Care home fee recovery or ‘third-party top-up fees’ may come about if you are eligible for local authority funding. You may find yourself in a position where a third party, usually a family member, is required to pay a ‘third-party top-up’ fee for your care. It may be that a friend or family member is already in a care home and their financial circumstances change. They then may be asked to pay a ‘third-party top-up’. Many local authorities ask for top-up fees when they should not be charged at all and the council should be meeting the full cost of care. This situation could be unlawful depending on your circumstances, and there could be grounds to challenge the local authority and recover any wrongly charged top-up fees.
Alarmingly, we are seeing the above criteria being applied to clients who have successfully achieved NHS CHC funding awards to pay for their care. Clients are suggesting to us that CCG’s are unfairly ‘capping’ NHS CHC funding to pay for assessed care needs. This could be completely unlawful in our view and there may be grounds to challenge. There is no provision to ‘top up’ NHS CHC funding unless there are exceptional and very rare circumstances. If you have been asked to ‘top up’ and contribute to your award, get in touch for advice to avoid this and/or seek a refund.
We also see clients being asked to sign additional ‘lifestyle agreements’ and/or contracts asking them to pay additional costs on top of the NHS CHC award for funding to pay for the overall cost of care. Such agreements may include access to a gym, telephone or even a communal coffee area reported by many clients on average at a whopping £800 per week. Often, the care home resident is severely cognitively impaired and immobile and unable to use such facilities.
Sadly, it is often the vulnerable and sick adult who is being asked to contribute in this way. Be very cautious as there are many circumstances where we believe that this could be unlawful. Please don’t sign anything if you are not sure of what you are getting into and please get in touch for full advice and assistance to keep you and your family on the right track. Even if you have signed a contract, you can still get in touch as the agreement itself may be unlawful/unenforceable and may in fact have been the responsibility of the NHS all along. There are often thousands of pounds at stake and duties to protect a vulnerable person’s assets would also extend to Deputies and Attorneys.
Please get in touch for a free initial consultation
Full details of our fees will be available for each service to be tailored to your needs when you make your initial enquiry.
Should you really be paying a third-party top-up fee? Are you eligible for care fees recovery? Don’t pay a ‘third party top-up fee if you don’t have to. Even if you have signed a contract to pay for ‘lifestyle choices or additional services’ you can still get in touch to see if you can challenge this and possibly seek a refund.