Our Reclaims Service is here to help families reclaim care home/nursing home fees which have been paid incorrectly because an individual in care was wrongly assessed as ineligible for NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding, or not assessed at all.
We often act on behalf the families of those who have passed away in care and who have often had to make use of life savings or sell family property in order to pay for a service that should have been free.
The process for claiming back unfairly paid care fees is similar to the procedure followed for the Full Assessment. The claim is carried out on a retrospective basis and is reliant upon using evidence from GPs, hospital clinicians and any previously conducted assessments in order to either retrospectively assess a case or challenge a previous wrong assessment.
Our specialised team will undertake a comprehensive retrospective clinical analysis of an individual’s care needs over their period in care and will then present the case for retrospective eligibility to the relevant Clinical Commissioning Group (CCG) on behalf of the family and the relative concerned.
In many circumstances the CCG’s will agree to refund for part periods of care only and our then decide whether to appeal for refunds against those periods in dispute on a case-by-case basis. Where there are also issues of interest payments due on the care costs paid , our team will also handle these complex interest calculations, to make sure that all payments are accounted for and the maximum possible amount is refunded.
It should be noted that the Government has now imposed deadlines beyond which refunds of incorrectly paid care costs cannot be reclaimed. Any retrospective care home claims can now only be made for care costs paid after 31st March 2012. Care costs paid before that date cannot be reclaimed.
However, if you have already made a claim before 31st March 2012, which has been unsuccessful in terms of its assessment, you can still challenge that assessment, for payments made for care dating back to 2004.
In Wales a similar deadline was imposed limiting claims to any period after 31st July 2013. However, in Wales the rules also state that the claim period to be considered will be no longer than 12 months from the date of the first application.
Many struggling with care costs see these deadlines as unjust and arbitrary, especially as they were not publicised as widely as was promised. This has led to the unfair situation where many people whose relatives should have received their care for free have now had to dip into savings or even sell their homes in order to meet those costs. In most of these cases individuals were unaware of either the deadlines or that hey could claim in the first place.
Here at Care Fee Recovery, we are working tirelessly to help those who have been victimised by reclaiming what they rightfully deserve.
People often miss out on funding for a range of reasons, including:
- The relative concerned being discharged from hospital straight into a care home.
- The relative initially being assessed ineligible only for their condition to worsen over time without a reassessment.
- The relative receiving NHS Nursing Care – which pays for the nursing, but not accommodation – but was never assessed for NHS Continuing Healthcare that would also have covered these costs.
- The assumption by more affluent individuals that no help would be available. NHS Continuing Healthcare Funding is NOT means-tested so if you qualify for health reasons, you get it.