Little-known help for care home costs can save families facing £50,000 a year bills

FAMILIES may be paying tens of thousands in nursing home fees for elderly relatives unnecessarily because they do not realise they can get financial support from the NHS.

- Harvey Jones

As dementia and Alzheimer's grows and care home fees surge past £50,000 a year, bills are placing massive pressure on households.

Fees can ravage inheritances and force families to sell their homes.

Yet many who could get NHS funding do not realise it is an option - while those who apply can be wrongly rejected.

Some families have been able to claim back hundreds of thousands in care home costs years after appealing against a decision to refuse financial support for loved ones. NHS Continuing Healthcare (CHC), arranged and funded by the NHS, will cover long-term care fees for elderly nursing home residents in England and Wales who have intense, complex and unpredictable care needs, including dementia.

It is known as Hospital Based Complex Clinical Care in Scotland.

CHC, also known as fully funded care, is not means tested and may pay 100% of care and residential accommodation, irrespective of wealth, following disability, accident or illness.

However, just one in six with direct personal experience of finding care for an elderly relative have heard of CHC and know what it is, according to retirement specialist Just Group.

It does not apply to everyone getting care but only those deemed to have a "primary health need". Applicants must be assessed by healthcare professionals.

NHS England figures show the number eligible for this funding plunged from 62,939 in 2015 to just 50,650 in 2023, a drop of 20% despite rising long-term care needs.