Fair Deal Advice Blog

Don’t be rushed into completing your Fair Deal Application Form

Completing the application form for the Nursing Home Support Scheme/Fair Deal can be a complicated process and errors and or omissions can have serious consequences for the applicants and their families.

In my work at Fair Deal Advice we often have Clients engaging our services to help untangle and correct the consequences of incorrectly completed application forms. This has often resulted in over and under payment of the Applicant’s contribution towards the cost of care. When I analyse why these errors have occurred they follow a common themes which I have listed below:

1. 1. Person completing the form not been suitably qualified to do so and do not having adequate knowledge of how the Fair Deal/NHSS works.
2. 2. The completion of the form been rushed usually by pressure from a Discharge Coordinator in a HSE facility anxious to move a Patient into a long term care facility to free up a Hospital bed. The Discharge Coordinator often fills out the form with the Applicant or their family member at the Hospital without the Applicants family having full knowledge of assets and income resulting in over and under declarations.
3. 3. Persons filling out the form and deliberately omitting assets and income in the belief that they wont be found out and to reduce the applicants contribution to care costs under the Fair Deal.
4. 4. Application forms been rushed to obtain Fair Deal/NHSS support towards care costs asap without taking time to go through the Applicants assets and income properly and checking against documents supporting values such as up to date statements from Bank’s, Post Offices and Credit Unions etc.

Typically if a Fair Deal/NHSS application is to be completed correctly with the necessary supporting documentation it can take up to 3 weeks before the application is ready for submission. This is usually due to the delay that occurs in obtaining statements from Banks, Credit Unions, Post Offices and valuations for property and shares. Where a Enduring Power of Attorney needs to be enacted this may cause further delays as Banks and other institutions will refuse to release documents to persons other than the account holder or their Power of Attorney if they are incapacitated.

The consequences of an incorrectly completed Fair Deal/NHSS application form are serious and will often only come to light when the Application has passed away and cause serious issues such as financial penalties and delays in the distribution of the estate.

If you need to complete an application form for the Fair Deal/NHSS take time and ensure you do it right and if necessary engage the services available from Fair Deal Advice where we will professionally advise and guide you through the process.

For further information visit our website www.fairdealadvice.ie or contact Tom Murray on 086 6015042 or email advice@fairdealadvice.ie.

Source From: https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/dont-rushed-completing-your-fair-deal-application-form-tom-murray/