Most patients reject State's nursing home care-cost offer

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Fewer than 2,000 of the 13,000 nursing home residents in the Government's Fair Deal scheme have taken an option to have the costs of care taken from their assets after their death.

Most are opting to pay the costs of care during their lifetime, leaving any assets they may have intact as inheritance.

The Government introduced the Fair Deal scheme last October to help make care in public and private nursing homes more affordable.

Residents who are means-tested are allowed to pay the fees upfront during their lifetime, or opt for a state-facilitated loan, where the State can later claim the cost of their care from the sale of a family home or other assets after death.

However, figures obtained by the Irish Independent show only 15pc are willing to let the State make a claim on their estate.

Residents pay 80pc of their income and 5pc of the value of any assets they have per year. If the cost of their care is €1,000 a week and their contribution amounts to €300, for example, the State pays the balance of €700.

The contribution related to the value of a family home is 5pc a year, capped at three years, but they can opt to defer this payment until after their death.

Many of those who are availing of the scheme may not have such assets, or they may have already willed them to others more than five years ago (a cut-off point in the scheme), so they are only liable to pay 80pc of their income for their care.

Applications

The Health Service Executive (HSE) said that there have been 13,764 applications to date and 9,343 have been processed.

The highest number of applications have come from the HSE West (4,134) followed by Dublin mid-Leinster (3,469), HSE South (3,469) and Dublin North East (2,692).

Most are opting to go to private nursing homes and a significant number have also transferred from public HSE-run homes to private facilities.

The funding for the scheme this year was €979m -- this included the 2010 allocation of €152m and unspent money from last year, when its introduction was delayed.

Asked if the money would run out, the spokesman said that based on the payments to date, it was envisaged that there was sufficient funding available to meet requirements "in the current year".

There are around 21,000 people in long-term care at any time, with most in private nursing homes. But as the population ages the numbers will rise considerably in years to come.

Eamonn Timmins of Age Action Ireland said he was not surprised that so few were allowing the State to make a claim on their assets after death.

People would try to pay the fees in their lifetime if they could manage it, but it was also the case that several others have already had to sell their homes to pay for nursing home fees in previous years, which could cost more than €50,000 a year.

He said the organisation had received complaints that some long-term patients in psychiatric hospitals were told they would have to go to a nursing home and apply for the Fair Deal scheme.

However, the issue was later clarified by the Department of Health and these patients are not compelled to apply for the scheme, he added.

- Eilish O'Regan (http://www.independent.ie/health/latest-news/most-patients-reject-states-nursing-home-carecost-offer-2308956.html)

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