Care fees reclaim deadline announced by the Department of Health

The claiming back of wrongly-paid care home fees has been given a deadline of 30 September 2012 by the Department of Health, to affect payments made between 1 April 2004 and 31 March 2011.

Compensation experts are looking to stress, to potentially thousands of families, that claims need to be registered with the NHS if they are to stand a chance in securing the repayments they deserve.

In confirming the claims deadline the Department of Health has been criticised for not looking to make the information more widely known, jeopardising the claims of service users who are estimated to number in their thousands.

Representative for the specialist care fees team at NewLaw Solicitors, Scott Thomas, based in Cardiff, said:

‘According to estimates from Age Concern, approximately 100,000 people in the UK should qualify for continuing healthcare funding yet relatively few are aware that they are entitled to this support. As a result, thousands of families have been made to sell their loved ones’ homes to pay for care that should have been funded by the NHS.

‘Under the current system, where a person has contributed to their fees for care from April 2004 onwards, they may be entitled to a reimbursement, even where the person who was cared for has since died.

‘However, since this deadline has been introduced without contacting the families who may be entitled to a reimbursement, we fear that thousands of people could miss out on the opportunity to reclaim the money that they are entitled to. The cost of care has increased by 31 per cent over the last year and, with this increase, we are keen to spread the message to families across England that this is their last chance to reclaim these fees.’