We have made a few enquiries with the HSE about this. If the patient has been in the nursing home for more than three years, and has been paying for their own care, the family home is out of the equation as regards assessing the assets. If the remaining assets come to an amount of less than 36K the whole application is just for State Support, and NOT for Ancillary Support (i.e. the much publicised 'loan' from the state for the amount of 5% of the applicant's assets per year is not relevant).
The reasoning seems to be that if you have paid for yourself for three years, you have in effect paid your share of your family home and should not be asked to pay it for another three years.
If the application is only for State Support, it can be made by a family member on behalf of a patient with reduced capacity to make decisions, without having to go to court to become a care representative.
As regards the mechanisms for payment, the HSE will pay their share directly to the nursing home. It is up to the patient and/or their family to figure out how to get the patient's share paid to the nursing home.
The only other thing that may interest people is that deeds of covenant made by family members for the patient are included in the patient's income - two of our family have covenants in favour of our parent.
The form is fairly straightforward and not too long. We have more or less decided that we are going to go ahead and make an application - apparently the HSE have already received a lot of enquiries and some applications, so it may all take a while. I will post again if anything of interest to people comes to light.
The reasoning seems to be that if you have paid for yourself for three years, you have in effect paid your share of your family home and should not be asked to pay it for another three years.
If the application is only for State Support, it can be made by a family member on behalf of a patient with reduced capacity to make decisions, without having to go to court to become a care representative.
As regards the mechanisms for payment, the HSE will pay their share directly to the nursing home. It is up to the patient and/or their family to figure out how to get the patient's share paid to the nursing home.
The only other thing that may interest people is that deeds of covenant made by family members for the patient are included in the patient's income - two of our family have covenants in favour of our parent.
The form is fairly straightforward and not too long. We have more or less decided that we are going to go ahead and make an application - apparently the HSE have already received a lot of enquiries and some applications, so it may all take a while. I will post again if anything of interest to people comes to light.