We are calling on the Northern Ireland Executive and Department of Health to reform the funding of residential and nursing-home care so that elderly people are not forced to sell their family homes simply because they require long-term care.

When an elderly person becomes seriously ill, develops dementia or becomes physically dependent on others, needing residential or nursing care should not mean that a lifetime of hard work and saving results in their family home being sold to pay care fees.

Under the current system, the cost of residential and nursing-home care can be means tested. The value of a person’s home can therefore become a significant factor in determining what they have to contribute towards their care and this is often more than £1000 per week - yes PER WEEK

This can leave families facing an extremely difficult choice: either use the value of the family home to fund care or watch a lifetime’s asset gradually disappear through care charges.

We believe this needs to change.

People who have worked, paid taxes and National Insurance throughout their lives should be able to receive appropriate care in later life without their homes automatically becoming the source of funding for that care.

This is particularly important for people with conditions such as Alzheimer’s disease and other forms of dementia, and for people who are physically dependent and require extensive nursing and personal care.

The Northern Ireland Department of Health has itself recognised problems surrounding Continuing Healthcare, including differences in how the system has been applied across Health and Social Care Trusts. Its review has specifically identified the impact on people requiring residential and nursing-home care. (Department of Health⁠)

We are calling for:
1. A review of the current means-tested funding system for residential and nursing-home care in Northern Ireland.

2. Protection of the family home from being automatically required to fund long-term care costs.

3. A clear and transparent Continuing Healthcare system based on a person’s actual health and nursing needs.

4. Consistent application of Continuing Healthcare criteria across all Northern Ireland Health and Social Care Trusts.

5. A public consultation on a fairer long-term system for funding elderly and nursing care.

This is not about avoiding responsibility for care costs.
It is about asking whether it is fair that someone who has spent a lifetime working, paying taxes and providing for their family should  have to sell their home because they become elderly, develop dementia or require nursing care.

Care should be based primarily on need, not simply on whether someone owns a house.

Northern Ireland needs a system that treats elderly people with dignity and provides families with certainty about how long-term care will be funded.

Please sign this petition and ask the Northern Ireland Executive and Department of Health to review the system.
We believe that needing care should not mean losing your home.