A quick guide to paying for Home Care Costs in Northern Ireland

If you want to stay in your own home for as long as you possibly can but require help on a day to day basis, Home Care services may be the correct option for your needs. There are a large number of home care / domiciliary care agencies that provide a number of services to help meet your needs.

The list of services available range from daily 30 minute call visits to help with dressing, personal care, light house work, shopping and help with medication to overnight care or 24 hour live in support.

To get help with the cost of your care, the first thing to do is a Care Needs Assesment. It is important to get this done before you start paying for care because you may not qualify for help with costs if you dont.

Step 1: Get a Care Needs Assessment

This is completely free of charge and is provided by your local trust. An assessment will be made about your needs and recommendations for support will be made in a care plan. Depending on your needs the trust could recommend help from a career, changes to your home to assist mobility or moving to a care home.

You can apply for a care needs assessment at the following locations :

(Northern Ireland) http://online.hscni.net/hospitals/health-and-social-care-trusts/

Step 2: Get a Means Assessment

Once a Home Care Plan has been agreed, the trust will then do a means test assessment. For a home care plan, the value of your home is not included in the assessment. The means test assessment will let you know how much the NHS will contribute towards your care. You can usually receive direct payments to help pay for your care, which will allow you to pick your own home care provider if you wish to do so.

Step 3: Choose a Home Care Provider

You have the right to choose the home care provider you wish to use. The cost varies depending on your location and the care required. Hourly rates can be between £12 -£20 per hour and can usually be split into 30 minute visits, so you could have 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the evening if required or longer visits if needed.

Some people may require overnight care, which is often at a different rate and some may require full time live-in care, again at a different rate depending on the care provider.

It is worth searching for a list of local home care providers on www.bestcarecompare.com, see what services they provide and call the providers you are interested in for rates and care plan options.

Quality of Care – The Care Quality Commission provides ratings for Home Care Providers in Northern Ireland. These ratings can be found at www.bestcarecompare.com. The Care Inspectorate also provides ratings for care homes in Scotland. All Home Care providers in the UK (including Wales and Northern Ireland) are inspected regularly and the reports are published and available online. In addition to reading the inspection reports, you can read reviews from customers and their loved ones at www.bestcarecompare.com.

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