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Reasons to choose Wilson Browne
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has recently published statistics relating to the residence of care homes and estimations for the number of those that are self-funded or state-funded.
A self-funded care home resident may be paying for the care home fees themselves from their own savings/income, due to their savings/income being above the threshold for local authority funding.
Alternatively, a care home resident will be classed as a self-funder if the care home is charity-run or they are receiving Funded Nursing Care that covers the cost of their nursing care but not the additional elements of care, which will be paid by the resident themselves.
A state-funded care home resident will be receiving funding from either the local authority, the NHS continuing healthcare scheme or a third party. The local authority will fund care home fees if your savings/income is below their threshold for help with funding, and there are care and support needs.
NHS continuing healthcare will provide full funding where the primary health care needs are considered nursing needs. A third party may be asked to “top up” local authority funding if the funding provided does not cover the full cost of the care home residence. The third party would enter into a contract with the care home to cover the shortfall.
ONS have revealed that between 2019 and 2020, 391,927 people were in a care home in England. 36.7% of those care home residents were self-funded, therefore, over one third of the care home population are spending their own savings and capital on their care in their elderly years.
Unsurprisingly, the more affluent areas have a higher number of self-funding residents, the Cotswolds and South Oxfordshire being the highest with 78.3%, and 72% of all care home residents are self-funding.
The remaining 63.3% have exhausted their own resources and are now reliant on state funding, with the majority of those subject to a local authority means tested financial assessment.
Our specialist team can advise on all aspects of care home fee funding and are here to help with challenging a decision by the local authority.
Care homes providing care to older people had the highest proportion of self-funders with the majority (75.0%) of self-funders being residents in care homes for dementia.
It is important to give yourself enough time to plan how you are going to fund care home fees and relieve yourself of any worry in the future.
We can provide advice on numerous aspects, including what is and is not encompassed in the means test for state-funding, for example, the value of your property will not be included provided your spouse, partner or a relative over 60 years old is still residing in your property.
We can also advise and help set up Lasting Powers of Attorney or applications to the Court of Protection and consider ways in which you can protect your family’s wealth.