Planning for the Future

Case Study

NHS Continuing Care

We were contacted by the daughter of an elderly gentleman who had been living in a care home for several years. Daughter had Power of Attorney for her father and so dealt with the day-to-day management of his financial affairs which included the payment of his care home fees.

The Local Authority had carried out an assessment of the father's care needs and financial status and had decided that father ought to receive a contribution towards his care fees and in addition, that he ought to pay a proportion from his own assets. The daughter had been forced to sell her father's house to meet the rising care costs and had watched her father's savings quickly dwindle. We investigated the circumstances of her father's case, including the assessments that had been carried out and looked at his medical condition. It was clear from the information that the father had a high level of health care needs and we lodged an application for a review of his funding position. Our application was successful. The decision of the review panel was that father's health care needs were such that his care ought to have been funded through NHS Continuing Care and he should not therefore have been required to pay any contribution. As a result father received in excess of £40,000 by way of a refund.