Families owed millions as NHS fails to foot care home fees

Published: 18/01/2013

Thousands of families are losing out on their inheritance, with many even forced to sell their own homes, after wrongly paying care home fees which should have been funded by their Primary Care Trust (PCT).

It is believed that the Government has earmarked in excess of £10 million to reimburse families who have incorrectly paid, or are paying, care home fees.

Typically, if a person has assets exceeding £23,250 they are required to fund their care in full. However, if they require care due to a primary health care reason and therefore would have been hospitalised anyway, they should qualify for NHS continuing care and should have had their fees paid.

In many cases, families were not made aware of this or the patient was wrongly assessed and therefore failed to qualify for continuing care.

Goldsmith Williams is proudly representing hundreds of people who have been wrongly paying for residential care between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011. However as the deadline to register a case to reclaim fees has now passed,

we are unable to take on any more cases for this period. We remain committed to helping others affected with our extended care home fees service.

We can help you:

• Reclaim care home fees paid between 1 April 2011 and 31 March 2012
• Progress a registered claim with the support of a legal professional
• Submit an appeal if your request for funding has been rejected by a PCT.

We also offer expert legal help and advice to anyone going into care that is confused by the PCT’s assessment process and wishes to ensure a correct assessment is made.

Content correct at time of publication