Crippling asset valuation of farms putting ‘nursing home families’ under severe financial stress
OVER two years of work behind the scenes to try and ease the financial burden on farm families where a member needs full-time nursing home care, could at last be about to deliver some results.
Maura Canning, National Chairperson of the IFA’s Farm Family and Social Affairs Committee, told the Farming Tribune that she was hopeful that ‘at long last’ some progress could be made on the issue.
“We have farm families that are under the most intense financial pressure to keep nursing home bills paid off every week and month, just because of the asset valuation of a farm,” she said.
One of the fundamental changes being sought by the IFA in their work over the past two years, she said, would be to base the nursing home charge on the viability of the farm rather than the value of the asset.
She outlined the IFA’s three main proposals on the Fair Deal nursing home scheme as follows:
■ The introduction of a reduced charge on the farm assets that reflect the ability to pay, similar to Agricultural Relief. This would reduce the potential charge by reducing the market value of farm business by 90% so that the contribution is calculated on the agricultural value. This would protect the viability of the farm asset for future generations.
■ The financial assessment would only apply to assets that have been transferred prior to entering the nursing home for less than three years. This is a proposed reduction from five years currently and is in line with the cap on assets in the case of sudden illness.
■ A broadened interpretation of 'sudden illness or disability' to include those who have been cared for at home for a short period, but subsequently require care in a nursing home.
For more, read this week’s Connacht Tribune.