Frequently Asked Questions

Currently, if you have assets of more than £23,250, you will have to pay for the costs your care, whether that is care in your own home, or in a nursing or residential care home. The £23,250 threshold will not include the value of your property if your spouse or another dependant is living in your home. But, and this is the most important point to understand – if you think you have ‘primary health needs’, you should have your eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding assessed first.

If you are eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, you will not have to pay for your care, regardless of your financial circumstances – the NHS will pay.

For more detailed information about your eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, please contact a member of our team, or download our helpful FREE Guide.

There are two stages to the assessment process.

The first stage is the initial Checklist assessment and is usually carried out by a doctor or nurse, either in hospital or in a care home. The Checklist is a preliminary screening tool which looks at a patient’s care requirements in a number of areas and effectively allocates a score to determine the severity of their healthcare needs. A positive Checklist outcome suggests that a patient may qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding and they will then automatically progress to the second stage – a Full Assessment.

The Full Assessment is carried out by members a Multi-Disciplinary Team (MDT) made up of other relevant healthcare professionals. The MDT will undertake a further assessment based on similar healthcare criteria and make a recommendation for eligibility to your local Clinical Commissioning Group, who ultimately make the final decision whether or not to award NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding.

If you think that your relative may be eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, it is vitally important that you understand your rights and know how to proceed with an assessment.

For more detailed information about your eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, please contact a member of our team, or download our helpful FREE Guide.

Yes. You are within your rights to request an assessment of your eligibility to NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding yourself. You can undertake the whole process yourself and our FREE Guide is designed to help you to understand how to work through the process. However, our clients tell us that the process is often difficult, stressful, complex and daunting, which is why we offer clients a wide range of specialist services and can act on your behalf at every stage of the process.

As Martin Lewis previously said on his Money Saving Expert website:

“We don’t normally believe in using lawyers or claims handlers for things it’s easy to do yourself, such as PPI Reclaims, as they take a cut of your payout. Yet, even though we think it’s possible to reclaim care costs DIY, we’re not as militant in this case. If you’re struggling and need help, we strongly suggest using a solicitor rather than a claims handler. But never pay up front, and ensure it’s a ‘no-win no-fee deal’ …….While lawyers are regulated, care costs claims handlers are not (some other types of claims handlers are). If you weren’t happy with the claims firm, all you would be able to do is complain to Trading Standards.”

Martin Lewis – Money Saving Expert https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/care-home-costs-reclaiming

We understand the complexities of the assessment process and use our legal expertise in combination with the clinical expertise of our senior nurses to give our clients the best opportunity to secure funding, including dealing with the Appeals process where necessary.

For more information about our Supported Assessment Service or Retrospective Reclaims Service, please get in touch.

If you’ve already been assessed and didn’t qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, you should contact us to discuss your assessment. The NHS should have provided you with a copy of the assessment and their rationale for refusing funding. We can provide our Appeals Service to advise you if we think that you have grounds to appeal the decision.

If you have a date for an assessment pending, we may be able to offer you our Clinical Review Service and then arrange to represent you at the assessment Full Assessment meeting using our Supported Assessment Service to give you the best chance of achieving a successful outcome.

Recent statistics from the NHS indicate that 58,000 people currently qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, but with 450,000 people currently in care, we think the number of people who should qualify for funding is much higher – perhaps as high as 150,000. People often miss out on funding in many circumstances, including:

• Being discharged from hospital straight into a care home.
• Those whose eligibility has been assessed and rejected, whose condition subsequently worsened.
• Those who received NHS- Funded Nursing Care (FNC) – which pays for the nursing, but not accommodation – who never had an proper assessment that would also have paid for their accommodation.
• More affluent patients who assumed no help would be available. NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding is not means-tested, so if you qualify for health reasons, you get it.

Don’t miss out!  For more detailed information about your eligibility for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding please contact a member of our team, or download one helpful FREE Guide.

Farley Dwek offer professional help, expertise and support at every stage of the NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding assessment or appeal process.

Choose from our wide range of services on our Home Page, depending on the stage of the funding process you are at.

Our charges will be communicated in an entirely transparent way and will, of course, depend on your needs and the work you require us to do. Some services are undertaken on a fixed fee basis and others may be offered on a ‘no win, no fee’ basis* – so, if you are not successful, you pay us nothing.

If you were eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding but did not claim, or did not know that you were eligible, then you can claim back the costs you have paid for your care whilst you should have been eligible. We can help you with this process, which involves a retrospective assessment of your healthcare needs. However, the Government has imposed some rules covering claims for previously paid care fees. You cannot recover any care costs paid before 31st March 2012, unless you had already submitted a claim prior to this deadline.

You should also know that you can recover care fees paid after 31st March 2012, on behalf of a relative or friend who may have since passed away.

For more information about our Retrospective Reclaims Service please get in touch.

If we believe that your relative is not eligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, they will have to pay for their own care – depending on the amount of assets they have.

However, remember that your relative is eligible for a reassessment at any time if their healthcare requirements have changed. We will normally keep in touch with you if they are initially ineligible for funding, so that we can advise you on your changing eligibility in the future.

Until then, if you currently have assets over £23,250 (excluding your property if your spouse or other dependant is living in the property) then you will have to pay for your care.

If your assets are below the £23,250 threshold, then the Local Authority will pay for your care and is obliged to find you accommodation in one of their care homes. (You will still have to pay some costs if your assets are between £14,250 and £23,250 – see our FREE Guide for more detail).

If you have to pay for your own care, there are a number of options open to you in terms of the care or residential home you choose and you may benefit from specialist financial advice through Farley Dwek Financial Services* to help you plan for the costs of your care.

*- Farley Dwek Financial Planning is a trading style of Cheetham Jackson JV LLP, who are an appointed representative of Cheetham Jackson Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Registered Address: 14-16 St Thomas’s Road, Chorley PR7 1HR. Registered in England & Wales number 7071622.

Get in touch if you require for more information.

There are ways in which you can legally mitigate your future care costs. However, if you have an impending need for care, it may not be possible to mitigate your costs. Often, the relatives of patients in care will recognise the importance of future care planning, and it’s a good idea to seek specialist legal advice early on so you can prevent yourself from having to pay all of your care costs in the future. We can help with Independent Financial Advice through Farley Dwek Financial Services*. Get in touch if you need help.

*- Farley Dwek Financial Planning is a trading style of Cheetham Jackson JV LLP, who are an appointed representative of Cheetham Jackson Ltd, authorised and regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). Registered Address: 14-16 St Thomas’s Road, Chorley PR7 1HR. Registered in England & Wales number 7071622.