You
may have to contribute towards your
residential care or nursing home fees. Your
local Health and Social Care Trust will work
out how much you have to pay through a
financial assessment.
We
can also help you with this too.
Your
financial assessment
Before you
move into one of our homes, you'll have a
financial assessment, with your HSC Trust,
looking at your income and capital to
calculate how much you have to pay towards
your home fees.
Examples of
income include:
- interest
on your savings
- private
and/or State Pension
- some
benefits like Pension Credit, Attendance
Allowance or the care component of
Disability Living Allowance
Your capital
might include:
- savings
-
investments
- any
property you might own (like your own
home or holiday home, for example)
Before your
financial assessment, make sure you're
getting all the benefits you're entitled to.
This is
important because your contribution to your
home fees will be based on all income
including benefits.
No matter how
much you have to pay towards your home fees,
you must be left with £23.50 a week to spend
as you choose.
If you get
the mobility component of Disability Living
Allowance, you will keep getting it.
You'll also
get up to £5.75 per week of any savings
credit if you are over 65.
Capital and
the value of your home
If you have
over £23,250 in capital you will be assessed
as being able to meet the full cost of your
care.
Your capital
will be assessed according to the
information in the following table:
Amount
of capital you have |
How your
capital is used to calculate your
contribution to your care home fees |
Over
£23,250 |
You
will be assessed as being able to
meet the full cost of your care |
Between £14,250 and £23,250 |
Capital between these amounts will
be calculated as providing you with
an income of £1 per week for every
£250 of your savings |
£14,250 or under |
Your
capital will be ignored in
calculating how much you have to
contribute to the cost of your care |
If you own
your home then it will usually be counted as
capital 12 weeks after you move permanently
into a care home.
The value of
your own home will not be counted as capital
if certain close relatives still live there.
Getting your
needs assessed
You will have
a needs assessment before a financial
assessment.
Your local
Trust will be able to tell you how much they
usually pay for a residential care or
nursing home that will meet your needs.
This is
important if you are paying your own fees to
start with but think you might need to ask
your local trust for help later on.
HSC contribution toward the
cost of nursing provided in
nursing homes
If you live in a nursing
home and have assessed
nursing needs , your local
trust will pay £100 per week
towards the fees to cover
the cost of the nursing
element.
If your assessment indicates
that your primary need is
for health care, your Trust
will pay the full cost of
your care. This is called
'continuing health care'.
Hospital staff, your local
doctor (GP) or social
worker, can help arrange an
assessment if you think you
qualify.
Direct
payments
Direct
payments
from your
local Trust
are intended
to support
adults in
independent
living and
are not
intended to
finance
permanent
residential
care.
However, you
may be able
to use
direct
payments to
secure
occasional
short
periods,
(usually not
more than
four weeks)
in
residential
accommodation,
if your
local Trust
agrees that
is what is
needed.
If you are
living in a
residential
care or
nursing home
In some
situations,
people who
are living
in
residential
care can
have
temporary
access to
direct
payments.
For example,
this could
enable you
to try out
independent
living
arrangements
before
deciding to
move out of
residential
care.
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