How will the legislation change?

Legislative changes mean that the 7.5% farm families were required to pay towards nursing home fees, based on the value of their farm, will now be capped to three years.

Where someone has been in care over this three-year period, contributions will cease immediately.

Where someone is in the middle of an initial three-year period of care, they will have to pay the remaining years.

There will be no financial reimbursement for payments already made.

I am a farmer who has been in a nursing home for five years. What does this mean for me?

Once the legislation is passed and you have appointed an eligible farm successor, then you will no longer have to make the annual 7.5% financial contribution based on the value of your farm.

Similarly, if you are a farmer and have been in a nursing home for one or two years, you will only pay the 7.5% contribution on the remaining year(s) you are in the nursing home up to the three-year cap.

What are the details around a successor?

  • The successor has to have been working on the farm for three years across a five-year period. This can include chunks of time over the five-year period which add up to three years.
  • The successor will have to make a statutory declaration in relation to their normal working time.
  • The successor does not have to have been paid for working on the farm as an employee to prove they were working there.

    • The minister added: “At the minute, the successor will be related but I am acutely aware that there is a very small amount of people that might not have a relative as a successor and I want to resolve that.”

    She said she did not want that to be an unintended consequence of the scheme.

    What if the family home is sold or rented while the person is in care?

    Previously, if you sold the family home you continued to pay the 7.5% uncapped but that has been brought into the three-year cap as well.

    On renting, the minister said: “There are a couple of small changes still to come in regard to renting out the home while you are in a nursing home and we’re working with the Department of Housing on that.”