As many as two-thirds of the 150,000 who currently live in nursing homes and who pay for their own care may be entitled to a refund. New government figures suggest that last year alone, 20,000 elderly people were forced to sell their homes to pay for care. A recent study, by advice firm FirstStop, says that care costs have continued to rise despite the recession which has meant that people’s property and savings have declined in value.

For those who don’t qualify for Continuing Care the financial pressures can be huge as stringent means tests, which usually include the family home, mean that anyone with assets worth over £23,250 will be forced to pay most if not all of their care costs. As the average nursing home now costs in the region of £36,000, or higher if in the South East, it is clear that the difference between receiving and not receiving Continuing Care is huge.

However, the Framework, established in 2007, has led to more people being eligible for free care and figures from the Office for National Statistics, reveal that 52,176 qualified in the first quarter of this year. The ONS figures do show a steady rise in the number of people who do qualify, although optimism is tempered by the observation from Age UK, that the figures do not reflect the wide regional variations that exist and that there is still a “postcode lottery” operating, despite NHS Continuing Care being set up partly to stop this practice.

The differences around the country can be seen when looking at the figures from various PCTs. The national average for people qualifying for continuing care is 51.4 per 50,000 of the population but Lincolnshire Teaching PCT has 162 cases per 50,000 whereas Mid Essex has just 12.