Many assume that in the modern world, the responsibility for meeting the cost of something like care home fees for the elderly falls squarely on the shoulders of the family or the person themselves. 

However, in the last couple of years there has been much discussion about unfair funding assessments denying those who were entitled to have fees paid from getting the assistance that they needed.  Prior to 2007, different criteria were used by health authorities when carrying out assessments of whether or not funding should be provided for an individual’s care home fees.  The result was that assessments were not identical across the country and decisions were not made consistently.

In 2007 a new system was introduced countrywide that ensured that all applications for funding were assessed in the same way.  For those who have been forced to find the money to meet care home fees that they feel were unfairly passed to them as a result of an incorrect funding assessment, this offers not only the chance to obtain a refund of those fees (even if the person for whom the fees were paid is now deceased), but also to get free care home fees for the future too.  As average care home and nursing home fees are estimated to be around £25,000 per year, these refunds offer the return of a significant amount of money, as well as some relief from carrying the burden of having to find this kind of money for future years.

The key distinction in the assessment criteria is whether there is ill health – where ill health is the primary reason that a patient is in care, then the NHS should pay the full cost of that care (according to a 1999 Court of Appeal case ).  When the assessment criteria were first investigated it was found that many primary care trusts had not even taken into account the state of health of the patient when making a decision as to whether or not they were eligible for funding, despite the fact that individuals are meant to be assessed by a medical expert before a decision is made.  There is some suggestion that in spite of all the publicity, this state of affairs has continued – and may even be continuing now.

For those disputing fees paid between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011, the deadline for making a claim has already passed (in September 2012).  However, the deadline for claiming a refund of fees paid between 31 March 2011 and 31 March 2013 is 31 March 2013, which means there are still just over two months to make a claim. The current/imminent deadline to go back two years may result in refunds of up to £50,000.

Whilst primary care trusts were asked to contact those who might be eligible when the very first deadlines were announced, many people are still unaware that they could be entitled to claim the refund, meaning that there are likely to be tens of thousands of pounds that remain unclaimed.  It is important that those who feel that they might be eligible for this refund make a claim as soon as possible, so as not to miss out on what could be a life changing pay