If you’re paying care home fees (or paying for full-time care at home) and you have health needs, you could be entitled to NHS Continuing Healthcare.
Many people assume that if you have some savings or you own a property, you have to pay for your own care.
This is not necessarily the case.
How reliable is the information you have?
Did you know that the NHS is obliged to pay 100% of your care home fees if you have what’s called a ‘Primary Health Need’. This means that your primary need for care is a health need – as opposed to a social care need. This funding is called NHS Continuing Healthcare.
However, many of the families who contact us indicate that they have not received any accurate information about this from the health and social care authorities.
The little-known fund that can cover complex care costs – BBC article about NHS Continuing Healthcare
Read more about NHS Continuing Healthcare
There are two types of nursing care funding:
- Fully-funded NHS care is called NHS Continuing Healthcare. This covers 100% of care fees.
- Registered Nursing Care Contribution (RNCC) or Funded Nursing Care (FNC) is a weekly allowance to cover some nursing care.
You should ALWAYS be assessed for NHS Continuing Healthcare BEFORE you’re assessed for FNC.
Care is not just care: social care vs. healthcare
Generally speaking:
- Social Services (your local authority) provides social care (which is means-tested)
- the NHS provides health/nursing care (which is not means tested)
If you have health needs and someone speaks to you about an ‘assessment’, make sure it’s an assessment for NHS Continuing Healthcare and not a Local Authority financial assessment.
Sadly, online forums such as the Alzheimer’s Society’s Talking Point and the Parkinson’s UK forum and others show that many families feel caught between the local authority and the NHS – often pressured to undergo a financial assessment and yet trying to get through the NHS Continuing Healthcare process at the same time.
How to get the NHS to pay for care
Having to choose a care home, negotiate the care ‘system’, understand care fees and figure out what to do next can be very difficult, and many families feel confused and exasperated.
Care To Be Different can help by showing you what should and shouldn’t happen.
How To Get The NHS To Pay For Care is an easy-to-follow, practical e-book that helps you cut through the confusion and claim what you’re entitled to.
“We have heard today that my mother-in-law is to receive NHS Continuing Care funding. We could not have done it without your book and website. Thank you so much.” Ian Johnson
“Everything you said would happen did happen.” (further feedback on How To Get The NHS To Pay For Care)
