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Forum Home  →  Discussion  →  Other areas of social welfare law  →  Thread

LA reclaiming care home fees

CDV Adviser
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Nestor Financial Group Ltd

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Does anyone know if there is a limitation on how far back a local authority can go to reclaim care home fees. In this instance, they are trying to reclaim fees going back to 2006 as they say the client had undisclosed capital above £23,250.

Thanks for any advice.

Paul_Treloar_AgeUK
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Information and advice resources - Age UK

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Good question. Section 59 and 60 of the Care Act 2014 introduced new powers for debt recovery and section 22 of the Health and Social Services and Social Security Act (HASSASSA) 1983 was revoked from April 2015 and no new debts can be recovered under that provision.

Para.11 of Annex D of the Statutory Guidance states:

Timing of debt recovery

11) The point at which a debt becomes due continues to be the date at which the sum becomes due to the local authority. This means that, for example, if a bill was sent giving 30 days to pay, the payment becomes due on day 30. For any debts that have accrued prior to the commencement of the Care Act 2014 the time period for recovering that debt continues to be three years as previously set out under Section 56 of the National Assistance Act 1948 as any change to this would be retrospective and unfair. For any new debts that occur after the commencement of the Care Act 2014, the time period to recover debts has been extended to 6 years from the date when the sum became due to the local authority. Where a debt is taking some time to be recovered, provided legal proceedings have issued within the limitation period, enforcement can continue. If it has not, the debt must be written off.

However, I don’t think these time limits help your client as the debt has only been created now, due to the non-disclosure since 2006 - so I think they can ask for the money and they have 6 years to take action.

CDV Adviser
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Nestor Financial Group Ltd

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Thanks for all the information Paul, that’s very helpful.