When I first started working with people living with dementia it was not unusual for me to walk into support groups to give a talk and be the bearer of the ‘news’ that people with dementia tended to pay for their own care. Nowadays most people know that people with dementia are means tested for their care under a system which allows what we regard as ‘social care’, to be paid for by either the person or the local authority, rather than the NHS.

The Paying for Care rules were once enshrined in a document called CRAG (Charging for Residential Accommodation Guide) which was incorporated into the Care Act of 2014. This is where you will find the rules today:

Care and support statutory guidance – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

The online format is easy to navigate and if you want to look up how a particular asset or investment is treated in the financial assessment you can simultaneously press Control and ‘F’ and a box appears into which you can type words or phrases such as ‘capital bond’ or ‘compensation’. The system will then highlight every part of the rules which mentions that word or phrase.

There are some situations regarding paying for care where there is no hard and fast rule it is simply a matter of common sense, for example if someone wants to downsize after their partner has gone into care there is no specific guidance for achieving this, we would assume that the moving costs, solicitors and estate agent fees would be paid, the new property purchased with both names on the deeds, and any profit generated by the sale would be split in 2. There might not be any profit if the person still at home is downsizing to a bungalow, for example, as they are much sought after and therefore often just as expensive as the original property.

Deprivation of assets is another area which is often raised on the phone or at support groups: a person cannot deliberately deprive themselves of an asset or savings in order to avoid paying for care. What does or does not constitute deliberate deprivation can be a grey area so contact us if you are worried about/being accused of this action.

If you cannot find an answer to any of your Paying for Care queries then contact our helpline or email us:

0203 405 5940

admin@pathwaysthroughdementia.org