Am I right that most elderly people must self-fund care if they have assets?

You would be entitled to carers allowance, which isnt a great deal but better than nothing. I don't think that is means tested at all.
We paid for care for 8 years, it was a big bill at £1500 a week but the care they had was good. They’d not have coped at home at all by then, and it would have tipped me over the edge in a few months!

@MissCharlotteLutterell Yeah, I guess they would bet on a proportion of people dying before they needed care.

The same way insurers always make a profit: charge more in premiums than they pay out in fees.

So actually your mum only has just over a year/18 months worth of care home fees (plus obviously any income she has). After that then she will indeed be eligible for LA funding.

Anything in your dad's name cannot be touched and the house cannot be touched.

I'm not sure that any insurance company would offer it - how could they make a profit?

You are right

My dad's care was to be funded by continuing health care. The hospital and social services sorted it all out on an expedited basis as he was considered terminally ill/end of life. As it was, he died the day after he came home from hospital so kind of didn't need it. But when he was previously to have been discharged it would have been self funded but his needs changed before they got as far as discharging him

You will not get CHC funding for dementia or Alzheimer’s unless her behavioural is so violent and aggressive that she gets sectioned. If she gets sectioned you’ll get her care home paid for.

Because you father lives at home they can’t take the house to pay for her care, but they will take half of the other joint assets/cash/savings she shares with your father. Until her share reduces to £23,250. Then they will pay SOME, not all. They’ll only paid all when her savings share gets to £14,000.

Often people are assessed after finding themselves in hospital due to a fall, UTI etc. However in your situation you can ring social services at the local authority and ask for an assessment, you explain you can no longer meet your Mums needs and even with a package of care x3 daily you cannot maintain her safety.

They will then come out and do an assessment on your Mum, financials and the current circumstances and inform you of what your entitled to. With my grandma she was living with my parents but it became unmanageable as she had dementia, she went into respite for x2 weeks and was re-assessed and the home said she needed 24 hour care. She did have over the threshold of savings/pension etc but not by much, once that ran out she was then funded. I believe this is how it works. They cannot sell the house whilst your Father is alive and they cannot regain the money once both have passed away.

I must admit im suprised at the amount of people on here whos family have been refused, it wasn’t a nice process for us but certainly wasn’t a nightmare to gain the funding.

We were basically told that MIL was too nice to qualify for CHC . If her behaviour was challenging, with more unpredictable support needs, she would have qualified.

I’m a nurse. There’s CHC funding but also fast track funding. We as nurses can do a CHC checklist and if they score positive then we will refer to the CHC team who will do further assessments. We don’t have anything to do with this after that.
A fast track is something us as nurses can complete and usually funding starts the same or next day. This is for people deemed end of life, specifically last 3 months of life. This will get reviewed every 3 months and can be taken away if no longer deemed end of life whereas continuing health care is long term. Fasttrack is particularly helpful if your trying to get your relative carers or a placement as having a fasttrack means we can get this in place quickly as funding is in place. If a person already has carers or in a care home then the only changes are who is funding it. To qualify for a fasttrack I would be looking at how responsive they was, if they was able to communicate, eat and drink, mobility, breathing patterns, if they needed any symptom management, rapid deterioration. They don’t need to have a palliative diagnosis they could just be elderly but entering end stages of life.

The companies that 'help' you apply for the Continuing health care funding, charge thousands and in most cases you will be wasting your money, as the 'not fit for purpose' NHS is stellar at finding ways to deny any claim.
So yes you are right, you have to use your own assets first in most cases with the exception of the house a spouse is living in. Quite right too I suppose. Why shouldn't you pay for your own care given that people live into their nineties now?

My mil was self funding until we were told by the hospital she was pallative- then she was discharged back to the care home. we applied for chc fast track (the process is different), she lived for another 5 months and her care was funded. Its so difficult was when you are dealing with that decline and wouldnt have thought about applying but my fil had it so we knew it was possible.

I honestly think it depends regionally and perhaps whether you choose to go private to get the supporting evidence written more sympathetically and properly for your mum.

I don't mean to sound flippant but it's a little like PIP where if you know how to fill out the forms (and have a fluctuating condition - thats why you must fill the forms out as if its the worst day) and have supporting evidence from a sympathetic gp/nurse/physio you are more likely to get CHC.

My mum and sister are district nurses in the midlands.. when FIL had a catastrophic brain bleed stroke and was in hosp then a care home they were very knowledgeable about how to explain his conditions/effects.

The assessor we had who came out to the care home was not super gaslight-y like I've read can be the case so probably very lucky there too. The care home also didn't seem too bothered about him applying - I've heard they don't like chc as they get less money? Or the funded nursing care element most people get in a home goes straight to them? But I'm very uninformed on that

My MIL was held under a MH section. When they moved her from the MH unit to the dementia wing of the nursing home her care was paid for - still under Section.

OP if you find a care home you like then put your Mum on the waiting list, hopefully a place will then be available when you need it.

My parent spent 4 months in hospital after a massive heart attack. Due to the extent of the damage there wasn't any surgery they could have (or indeed survive). Eventually discharged to a council funded care home with a 12 week life expectancy so those 12 weeks would be fully funded as it was considered an 'end of life' placement. Didn't die and in fact got stronger but far too frail and now with diagnosed vascular dementia could not go home. The family found a private nursing home which fortunately had a place available. Family paid the deposit to hold the place and then moved my parent into it. (Activated LPA and now fees are covered from their account.)

I sat through the MDT CHC assessment. It's brutal but the chair went to great trouble to explain everything, let me comment and feel fully involved. The conclusion was that the nursing element (about £250 per week) could be funded but there were no grounds to award full funding. The decision was explained fully and it was the correct decision. I'll have to sit through it again in a few months time as it's reviewed annually. I expect the outcome to be the same.

The care home can only take 50% of savings into account and not the house at all if there is a spouse or partner so your Dad won't be made homeless or left destitute paying for care for your Mum. It's a brutal process so it's helpful if the family are united. My FIL was in a care home and he thrived there whilst MIL was able to also get her life and interests back. She visited regularly and they had quality time together.

Good luck.

No, but often what triggers them going into a home is the death of the spouse when they were caring for one another so then the survivor inherits it and it can all be used for care fees, including the proceeds of the house. Not in the OP's case, but I have seen it several times amongst my extended family.

You need to request an assessment for Continuing Health Care.

Agreed, which is why when you are choosing a self funded care home for the first in a couple to need care, it is really important to check their policy on what happens if the resident no longer has assets to self fund.

That's true, although councils often don't pay the weekly amount that the care actually costs. At the company I worked for, they had a guarantee that, once accepted they would 'top up' the difference once the person's money had run out. Many care homes wouldn't do this, so the person would need to be moved somewhere cheaper.