NHS officials are working as private consultants and charging frail pensioners’ relatives for help securing funding from the state, a Telegraph investigation has found.

The senior managers, who are paid by the health service to oversee applications for the funding, are charging the vulnerable up to £400 a day for help trying to obtain such grants.

One health official said that after using her private services a family had been awarded an NHS grant worth “thousands and thousands and thousands, like two years’ worth of nursing home fees”.

Another was running the risk of an apparent conflict of interest, offering to secure funding for services in the area where he worked.

Under national rules, any patient with a significant health problem - such as dementia or Parkinson's - should have their care and nursing fees paid in full, if the condition is deemed to be the main reason they need help.

If the NHS decides that help is required simply because someone is frail or elderly, this falls under social care, which is means-tested.

But families and campaigners say the system is unfair - as well as overly complex - with increasing numbers being denied the funds, leaving them facing bills of up to £100,000 a year.