• Funding care fees
• Legislation
• NHS & State Benefits
• Powers of Attorney
• Office of the Public Guardian

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NHS & State Benefits

Most state benefits are means-tested, however, Attendance Allowance is a non-means tested, tax free state benefit, payable to all individuals over the age of 65 who have needed care (defined as help with essential daily tasks, such as washing and dressing) for longer than six consecutive months, regardless of whether or not they are in a care home.

Attendance Allowance is available at two rates, a lower rate, for those who need help during the day or the night and a higher rate, for those needing care during both the day and night.

The current weekly figures are £51.85 lower rate and £77.45 for the higher rate.

Claim forms can be obtained from larger Post Offices, Citizens Advice Bureau, Age Concern Shops, the Benefits Agency themselves or downloaded directly from the direct.gov web site.

Individuals needing care under the age of 65 will still qualify for an allowance, but this is paid in the form of Disability Living Allowance (full details can be supplied on request).

What about NHS funded Nursing Care?

Following the implementation of the Health & Social Care Act 2001, individuals assessed, as needing nursing care at home or in a nursing home, are entitled to receive an additional nursing care allowance.

This allowance is non-means tested and tax-free, although how much is paid will depend on where you live.

In addition to the above a person may qualify for Continuing Care - the NHS contributes to the cost of care (but to qualify for this benefit, patients must be unstable and/or unpredictable and need constant 24 hour specialist/acute nursing care).

The local Primary Care Trust will carry out a NHS Continuing Care assessment on request (see separate section).

What about Personal Care?

Personal Care in only available in Scotland and is currently paid at £163 per week. Should a resident living in Scotland qualify for Personal Care, they are no longer eligible to receive Attendance Allowance.

NHS Continuing Healthcare

If a person’s medical condition is unstable and/or unpredictable and necessitates the need for constant 24 hour specialist/acute nursing care, they may be eligible to receive HNS Continuing Care.

Sadly, during recent years the system has been slightly flawed with many families complaining to the Health Service Ombudsman. In an attempt to end the perceived post-code disparity, a new National Framework was implemented in October 2007 which established a much clearer national eligibility criteria.

The National Framework document sets out the processes for establishing eligibility for Continuing Healthcare and should be read in conjunction with the support tools that assist with the decision making. These include the Checklist, Decision Support Tool and the Fast Track (used when the person is considered to have a rapidly deteriorating condition which may be entering a terminal phase). All of these documents can be downloaded from the Department of Health website.

Although the National Framework sets out to make the assessment process more person centred and transparent, experience has shown that the whole process is still unduly complicated with different Primary Care Trusts using their own definitions of eligibility within the tools that are used Nationally to assess eligibility and therefore it is arguable that the ‘postcode disparity’ still exists.

Opportunities for assessing as to whether someone may qualify for Continuing Healthcare are often missed for example when a person is placed in a care home setting having been discharged from hospital. A social worker may be appointed and an appropriate placement found, but if the person has assets in excess of the capital threshold, social services will deem them as self funding residents and will then close their files. No further assessments will be carried out until the residents assets fall under the capital threshold.

This should not happen as under “Section 47 of the National Health Service and Community Care Act 1990”, the Local Authority should, through Social Services, continue to monitor a person who has been brought to their attention as being in need and the person should therefore be visited on at least a yearly basis and a care needs assessment carried out. At each assessment there would then be an opportunity to review the needs of that person and to refer them over to the local Primary Care Trust if a healthcare need is identified so that a full healthcare needs assessment can be carried out.

There are literally thousands of cases where NHS Continuing Healthcare would have been awarded if only it had been considered in the first instance. Anyone can ask for a Healthcare needs assessment so that their individual needs can be considered for NHS Continuing Healthcare.

If you who know someone who you think should have been awarded NHS Continuing Care and would benefit from some expert advice please speak to your Symponia member.