Care fees: Can you help with this new study?

Published 22/02/2017

Please note: This article was published prior to July 2022, and some information may be outdated.

Have you been treated unfairly by a care home?

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is conducting a study into the public’s experience of care homes.

Would you be prepared to share your experience?

You may have concerns about the fairness of the care home’s contract (terms and conditions) or you may think the care home has behaved in an unfair or misleading way, before or after you moved in.

As part of the research, the CMA is looking for case studies around two specific issues:

1. NHS Continuing Healthcare funding

The CMA is looking for any experiences of residents or their families being told by care homes that they must pay top up fees in relation to care services or accommodation. In other words, if you’ve been receiving Continuing Healthcare funding, and you’ve also been asked to top up this funding, the CMA would like to hear from you.

2. NHS Funded Nursing Care (FNC)

This is the weekly payment made to people in nursing homes who don’t receive full NHS Continuing Healthcare funding and yet have nursing needs. If you are self-funding but you do receive FNC, the CMA would like to now how this has affected your care fees. Has it reduced them? Or have they stayed the same or increased? The CMA would like to know how the nursing home has accounted for FNC contributions in relation to your weekly fees – and whether the care home was clear about how the FNC payments impacted on these overall weekly fees.

If you have relevant experience of one or both of these issues, and you’re willing to share them with the CMA – including the name of the care home(s) concerned – please email the CMA directly at carehomes@cma.gsi.gov.uk.

Read this first

Before you contact the CMA, though, please read the questions and further information on this link to the gov.uk website. It will help you put together the specific information they need. Note that the CMA is unable to offer advice or intervene in individual complaints or disputes.

Please respond to the CMA directly about this – not to Care To Be Different.

Many thanks for your help.

Tagged Categories: Care fees, Care homes and hospitals, CHC funding, NHS Continuing Healthcare

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3 Comments

loz May 25, 2017 at 12:01 pm

Can you let me know what happens when somebody goes into hospital and is already funded by Continuing Healthcare and has a care agency who provides care? does the funding stop or does the agency continue to be paid while the person is in hospital and if so how long for?

karen readman April 21, 2017 at 4:32 pm

could you offer me some advice?

My elderly father was assessed for his contribution to care in his home (April 2016), the assessment showed he did not need to pay towards care as he had limited income, (state pension and a small private pension).

Then we were advised to claim Attendance Allowance. When this was awarded (June 2016) he was then assessed to pay a contibution of the Attendance allowance.

He was then admitted to hospital for 10 weeks June 2016, (as Attendance allowance is not paid after 4 weeks I had to advised DWP and they stopped payment). His social worker advised on his discharge she could not arrange a care package for 6 weeks, so he would have to go into a local authority nursing home for respite until a care package could be arranged. We questioned costs and she said it would be an affordable contribution. He did not want to go into the home and went under duress.

As he was in receipt of only his State pension and his low private, this left him with the same income as in April when he was assessed as not paying towards care. He hated the home and we arranged a care package after 3 weeks so he could return home. The council are billing him £147 a week for his care. They will not consider he had to pay electric, gas, water rates etc on his council bungalow, while he was in the council nursing home. I have asked repeatedly for them to relook at this but they insist he must pay the £147, he is dying, this is really having an effect on him. He is saying he will not pay, he would rather go to court. I would really value advice.

Peter Jennings February 22, 2017 at 1:49 pm

Has the deadline for submitting information to the CMA not passed?