When one partner in a couple needs long-term nursing home care, the financial questions can feel overwhelming.
What happens to the family home? How much will you pay? Will your spouse be left without income?
The nursing home loan — a core feature of Ireland's Fair Deal Scheme — was designed to answer exactly these concerns. But how it works for couples is different from how it works for a single applicant. Understanding those differences could save your family tens of thousands of euros. Here is everything you need to know.
What Is the Fair Deal Nursing Home Loan?
The Fair Deal Scheme, officially called the Nursing Home Support Scheme (NHSS), is the Irish government's way of helping people fund long-term residential care. Under the scheme, you contribute towards your care costs based on your income and assets.
The HSE pays the balance. The nursing home loan—sometimes called Ancillary State Support— is an optional feature of the scheme.
The loan is designed to help Fair Deal Scheme applicants who don’t have enough cash in savings or allowances but have assets tied up in land and property—like a home, business, or farmland. It provides significant financial relief by allowing residents to defer care payments for property-based assets, ensuring affordability without needing to sell their home immediately.
Instead, the HSE pays the property-based portion of your contribution to the nursing home on your behalf. It accumulates as a loan. It is collected by the Revenue Commissioners from your estate after your death and registered as a charge on your property.
How Is the Financial Assessment Different for Couples?
This area is where couples need to pay close attention.
If you are part of a couple, your contribution is based on the following:
- 80% becomes 40% of your income.
- 7.5% becomes 3.75% of your cash assets, such as savings, stocks, and shares.
- 7.5% becomes 3.75% of your assets, such as land or property.
- The first €72,000 (€36,000 for single people) is excluded from the assessment.
In plain terms, when one partner enters care, only half of the couple's combined income and assets are counted. This halving rule is one of the most important protections in the entire scheme for couples. Both partners are required to sign the application form if applying for a nursing home loan.
What Happens to the Spouse Still Living at Home?
This is the question families ask most often — and the answer offers real reassurance.
If a participant has a spouse or partner remaining at home, they will be left with 50% of the couple's income or the maximum rate of the State Pension (Non-Contributory), whichever is greater.
This protection ensures the partner at home is never left financially destitute. The law builds this safeguard directly into the assessment process.
There is also protection around the family home itself.
In the case of a couple, the contribution based on the principal residence will be capped at 11.25% when one partner remains in the home while the other enters long-term nursing home care. That is, the three-year cap applies. After those three years, the home is no longer included in the financial assessment at all.
What Is the Three-Year Cap and Why Does It Matter?
The three-year cap is one of the most powerful protections the Fair Deal Scheme offers.
Your home will only be included in the financial assessment for the first three years you are in a nursing home. This means you will not pay more than 22.5% of the value of your home — 7.5% a year for three years.
For couples where one partner remains at home, that cap is reduced to 11.25%.
After three years, the family home is effectively removed from the calculation entirely — regardless of how long care continues.
After three years, even if you are still getting long-term nursing home care, you will not pay any further contributions based on the principal residence. This three-year cap applies regardless of whether you choose to opt for the nursing home loan or not.
This is a critical point that many families miss. The loan protects you during the three-year window. The cap protects you after it.
What Happens to the Loan After the Nursing Home Resident Dies?
The loan does not disappear — but there are important protections for the surviving spouse.
If your partner is still living in your home after your death, they can apply for a deferral. This means the loan amount based on the home can be collected from their estate after their death.
This means Revenue cannot force the sale of the family home while the surviving partner is alive. The loan repayment is deferred again — this time until the second partner also passes away. Only then is the charge collected from the estate.
Can You Rent Out the Home While the Nursing Home Loan Is Active?
Yes — and the rules here have become more generous in recent years. Since 1 February 2024, if you own your home and are renting it out to a tenant while you are in a nursing home, you can apply to keep 100% of this rental income instead of having to pay some of it towards your nursing home care. This is a significant change. It means couples who choose to rent out the family home can retain all of that rental income—rather than losing most of it to care contributions.
Why Couples Should Get Independent Fair Deal Advice
The nursing home loan rules for couples are not straightforward. The halved asset calculations, the three-year cap, the spousal income protection rules, the rental income changes — all of these interact in ways that can dramatically affect what you pay.
A qualified Fair Deal advisor can model different scenarios for your specific situation. They can help you understand whether applying for the nursing home loan makes financial sense, whether renting the family home could reduce your contribution, and how to structure your application for the best possible outcome. Getting independent advice is not a luxury. For couples navigating this scheme, it is a practical necessity.
Author Bio: This article was written by a specialist Fair Deal Scheme advisor based in Ireland with extensive experience guiding families through the Nursing Home Support Scheme application process.
