Intermediate care - are you being illegally charged?

Published 05/10/2010

Please note: This article was published prior to July 2022, and some information may be outdated.

Be careful what you’re charged for

If you’re coming out of hospital, your local authority and/or the NHS is responsible for providing short-term ‘discharge support’ and ‘reablement’ services to help you get back on your feet.

‘Reablement’, ‘enablement’, ‘rehabilitation’ and ‘intermediate care’ seem to be used interchangeably in health and social care. According to Dept of Health, the definition of re-ablement is:

“Services for people with poor physical or mental health to help them accommodate their illness by re-acquiring skills, confidence and equipment for independent living.”

It’s relevant to elderly people coming out of hospital or recovering from an illness or a health setback.

Some re-ablement services are provided jointly by the local authority and the NHS; others are provided solely by the local authority, which then accesses specialist input where necessary, for example from therapists.

However, some local authorities are illegally charging people for re-ablement services, as this article explains: One in five councils illegally charge for reablement services

Tagged Categories: Care fees, Care homes and hospitals, CHC essentials, Initial advice, Legal and financial matters, UK care systems and policies

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5 Comments

Jason Clark June 27, 2018 at 2:15 pm

How do you go about challenging reablement charges?

Angela Sherman February 23, 2017 at 8:17 pm

Christine - we hear from families every week who have managed to secure CHC funding for a relative. Each person's needs are different, of course. It does often seem 'easier' to secure funding for a person who has more physical needs than cognitive needs - but that's not always the case.

Christine Graham February 2, 2017 at 4:34 pm

I have been looking through some of your case history and it would seem that to be entitled to this continuing healthcare (CHC) funding you have to be on your death bed. I was wondering if you had examples of people who had qualified for CHC funding - I realise that my mother should be entitled to CHC funding and
her GP practice - District Nurses are just putting her down as social care needs, as I live with her 24/7, arrange help for her privately as she receives full AA. I do not think she has any other social care needs.
People who are dying are usually Fast Tracked into it as nothing can be done and have a short time left to live. Have you any examples of people who are in receipt of this funding its just the very difficult when you are getting no help from the NHS and are expected to get on with it and get told to put your mother in for respite and let the nurse deal with her.

Richard September 6, 2016 at 2:54 pm

My Grandfather is 94 years old and has just been assessed for Continuing Healthcare (CHC). We had the meeting in hospital. I was told there and then that he had not scored highly enough and from what she could see the board would see it the same way. She said that he would qualify for the nursing element. He has now been in hospital for three months. He cannot move and can barely feed himself. He has thickener in his drinks and is pretty much bed bound. He does his toilet business in a pad in bed. How ill and unable do you have to be to qualify? Please advise thank you.

Angela Sherman September 12, 2016 at 9:01 am

Hi Richard - take a look at the Checklist criteria here: http://caretobedifferent.co.uk/getting-the-nhs-continuing-healthcare-assessment-process-started/ and the criteria for the full assessment (also in that article). If you disagree with the way the criteria have been interpreted or applied so far in your grandfather's case, you can appeal. This may also help: http://caretobedifferent.co.uk/paying-for-care-between-hospital-discharge-and-funding-decision/