Care home costs could be reclaimed from estates
2009-04-16 00:00:00
The Telegraph reports that new legislation being drawn up the Government could lead to the costs of residential or nursing care being recouped from a person’s estate after their death. The proposal is one of a number of options being put forward in the long-awaited Green Paper on the reform of care services in England, which is expected to be published along with the Budget on 22 April 2009. The proposal aims to reduce the number of properties that have to be sold to pay for care costs, but it is likely to result in more homes being sold after they have been inherited. Current rules allow local authorities to defer payment of a care home resident’s fees until after their death, but many councils are not exercising this power in full or at all, preferring immediate payment due to shortage of funds. Around 40% of the UK’s care home 450,000 residents have to pay towards the cost of care because they have £22,250 or more in assets. Care homes often charge in excess of £25,000 per year for residential care and £35,000 for nursing care. 45,000 homes were sold in 2008 to fund care home fees – an increase of 12% since 2003.
Other ideas that the Green Paper will put forward to address this problem are:
- Automatically deferring the payment of fees for ‘self-funders’ until after their death
- Local authorities taking part ownership of homes to make more use of equity-release rules
- Greater use of private insurance to fund care.
Almost all of the proposals outlined in the Paper are likely to be controversial and it is expected that ministers will await feedback from charities, voters and experts before implementing any new legislation. The eventual aim is to create a ‘universal offer’ for all care recipients, whether state-funded or self-funding. Advice and support about finding suitable care will be available to all and the funding process will be clarified, as will the recipient’s rights to make a complaint.