reclaim home care fees
brendah
Posts: 1 Newbie
In Dec2012 my mum was diagnosed with dementia and I was advised to find a care home for her. To date I have paid £106k from the sale of her flat towards her fees. She currently has £29k left in savings and I am looking for advice about whether any of the fees may be reclaimable. Mum has been in care for nearly 4 years and will soon be 97.
0
Comments
-
Assuming England, she is responsible for the full care home fees until she has £23,500 left. After that she will have to part pay (but will need to apply for the assistance as it isn't automatic,) until such time as she hits £14,250. At that point the authority takes over. They will take most of her income (they leave just short of £25 a week) to help pay it, but cannot touch the £14,250.
There is a maximum amount that the authority will pay per period, so it may mean a move to a different home if a third party cannot make up the shortfall (she is not allowed to do this from her remaining savings.)0 -
Assuming England, she is responsible for the full care home fees until she has £23,500 left. After that she will have to part pay (but will need to apply for the assistance as it isn't automatic,) until such time as she hits £14,250. At that point the authority takes over. They will take most of her income (they leave just short of £25 a week) to help pay it, but cannot touch the £14,250.
There is a maximum amount that the authority will pay per period, so it may mean a move to a different home if a third party cannot make up the shortfall (she is not allowed to do this from her remaining savings.)
I was interested to read the part I have put into bold.
Do you know why the £14,250 could not be used for care home fees? Can it be used for anything else while she is alive?0 -
Depending on whether she has nursing needs (dementia in and of itself does not qualify her) she could apply for CHC funding however this can be a bit of a battle to get.
https://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=399
She can use the £14250 for her personal spending - clothes, toiletries, any trips out, hairdresser etc, just not the care home fees.
You also should read up about third party top ups if her care fees are too far above the LA rates. There is no obligation to pay this, although this may not be made clear to you, but there may be a suggestion of a move to a cheaper home. However it is sometimes possible for the care home and LA to agree a mid point where the care home agree to reduce the fees and the LA pay extra - in my area the most they will pay over the usual amount is £100 pw and that's in cases where it is clearly not in the persons best interests to be moved.All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.
Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.0 -
LittleVoice wrote: »I was interested to read the part I have put into bold.
Do you know why the £14,250 could not be used for care home fees? Can it be used for anything else while she is alive?
She can use it for anything else she likes except topping up the fees. Presumably the amount has been set by the government as some people may not have any other means or paying for their funerals, but there is no policing what else it is spent on. For instance, some residents have a TV. It wouldn't be very easy to replace one with what is left of their income (would take over a month for an average TV even if they didn't spend a penny on anything else) so the allowed savings are the obvious way of meeting this kind of expense while a resident is alive.
My Auntie is in a care home and spends more than her allowance most weeks, so is eating into her savings. The LA will ask about income and savings each tax year but they're just looking to see that someone hasn't gained large sums of money from somewhere/whether they were on partial support and now qualify for the maximum; no problem at all with the resident spending their allowed savings while they are alive. I would guess that most are eating into them at Christmas and for birthdays.
I would think that the rationale is that the resident might run out of savings if allowed to top the fees up, then be forced to move when not in the best health. The third party rule doesn't prevent it absolutely, but will make it less likely.0
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 343.2K Banking & Borrowing
- 250.1K Reduce Debt & Boost Income
- 449.7K Spending & Discounts
- 235.2K Work, Benefits & Business
- 608K Mortgages, Homes & Bills
- 173K Life & Family
- 247.9K Travel & Transport
- 1.5M Hobbies & Leisure
- 15.9K Discuss & Feedback
- 15.1K Coronavirus Support Boards