Léim ar aghaidh chuig an bpríomhábhar
Gnáthamharc

Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 4 Dec 2002

Vol. 558 No. 5

Written Answers. - Nursing Home Subventions.

Olivia Mitchell

Ceist:

304 Ms O. Mitchell asked the Minister for Health and Children the details of the nursing home subventions scheme; the amounts payable; the impact of income and savings on the assessment of eligibility; the impact of home ownership; the way in which the regulations operate in practice; the legal liability of relatives such as sons or daughters; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [25092/02]

The Nursing Homes (Subvention) Regulations, 1993, are administered by the health boards and the ERHA. There are currently three levels of dependency, medium, high and maximum, in respect of which maximum rates of €114.30, €152.40 and €190.50 apply respectively.

The second schedule of the Nursing Homes (Subvention) Regulations, 1993, sets out the general rules for the assessment of means in respect of an application for a nursing home subvention. Means, for the purposes of these regulations, are the income and the imputed value of assets of a person in respect of whom a subvention is being sought and the income and imputed income of his or her spouse. Paragraph 2 of the second schedule provides that, in calculating the means of an applicant, a health board shall take all sources of income into account, including rental income. Means are assessed for this scheme to ensure that the available funding is directed at those older people who have the greatest need of financial assistance.
Articles 8.1 and paragraphs 12 to 14 of the second schedule of the Nursing Homes (Subvention) Regulations, 1993, deal with the assessment of the residence of a person in respect of whom subvention has been sought for the purposes of determining the amount of subvention to be paid.
The residence of the person seeking a subvention is treated as a special asset and is not taken into account in certain circumstances. For example, if it is occupied by the spouse of the person seeking a subvention or by a son or daughter less then 21 years of age or in full-time education or by a relative in receipt of the old age non-contributory pension or a disability allowance type payment.
The purpose of this rule is to avoid causing undue hardship where the home of a person going into nursing home care is occupied by a dependent relative. If the principal residence is not occupied by a relative falling into those categories a health board may impute an annual amount of 5% of the estimated market value of the residence as income.
Section 22 of the second schedule of the regulations sets out an exclusion whereby a health board may refuse to pay a subvention to a person if his or her principal residence is valued at €95,230.36 or more and is not occupied by a spouse, a son or daughter aged less than 21 years or in full-time education or a relative in receipt of the disabled person's maintenance allowance, blind person's pension, disability benefit, invalidity pension, or old age non-contributory pension and the person's income is greater than €6,348.69 per annum.
Articles 9.1 and 9.2 of the Nursing Homes (Subvention) Regulations, 1993, allowed health boards to assess the ability of the adult sons and-or daughters of older people who apply for nursing home subventions to contribute towards the cost of their parents' nursing home care. The subvention regulations were amended from 1 January 1999 and the provision to assess the capacity of adult sons and-or daughters to contribute towards the cost of nursing home care of their parent was deleted. The ability of adult sons and-or daughters to contribute towards the cost is, therefore, no longer assessed.
My Department is currently examining a number of aspects of the nursing home regulations including a review of the value of the principal residence for the purposes of the exclusion clause.
Barr
Roinn