Fair Deal Advice

Xraylady

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I’m looking for referral to someone to help out with Fair Deal advice. We are 4 siblings of widowed mother in nursing home for past 5 months. Paying herself ( about €7200/month) Homes: Primary R valuation 300k , holiday home 160k. Income 4,400/ month incl rental & pensions. Savings approx €300k . Is there anyone we could talk to about best option please? Any advice appreciated.
 
Not sure what you mean by "best options". Fair deal is what it is. If your mother transfers any assets to siblings, then at this stage, they will still count towards the fair deal calculation as will any assets transferred in the last 5 years.

the forms are pretty straightforward to fill out and by applying for Fair deal, you are not committing to anything.

There is a calculator here which will give you a good indication
 
Not sure what you mean by "best options". Fair deal is what it is. If your mother transfers any assets to siblings, then at this stage, they will still count towards the fair deal calculation as will any assets transferred in the last 5 years.

the forms are pretty straightforward to fill out and by applying for Fair deal, you are not committing to anything.

There is a calculator here which will give you a good indication
Thanks for your reply. I just meant whether given her circumstances the Fair Deal route would be the best rather than paying privately. Thanks for link . I’ll have a look.
 
Thanks for your reply. I just meant whether given her circumstances the Fair Deal route would be the best rather than paying privately. Thanks for link . I’ll have a look.

only way to answer that is to apply for it and see what the response is.
 
If the 4 siblings paid for their mother's care and could get tax relief at 52% that might be the best approach.
 
I’m looking for referral to someone to help out with Fair Deal advice. We are 4 siblings of widowed mother in nursing home for past 5 months. Paying herself ( about €7200/month) Homes: Primary R valuation 300k , holiday home 160k. Income 4,400/ month incl rental & pensions. Savings approx €300k . Is there anyone we could talk to about best option please? Any advice appreciated.
At a quick glance it looks like your mother's contribution would be about 8k per month for 3 years, then it would drop to about 6.2k per month, more actually as her savings are depleted. It pays to apply as she can only be charged up to actual cost of care and after 3 years her PPR will be excluded from the calculation. After that, she will pay based on holiday home valuation plus valuation of savings and 80% of monthly income.
 
The nursing home may have a cheaper weekly rate for Fair Deal residents than your mum is currently paying privately. That is the case in the nursing home my parent is in. Can't remember the figures now but it is hundreds per week.
Definitely worth applying for Fair Deal for that alone. The manager of your mum's nursing home should be able to give you the rate, but you could probably find it through Google too!
 
The maximum Weekly prices for Fair Deal patients in private and public nursing homes are here;

https://assets.hse.ie/media/documents/cost-of-voluntary-and-private-nursing-homes_2zbY1K3.pdf

https://assets.hse.ie/media/documents/public-nursing-homes-cost-of-care-2022.pdf

At €7,200 monthly, it looks like the O/p's mother is paying a lot more unless she is in one of the dearer public homes. Her assessed contribution would want to be below the Fair Deal rate, not what she is actually paying to benefit from the scheme.

Premium packages and extras are often used by not all but some nursing homes to justify the substantial additional charge for private patients, the Fair Deal rate only covers basic care and not any additional extras. If you switch to Fair Deal you can continue to pay for extras privately.
 
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twofor1 Thanks for that.
My parent is paying the Fair Deal price plus a compulsory weekly activity charge. If Fair Deal hadn't been approved before admission we'd have been paying the full private price which is much dearer.
Even if the OPs means are too high to receive a contribution from the state, it's still worth applying to get the cheaper rate for Fair Deal residents. It would save thousands every year.
 
Depends on the nursing home, I remember when I applied it was the other way round, what we were paying for the nursing home privately was cheaper than the rate under the Fair Deal Scheme, and so just pay privately for three years, and then applied for the Fair Deal. If your in the same boat the one thing I would say is that applying for the Fair Deal now and even getting a nil contribution means that you you've gotten approval. If next budget they change the rules around the Fair Deal Scheme, it's unlikely to affect you (they could argue against you but unlikely).
 
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