Qualifying for NHS Funded Nursing care in a Dementia Care Home

[Flossiefoo]

We are sadly looking at respite for my dad with a view for a permanant move into a lovely care home providing Dementia Care.
Mum will stay in the house but they have over the threshold of savings so will have to self fund.
Mum is obviously terrified of not being left with enough to live on. Dad has other complex health issues on top of his Vascula Dementia .. Heart Failure, Stenosis of the spine, lack of mobilty so needs help with toileting and showering etc.
My question is, would dad qualify for NHS-funded nursing care whilst in the care home ?
Any help or advice gratefully received

The CHC full funding is extremely difficult to get. It’s in two parts, a screening questionnaire to see whether they’ll bother to assess, and the assessment tool, which you can find online. You’ll need at least several “high”s to be in with a chance. They seem to be looking for unpredictable needs requiring daily nursing decisions. Needing help toileting and showering, and heart problems controlled by drugs won’t do it.

So best to assume you won’t get it.

You should get a nursing contribution, paid direct to the home, which helps cover the nurses at the home.

If he’s self funding, and your mother is still living in the house, the house won’t be included in the financial assessment, nor will any income or savings of hers. Probably best to split any joint savings they have. There was a tale on here where couple had joint savings of say £100k, so husband had to contribute as he was over the threshold. But when joint savings fell to £73k, £50k of hers and the allowed £23k of his, they still treated them as equally split, and said he’d got £36.5k so was still over the threshold.

If he’s entirely self funded, he should be able to get attendance allowance. Every little helps.

My dad qualified but there was a lot of pushing to get there. He ended up being sectioned under the mental health act and being placed in a secure unit for 6 months before qualifying after he broke the hand of one of the carers in the home he was in.
It was a very stressful time but his social worker was invaluable and the hospital team as well, if we’d have applied on our own I don’t think we would have been successful.

CHC a funding is very difficult to get and definitely a postcode lottery -rarely granted where we are.
However, your father will probably qualify for NHS-funded nursing care, which would pay for the nursing care component of nursing home fees. For my fil the home applied on his behalf and this goes directly to them, and they offset it against the fees.
We then claimed Attendance Allowance on his behalf, which we originally thought we wouldn’t get because he rec’d the NHS-funded nursing care, but you can claim it in addition and it was backdated. This goes directly into his bank account.
Don’t forget your mother can get a council tax single person's discount when your father moves into a residential home on a permanent basis.

Like Yubaba my mil got it because she was sectioned for 6 months in a secure until. The doctors kept trying to guilt my fil into taking her home before she’d been in there for 6 months, but the nurses said not to as this was a way of them wriggling out of paying CHC 😳

I worked as an advisor at citizens advice for years and my husband is a lawyer and it was bloody hard work sorting it all out.

Good luck and I hope it’s not too stressful for you all.

If your DM is worried about having enough money, would she let you go through her bills with her? When DMIL went into a Home I managed to reduce DFIL energy bill by £70 a month, plus as mentioned above he now gets the single person's discount on Council Tax.

A DF tells a similar tale of reducing DPs phone bill by £50 a month.

If he has nursing needs and is placed in a nursing home then he will qualify for the NHS funded contribution which pays for the nursing part of his care.

If he has nursing needs that can be met by district nurses visiting him in a residential care home then he won't receive the nursing funding.

It's unlikely he would be eligible for Fully funded continuing healthcare unless the nature of his nursing care needs are felt to be complex, unpredictable or intense.

For as long as your mum remains in the property it will be disregarded from the financial assessment. Only your dads share of any savings or additional assists will be taken into account for the financial assessment.

Your mum will also be entitled to 50% of any income your dad usually gets from e.g. pensions.

The point of the financial assessment is to see what the person can afford to pay for their care. There should never be a circumstance where it leaves the partner/spouse remaining at home in financial hardship.