Families left with less than a month to reclaim care home fees

Published: 13/03/2013

Families who have been wrongly paying care home fees between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012 have less than a month to reclaim these charges.

The deadline to reclaim these costs is 31 March 2013. With care home fees averaging £700 a week, these charges could total over £36,000.

Who can reclaim?

Care should be funded by the patient’s Primary Care Trust (PCT) through the NHS’s continuing care programme if it is required due to a health reason. Many patients however were incorrectly assessed or not assessed at all and left to foot these crippling bills.

If this sounds familiar, contact our dedicated team as soon as possible – claims must be submitted before 31 March 2013. Once this deadline passes, you will lose your right to claim.

The cost of long term care is a constant news feature at present; the new proposed care home fee cap of £75,000 announced last month receiving a high degree of criticism from pensioner support groups.

As it stands a person who is deemed to require long term care for a social reason and has assets in excess of £23,250 will be liable for the full cost. As a result many families have been forced to sell their homes and/or use their savings. The new proposal will see care costs capped at £75,000 – a figure which is more than double than the original but the threshold will rise to £123,000.

Content correct at time of publication