Fair Deal Advice Blog

Does your Family Farm or Business have a Spouse or Parent in the Fair Deal since before Oct 2021?

As you are aware if you run a family farm or business and have a spouse or parent who may own or who may have transferred the farm or business to you less than five years before they needed to go into a Nursing Home, the fair deal scheme has been of little or no benefit to you as the farm or business are assessable resulting in them possibly receiving little or no subsidy and having to pay for the majority if not all of the nursing home cost.

If you are in the Fair Deal, you possibly have had to avail of the Nursing Home loan to help pay for the care which is eroding the equity in the farm or business. This cost may eventually make the business or farm unviable once the loan needs to be repaid.

In October 2021 the HSE changed the rules which will exempt farming and business assets from the cost of care assessment once the applicant is in the Nursing Home for 3 years as long as certain conditions are met. For applicants who have been in care since before October 2021 they can apply for this exemption as long as they apply for a qualifying Successor before the 20th of April 2022. Failure to do this will result in the applicant having to continue to pay a contribution on their farm or business assets for the duration of the person in care life.

If your Partner or Spouse have been in a Nursing Home coming up to three years and you have been paying for their care privately, now could be the right time for you to apply for the Fair Deal to help fund their care.

If you need advice on this important positive change to the Fair Deal rules or help with this application or whether your circumstances will qualify, contact www.fairdealadvice.ie today by phone 086 6015042 or by email advice@fairdealadvice.ie.