHS-funded ‘Continuing Care’ if you need the sort of care you would expect to have in a hospital.

Where the primary need of the individual is a health need, then the responsibility is that of the National Health Service, not the Social Services department.

It is predicted that the cost of providing long-term care will almost double by 2026, as a result of an ageing population, rising costs and demand for improvements, so it is hardly surprising that the government prefers to shift the responsibility for payment of long term care in care homes to the unsuspecting patient who may, in fact, be entitled to full NHS funding.

You should be entitled to full NHS funding of your care home placement if your health and nursing care needs are more than just the provision of accommodation that a local authority provides, and the nursing needs are not what you would expect a Social Services department to be responsible for.

Therefore, if you are in a nursing or care home because of physical or mental health needs you may be paying fees that should be funded by the NHS.

EPO Lawyers can often help people like you avoid paying your nursing home fees and even to recover nursing home fees that you have paid already. Ask us for a fixed fee interview and we will assess your case to give you an idea of whether your claim will be successful.