The Nursing Home Loan (Ancillary State Support)
The Nursing Home Loan — sometimes called Ancillary State Support — is an optional element of Fair Deal that lets you defer paying the property-based part of your contribution until after you die or sell the asset. It is the mechanism that turns your home from a cash-flow problem into an estate-level one.
The problem the loan solves
For the first three years in care, the HSE assesses 7.5% of your home's value per year. On a €400,000 home that's a property contribution of €576 per week on top of the income-based portion. Most people do not have that kind of cash flow from pensions and savings alone — the property is a paper asset, not a paycheque.
The Nursing Home Loan lets you say "I cannot pay this from cash flow" and defer the property element until later.
How it works in practice
You apply for the loan in Part 5 of the Fair Deal application form. If approved:
- The HSE registers a charge against the property to secure the deferred amount.
- You only pay the income-based part of your contribution week to week. The property-based part is "loaned" to you by the State.
- The loan amount accrues — it is adjusted each year by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), so its real value is preserved.
- The loan is repayable on the earliest of: (a) 12 months after your death, (b) 6 months after a sale or transfer, or (c) when repayment becomes due under the rules around connected persons.
The loan is capped automatically at 3 years' worth of property contribution — the same as the 3-year cap on your home for assessment purposes.
Who can apply
Any Fair Deal applicant whose financial assessment includes property they own (or part- own) in the State. Property held outside Ireland is assessed but cannot be used to secure the loan.
The Relevant Accountable Person
If you take the loan, you must nominate a Relevant Accountable Person — usually a family member, executor, or trusted adult — who is responsible for telling the HSE about the property's status and ultimately arranging repayment from the estate.
Their details (name, address, telephone, eircode, PPSN) are entered in Part 3 of the form. The PPSN is required by Revenue, since the loan ultimately interacts with the estate's tax affairs.
Connected-person deferrals
After your death the loan is normally repaid within 12 months. There are exceptions — called connected persons — who can apply to defer repayment further:
- Your spouse, civil partner, or qualifying cohabitant
- A child under the age of 21 (or your spouse/partner's child)
- A child of yours whose total assets do not exceed €36,000
- A relative who has been in receipt of disability allowance, blind pension, invalidity pension, or State pension (non-contributory) and lived in the home as their principal residence for at least 3 years before you went into care
- A relative (contributory) — meeting strict conditions about contribution to the property
- A relative in receipt of a foreign social welfare payment similar to those above
- A relative who owns a building to which the principal residence is attached (e.g. 'a granny flat')
If a connected person applies, repayment can be deferred until certain triggering events — typically the connected person's own death, sale of the property, or change in their circumstances.
What gets repaid
Only the property-based portion of your weekly contribution is deferred. The income-based portion is paid weekly as you go. So the final loan balance is: (3-year-capped property contribution) + (CPI adjustment).
On a €400,000 home capped at 3 years, the final secured balance is roughly 3 × 7.5% × €400,000 = €90,000 plus CPI uplift — payable from the estate.
Should you take it?
It is almost always taken. Without it, most families have to sell the home during the applicant's lifetime to cover the property-based contribution — disruptive, often unwelcome, and can interact badly with the 3-year cap. With it, the home can stay in the family until the natural moment of probate, and the deferred amount is paid from sale proceeds at that point.
It is not free money. The CPI uplift means it grows in real terms; the secured charge prevents the property being sold without HSE notification; and it must be repaid in cash, even if there is no liquid asset in the estate. But for most families it converts an unaffordable weekly bill into a manageable estate event.