State Pension Withdrawal

It used to claw back after six weeks, but this was increased some years ago.

National Insurance covers hospital treatment and stays, but there is a huge exclusion for nursing or residential care and they won't pay out until you are skint and homeless.

Not so. They will *tell* you that that is the case, but unless you sign documents agreeing to pay privately (and they typically present you with the documents and tell you that you *have* to sign in order to get the needed care), the NHS is fully responsible to pay for all costs involved in nursing care. Be aware that they (NHS and Social Services) will attempt to describe the care as "social care" which must be paid for privately. But unless they can show that the person is in the care home for the *primary* purpose of playing tiddlywinks, watching TV and having the company of the other residents, a court is unlikely to agree that it is social care.

There have been a few recent court cases that have demonstrated conclusively that nursing care must be paid by the NHS. The NHS/Social Services are likely to fight it tooth and nail though, because settling early without going to court will open the floodgates and cost more than losing a few cases from the minority of people who were prepared to fight each year. The majority will simply believe the social worker who points to a guideline figure in a glossy brochure and tells them that if they have assets worth more than £X they must pay.

I have been involved (as a friend, IANAL) in such a case over the past

9 months or so. The case is now just beginning to go to litigation, and the lawyer taking the case has won three similar cases recently and has said that the other side know full well that they will lose, but have tremendous legal resources and will try to wear their opponent down. He also confirmed that massive lies on an institutional level regarding what the family of an elderly patient are entitled to are *always* told. In fact, the people telling them are probably sincere, as they have believed what they were told and think they are passing on the facts.

The latest gambit they are trying is to conduct yet another assessment on the patient (my friend's mother). He was told that the assessment is to determine the amount of nursing care the woman needs and to see whether she would be able to live at home in a suitably modified house. He has discovered however that the person who is to carry out the assessment has the job title, "Social Care Assessor" - so we smell a very big rat.

My friend has hired a medical practitioner with the relevant qualifications to carry out a full assessment of his mother, but when the social services were told of that fact, they replied, "You are wasting your money because we will not take any notice of an assessment that has not been carried out by a person employed by us [social services]." My friend replied, "You might not take any notice, but if it comes to it I think a judge might."

Have a look here

Dream on. If you sign the home's paperwork to make yourself (as a relative) primarily liable then you might make yourself liable instead of the internee.

Go on - this has been tested in teh courts you know...

There may be a loophole where the NHS make the referal, but if Social Services make it you are AFAIAA stuffed.

Rightly, although while she remains at home the bill [mostly] stays with the LA. The client may have to make a reasonale contribution (roughly equivalent to the money saved on provisions / care)

Maybe not, but there are such things as independeant social workers, I have a card her from one I met ten years ago.

As I said, unless anyone is conned into signing, you are not liable. even then, you could possibly negate the agreement if it was given under false prestenses.

I am *very* well aware of that. That is why the NHS will lose. The most recent I am aware of is

though that is not the first (and thus the claim that it is a "landmark" case is a tad exaggerated)

No. That is indeed what you will be told, but it is a lie. The deciding factor is whether the primary reason that the care is required is due to a medical condition or not. If care is needed due to dementia or some other medical condition, then the NHS must pay for the cost of the care.

The mother is in a nursing home at present. Her condition means that she could not safely live at home - at least not until the house has been significantly modified.

Except that a medical condition needs to be assessed by a medical practitioner, not a social worker. A social worker may then well be in a better position to decide on the most appropriate facillities required, and how they can best be provided. If the patient is not medically fit enough to go home and no alternative is offered, then the patient will have to stay in hospital.