EPO Care

FUNDING YOUR OWN CARE - ASSESSING YOUR FINANCES

If you do not qualify for NHS Continuing Health Care then you may have to pay for some or all of your care. The amount you will have to pay depends on your income and capital. There are three bands which are relevant to the decision about funding. If you have capital of over £23,000 then you will normally expected to fund the full cost of your care, and conversely if you have capital of under £14,000 Social Services will normally cover the full cost; if you have capital in between those two figures then both you and Social Services will contribute to the cost.

Your spouse or partner

Your local council will assess your savings and income to work out how much you will have to pay towards the cost of your care. The savings or income of your spouse or partner should not be taken into account when working out how much you have to pay; you should be assessed solely on the value of your own income, savings and capital. Where you have joint savings, only your share of these savings should be taken into account. It will be assumed that you own a 50 per cent share regardless of what your real share might be.

The local council does not have a legal right to assess your husband or wife’s income and assets. If it wants your spouse to make a payment, the local council has to ask him or her to agree to a sum that they can afford to pay. There are no national guidelines as to how this amount should be worked out. Your local council should come to an agreement with your spouse about what they can afford through negotiation. The ‘liable relative’ rule was ended in 2007 so this situation is now quite rare.

It is important to note that even if the requested payments are not being made, the local council still has an obligation to provide the care you have been assessed as needing.

Giving away assets

The legal situation is complex, and you are forbidden from transferring property or savings to another person in order to qualify for financial help from your local council. This is called deprivation of assets. If your local council believes that you have deliberately given away assets in order to reduce or avoid care home fees, it has the power to treat you as still having those assets.

There is no set time limit within which giving away property or savings is treated as deprivation of capital. However, if the transfer took place up to six months before you moved into the care home, the local council may try to claim the fees from the person to whom you have given your assets.

If the transfer took place more than six months before you moved into the care home, the local council may consider whether it is possible to recover the fees from you personally. This means that you could be given a bill for your home fees, even though you don't actually have the money any more.

The local council will be more interested in the intention behind any transfer of assets than how long ago the transfer took place. If a main reason was to avoid paying for care fees it might investigate it further, even if the transfer took place years ago. It is most important, therefore, that you get sound legal advice before you start giving your assets away.

Third party top-up payments

Your local council can only ask a third party, for example, a relative or friend, to top up your fees if you choose to move to a different care home from the one offered to you by your local council and the fees are more expensive than your local council would normally expect to pay for someone with your needs.

A third party should not be asked to top up your fees if the only accommodation that is available to meet your assessed needs is more expensive than your local council would normally pay.

It is not usually allowed for you to top your fees up from your own savings or personal expenses allowance. However, there are two exceptions to this rule if you have a deferred payments agreement with your local council; or if your property is being disregarded for the first 12 weeks of entering into care.