Reforms of the State’s nursing home scheme which will reduce contributions for farmers and business owners should be in place before the Dáil summer recess, Minister of State for Older People Mary Butler has said.
The Cabinet today signed off on significant changes to the Nursing Home Support Scheme (NHSS), also known as Fair Deal, which will reduce the financial burden on farmers and businesses owners.
Further changes to the legislation will also reduce the amount of contributions from the sale of person’s main residence when they are in a nursing home.
Ms Butler told Independent.ie she hoped the legislation will before the Dáil soon and will be enacted before the summer recess. “This is a long time coming and I’m delighted it has finally reached this stage,” she added.
There are currently no immediate plans to exclude rental income from the scheme as had been proposed by Housing Minister Darragh O’Brien. Ms Butler and Mr O’Brien previously clashed over this proposal. It has been agreed it will be considered but will not be introduced as part of the current Fair Deal bill.
The main change to the Fair Deal scheme is to cap contributions based on farm and business assets at three years where a family successor commits to continuing the operation when the owner is in care.
The current system requires farm families and small business owners to set aside 7.5pc of the value of their land annually to fund a place in a nursing home and there is no cap on contributions. This means a farm or business could become unviable if a person remain in a nursing home for lengthy period.
In order to qualify for the new scheme, the farmer or business owner, their partner or nominated family successor must have worked on the farm or business for three out of the previous five years.
A cap on income raised from selling a home has also been agreed by Cabinet and will be introduced as an amendment to the Fair Deal legislation at committee stage.
Currently, the sale of a family home is counted as an asset, and 7.5pc of the income raised must contribute to the Fair Deal scheme for each year a person is in State-run nursing home care.
In a statement, Ms Butler said Cabinet approval for the Nursing Homes Support Scheme (Amendment) Bill 2021 “paves the way for me to bring forward this long overdue legislation to the Dáil at the earliest opportunity”.
“This is a vital bill which brings forward an amendment to the Fair Deal Scheme, which will place a cap at three years on the financial contributions of family owned and operated farms or businesses when calculating the cost for nursing home care. This will occur where a family successor commits to working the farm of business,” she said.
“Currently the three-year cap on the financial assessment of a person’s income and assets applies to family farms or businesses only in the case of sudden illness or disability. This situation may place unnecessary financial pressures on these families and could challenge the future viability of the farm or business,” she added.
