- Say a nursing home costs €60k a year
- The net cost to the person is €36k a year after tax relief
- It makes no sense to consider Fair Deal if 7.5% of your assets until death plus 7.5% of your home for three years plus 80% of your income is a “big number”.
If Fair Deal makes no sense in your case now, it might make sense in the future.
Apart from the basic nursing home cost, there are many additional expenses, most homes charge an additional activity fee, typically €70 weekly. There is also hairdressing, toiletries, clothes, shoes etc. Other possible expenses could be chiropody, physio, consultants, dental etc, none of which is covered. One of my relations went through 2 specialist chairs that cost nearly €5k each. If there is private health insurance, that could be another few grand a year.
Then there is the family home that in many cases sits there empty. It will have to be maintained, insured etc. Alarm monitoring, heating on for a few hours daily during winter to prevent burst pipes mould etc. Even with low usage standing charges make gas / electric bills significant.
You won’t see the money go.
You can apply for Fair Deal at any time, and nursing home care paid for privately will be allowed against the 3 year cap on the family home.
So say after 3 years of paying privately, savings might have reduced substantially and with the house being disregarded from the financial assessment, Fair Deal might make sense at that stage, or at some later stage again.
It is worth bearing in mind.