Accountancy firm warns families to reclaim NHS care fees, before it is too late

Sept. 7, 2012 - PRLog -- Albert Goodman, the leading South West accountancy, tax and financial planning firm, is urging anyone who may be affected to get in touch before it is too late. If the period of care involved falls between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011, a claim must be registered with the relevant Primary Care Trust by 30 September 2012.

For individuals whose care is considered a “primary health need”, as opposed to a “social need”, under the National Assistance Act, 1948, the NHS is legally responsible to meet the cost of their care, and a worrying number of people are not aware of this.

It has come to light that many individuals have been incorrectly assessed, or not assessed at all, and some have ended up self-funding expensive care costs when they shouldn’t have. If care has been personally funded, between the dates of 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011, families may be eligible to receive a reimbursement of the costs, even if the individual has since passed away.

Dave Robinson, a Partner at Albert Goodman, is leading the team who deal specifically with financial planning matters for ‘later life’ clients and works with third party specialists who advise on entitlement to NHS care and care funding. The team have achieved success in a number of cases, one of which recently resulted in a client’s estate recovering over £300,000. Dave says, “People may not be aware that the Government has introduced a deadline for claims to have been registered by, so we are urging everyone to enquire about a claim, regardless of how much they think it is worth.

“In our experience, families are spending between £25,000 and £40,000 a year on care fees, with some spending up to £80,000 in order to look after the health requirements of a sick and elderly relative. Some of them may be entitlement for reimbursement of the fees paid. Given the approaching deadline, claims will be registered free of charge to protect the position and each one can then be looked at in the fullness of time. We can arrange a ‘no win, no fee’ basis if required.

“Our team specialises in providing financial planning services to clients in later life, their families or their legal representatives and we have particular expertise in advising multi-generational family businesses. We work together with a range of specialist contacts, including solicitors and people with nursing backgrounds, who have considerable experience and successful track records of dealing with NHS claims.”

If you, or you know of someone you know of, might be wrongly paying for care fees and would like more information, please call Dave Robinson’s team on 01934 642222.

Albert Goodman has offices across the region including Taunton, Chard, Yeovil, Bridgwater, Weston-super-Mare and Weymouth. For further information, visit www.albertgoodman.co.uk.