The announcement follows a review into the cost of free personal care which considered a range of alternatives to free personal care, including disregarding a resident’s former home. The review concluded that the current costs of introducing free personal care would be an estimated £30million to £40million.
Speaking during an Assembly debate on services for older people, the Minister said currently around 16,000 people receive free personal care either in their own homes or in care homes.
He said: “Over the next 50 years, the number of people over 65 will more than double from almost 250,000 to half a million people. We already spend over £630million a year supporting our older people, a spend which is second only to funding for acute services. I am also investing a further £60million in this Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) period to support an additional 1,500 older people in the community.
“This investment is significant and reflects the importance I place in developing services for the elderly population. However, I had to fight to secure this additional funding to try and improve essential services for the most vulnerable groups in our society.
“In fact, at the last budget I made a bid for the necessary resources to allow me to introduce free personal care. Despite a compelling case my request was turned down. While I remain committed to bringing in free personal care, it appears that others do not. I have many competing budgetary pressures across the health service and every day I have to make difficult decisions about how to spend my limited resource. Unfortunately, at this point, I cannot introduce free personal care as it is just not affordable within the current Comprehensive Spending Review period.”
The Minister said that he fully understood the concerns of older people, who had paid taxes during their entire working lives, and may be forced to sell their homes to pay for care in their twilight years.
He continued: “The issue of free personal care was one of my first Assembly debates and led me to establish a review on the cost of introducing this step.
“There are many thousands of people who already receive free personal care, either in a care home setting or in their own homes. In addition, the value of someone’s home is not always included in financial assessments.
“I will, however, keep this issue under review. I would ask people to join with me in lobbying for more funds to introduce vital services such as this to our most vulnerable members of society.”
Notes to Editors:
1. Personal care encompasses help with those personal tasks that a person would normally do for himself or herself such as dressing, eating, washing and bathing, toileting, getting in and out of bed, moving around their home and keeping safe.
2. Currently clients in residential and nursing homes are required to contribute to the cost both of their personal care and of their ‘hotel’ costs of food and accommodation.
3. Clients with assets – in some cases including the value of the client’s former home – in excess of £23,000 are required to pay the full cost of their care. Those with capital below £14,000 are not expected to contribute from their capital but are expected to contribute from their income. Those with capital between £14,000 and £23,000 pay a means-tested contribution from their capital and income.
4. It is important to recognise, however, that the value of a resident’s former home is not always included in financial assessments. The HPSS (Assessment of Resources) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1993 contain a number of provisions which allow the value of a former home to be disregarded where it is occupied by:
- the resident’s partner or civil partner; or
- a lone parent who is the resident’s estranged or divorced partner; or
- a relative who is either under 16 and whom the resident is liable to maintain; or aged 60 or over; or who is incapacitated.
6. In addition to these provisions, the HSC also has discretion to disregard the value of a resident’s former home where it is occupied by a person such as a carer who does not fall within any of the disregards outlined above. Where the value of a former home does not fall within these disregards, the value is taken into account in the resident’s financial assessment after their first 12 weeks of stay in a care home.
7. Following an Assembly debate on the issue of free personal care in May 2007, the Minister commissioned a review on the cost of free personal care. The report looked at a number of alternatives to free personal care, including disregarding a resident’s former home.
8. Press enquiries to DHSSPS press office on 028 90520575, 028 90520579. Out of office hours please contact the duty press officer via pager number 07699 715 440 and your call will be returned.
