Re: Public Hursing Home Fees
Hamslicer,
I might if I may correct a few of items mentioned in the previous post. I will address those items in a few minutes - but in the meantime, if you want a definitive response to your question, you should read through the following.
To begin, you give no information in your question concerning the type of nursing home care this person has entered. There are no 'state nursing homes' in Ireland. Instead, there is a mix of public and private nursing homes that are regulated by legislation. If you are talking about someone who has entered nursing home care in Ireland I presume therefore your reference to 'state nursing home' actually means this person is now in an HSE public nursing home, or in a HSE contracted bed (i.e., public bed) in a private nursing home. But which is it? Public or Private? It's very important to find this out.
Furthermore, it is unclear to me whether this person has actually entered nursing home care in Ireland or whether they are an Irish national in receipt of pension from Ireland but have entered a nursing home abroad. There is for example, no such payment as a 'disability pension' in Ireland - where are these pensions/payments originating from - the UK or elsewhere?
You also give no indication as to whether or not the person who has entered nursing home care/their spouse holds any other assets/income.
If this person and his spouse are over 70 years and are ordinarily living in Ireland, then they would both qualify for a medical card. While this would not exempt someone from paying charges for long-stay care, it will mean that the wife will be entitled to free in-patient public hospital services and free prescribed drugs and medicines.
The situation in the past in Ireland in relation to long-term care of an older person was that they would hand over their pension book to the institition and the institution would in turn collect the pension and give the person back some pocket-money. The Supreme Court has found these charges for care were levied illegally and in January 2005 the HSE requested that public nursing homes halt the practice of withholding pension books from nursing home residents and paying residents allowances.
The HSE also advised that pension books of those unable to manage their own affairs should be given to guardians. The 2005 Act also provides that charges for care cannot be more than 80% of the max weekly rate of the old age (non-con) pension. The intention was to introduce regulations to impose a maximum weekly charge of 120 euro (approx 80% of the 2005 non-con) old age pension and that the nursing home resident would be allowed retain a minimum of 35 euro per week as pocket money. I am not sure whether these regulations have been introduced or not but I can check.
In terms of inaccuracies in the previous post, there are no 'social security' offices in Ireland - there is a network of social welfare local offices that issue payments to those on various social insurance and social assistance schemes. To my knowledge (and that of my colleagues) and also including a check of the Department of Social and Family Affairs - that Department did not issue any book/booklet called 'Retirement in Ireland'.
It appears that the previous poster has had a negative experience in terms of accessing long-term care for a family member/friend. However, there are a few things you should be aware of:
(a) it is not the repsonsibility/job/role of any GP, health worker(?) or hospital social worker to assess income or provide financial advice on the implications of anyone entering long-term institutional care.
(b) there is no such thing in Ireland as a Citizens Advice Centre. Instead, there is a network of Citizen Information Centres or Citizen Information Services - that are funded by Government (unlike in other jurisdictions). Staff in Citizen Information Centres are not qualified to provide expert advice on long-term care options for anyone, nor have they the same level of expertise in terms of assessing social welfare benefits as staff from the Department of Social and Family Affairs
(c) information on social welfare benefits and entitlements and public health services is being provided to a high degree by a range of statutory agencies here in Ireland. I disagree fundamentally with any suggestion that you should 'ignore' this information - or that the information provided is simply 'an overview' or just 'legislation'. There are many official sources of information that are constantly updated, reviewed, improved, and that strive to provide comprehensive information on rights and entitlements.
I hope the above has been of assistance. As I mentioned earlier - you need to provide more detailed information regarding the type of long-term care this peson entered before it will be possible to provide a more definitive response to your question.