Who pays for nursing home care?
When it comes to the question of who pays for nursing home care, the answer can vary according to your medical and financial circumstances.
Generally speaking, unless your medical needs meet certain funding requirements, or your financial circumstances mean you qualify for assistance from your Local Authority, you may be required to pay for some or all of your nursing care fees.
Financial support from the NHS
If you live with certain long-term or complex medical conditions, it is worth checking if you are eligible for financial assistance through the NHS CHC (Continuing Healthcare) or FNC (Funded Nursing Care) schemes.
The NHS will cover the full cost of care for those assessed as having an eligible ‘primary health need’, through the CHC scheme. An assessment will be carried out to capture the level and type of support you need on a day-to-day basis, and whether your needs meet the criteria. If eligible, your nursing care fees will be entirely covered by the CHC scheme, regardless of your own financial circumstances.
If you do not qualify for the CHC scheme, you may still be eligible for financial support via the NHS FNC scheme. If you are assessed as needing support from a registered nurse, within a nursing care home setting, the FNC scheme will pay a fixed weekly amount to your nursing care home, which will be deducted from the overall cost of your nursing care.
Financial support from your Local Authority
To check if your Local Authority will support you with the cost of your nursing care homestay, we recommend making contact with your local Adult Social Care team, who will be able to carry out an assessment of your finances and advise you of any support to which you may be entitled.
The Local Authority assessment will consider the financial value of your income and assets against an ‘upper capital limit’ set by the government, to determine if you are eligible for financial support, and if so, what level of support you are entitled to.
As a result, you will either be considered a ‘self-funder’ (required to cover the full cost of your own nursing care home fees) or qualify for a Local Authority contribution towards your nursing care fees (but required to make up the difference yourself).
Please be aware that government thresholds for Local Authority financial support are subject to change, which could impact your eligibility for support with your nursing care fees.
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