Care costs confusion
Despite opposition from organisations representing older people, including Help the Aged, Age Concern, Alzheimer's Society, Arthritis Care and the National Pensioners' Convention, the Health and Social Care Act was finally passed last month.
Most resistance to the Act concerned proposals to split the payment of nursing care and personal care, which Help the Aged and other groups argued was unfair and unworkable. Exactly how it will be implemented is still unclear, leaving thousands of older people facing uncertainty about how they will fund their long term care.
Other changes have been made in the way residential care is charged for, notably by changing the income and capital thresholds for care charges and by introducing a three month property disregard.
The residential allowance means test limits were increased in April to a minimum of £11,500 (under which level all your care is paid for) and a maximum of £18,500. If you have income or capital over this limit you will receive no financial help at all.
The three month property disregard means that the local authority will disregard the value of your home for 12 weeks from the time you enter your care home. This is designed to give people a breathing space before having to sell their home and to keep open the possibility that they will be able to return there.
Help the Aged offers a specialist service - Care Fees Advisory Services - to help older people find the best financial solutions to pay for care, while protecting their savings and assets for as long as possible.
The service offers free, confidential and impartial advice on the best ways of paying for care, with the aim of providing a regular income while retaining the flexibility to meet any future changes in care needs. The advice is given by financial experts who not only specialise in older people's care needs, but have a detailed knowledge of local authority charging and assessment procedures, DSS benefits and other legal matters.
Laura Phillips of Help the Aged Care Fees Advisory Services says:"This Act introduces another tier of assessment and has done very little to help the situation for hundreds of thousands of older people who are terribly worried about how they will pay for their long term care. At least 40,000 people every year are being forced to sell their family home to pay for their care but fees are very expensive (at around £20,000 a year for a residential home) so even these funds can run out without prudent investment."
Contact Help the Aged Care Fees Advisory Services on Freephone 0500 76 74 76.
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