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Entitlement to health and social care

4 replies

3littlefrogs · 26/06/2011 17:38

My friend's colleague has just asked me the following question:

He wants to bring his elderly parents to the UK (from Asia) in order to look after them. They have a small pension and can sell their home abroad and buy a flat here.

He is a British citizen, but is a first generation immigrant. He wants to know if his parents would be entitled to NHS care, and, if they became too ill for him and his family to care for them, would they get help with the costs of personal or nursing care.

I work in the NHS, but I have no idea what the answer to this question would be.

There is no family in their home country to look after them, so I can understand why he would want to bring them here, however, he isn't all that well off that he could pay for private health care, IYSWIM.

Can anyone advise?

TIA

OP posts:

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GypsyMoth · 26/06/2011 18:32

Crikey!!

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edam · 26/06/2011 18:34

Not sure about NHS care but social care is means-tested anyway - no-one gets that free unless they are very poor. (And even if you are poor, it's increasingly restricted to those with the very highest needs as councils cut their budgets.)

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meditrina · 26/06/2011 18:37

Eligibility to use NHS is based on your normal place of residence, so if they move here they will be able to receive healthcare.

I have no idea about social care.

Your friend may be able to find out the answers to this when he starts the visa application process. Usually the rule of thumb would be 'no recourse to public funds' for a specified period. Will their pension suffice to support them in UK?

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3littlefrogs · 26/06/2011 20:50

I think it will - I didn't like to ask too many questions. I am sure he will support his parents as much as he can. I think it is more the worry about if/when they need help with care if they get ill/frail. Back in his home country people have a lot of domestic help, but of course it is different here.

He can't go back to live with them as he has a job/life/family here.

Yes - I suppose the visa process may answer those questions - I hadn't thought of that. (I don't know anything about these things - maybe I should, but my NHS job is nursing, rather than working out who is entitled to what).