Long Term Care (FOI)

​Request

A

Can you please advise; locally non born Jersey residents living and working in Jersey who bring over to Jersey elderly parents or relatives to live with them then these elderly parents or relatives become unable to stay with their children due to age and illness / disability then require long term residential care, and so on, who pays for their care if they are unable to afford to pay, is it the resident children or family or is it the States through the tax payers ?

B

Please advise the policy of paying for long term care for non born residents who have never worked in Jersey or lived 10 years or less.

C

How much has been spent in 2018 and 2019 on long term care for recent family arrivals having no past connection with Jersey?

Response

A

The contractual arrangement for fees would be between the care provider and the cared for person (or their agent) and this would identify who would be responsible for the settlement of invoices. The Government of Jersey would not be responsible.

B

Working in Jersey is not a condition for eligibility for financial support for care fees through benefits administered by Social Security (Customer and Local Services). To be eligible for financial support for care fees through these benefits an individual needs to have lived in Jersey for a defined number of years (five years for Income Support / 10 years for Long-Term care benefit).

The residency tests for both benefits are set out in the Island’s legislation and entitlement is strictly established from this.

• Income Support (Jersey) Law 2007, Article 2(1)(b)

• Income Support (General Provisions) (Jersey) Order 2008, Part 2, Article 2

• Long-Term Care (Jersey) Law 2012, Article 3(2)(e)

• Long-Term Care (Residency Conditions) (Jersey) Regulations 2013, Article 1

C

There have been no awards of benefit in 2018 or 2019 in respect of anyone who did not meet the above residency criteria, therefore no money has been spent on long term care for people who are recent family arrivals.

Once an individual has lived in Jersey for six months they can get a health card. This reduces the amount they pay for a GP appointment and entitles them to free prescriptions. The health card only applies to GP visits and GP prescriptions. It doesn’t give access to free or discounted health care at the hospital or elsewhere.

Use of the Emergency Department of the hospital would be free but if a hospital admission were made then it would be chargeable.