LA Care financial assessment - appeal?
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sammyjammy
Posts: 7,389 Forumite
My Gran is 87, she has since the beginning of February this year had assistance from the council care team, someone comes twice a week for 30 minutes to help her shower.
At the same time a claim was made for Attendance Allowance which was successful.
At no stage did the Local authority try to do a financial assessment on my Grans ability to pay, we now understand that they should have done this.
A financial assessment was done two weeks ago and they have sent a statement saying she needs to pay all of her care which is £34 a week. This is fine, we are happy for her to get the help she needs and this is why she has the AA.
She doesn't understand any of this and is getting rather upset saying she wont claim any of it and they are calling her a liar. The reasons for this are:
*They have stated she started getting care from 1/12/16 which is incorrect by a couple of months (I believe this is a simple error easily remedied)
**They have stated she must repay the arrears from when she started getting the care even though it was their error that they didn't conduct a financial assessment when she first got help which comes to nearly £800. She gets Guaranteed pension credit, full council tax and housing benefit and does not have this money.
Can we appeal this decision? Does it work like DWP where they cannot insist funds are repaid if its official error?
Hope my post makes sense, I'm 300 miles away so relying on a photo of the letter!
At the same time a claim was made for Attendance Allowance which was successful.
At no stage did the Local authority try to do a financial assessment on my Grans ability to pay, we now understand that they should have done this.
A financial assessment was done two weeks ago and they have sent a statement saying she needs to pay all of her care which is £34 a week. This is fine, we are happy for her to get the help she needs and this is why she has the AA.
She doesn't understand any of this and is getting rather upset saying she wont claim any of it and they are calling her a liar. The reasons for this are:
*They have stated she started getting care from 1/12/16 which is incorrect by a couple of months (I believe this is a simple error easily remedied)
**They have stated she must repay the arrears from when she started getting the care even though it was their error that they didn't conduct a financial assessment when she first got help which comes to nearly £800. She gets Guaranteed pension credit, full council tax and housing benefit and does not have this money.
Can we appeal this decision? Does it work like DWP where they cannot insist funds are repaid if its official error?
Hope my post makes sense, I'm 300 miles away so relying on a photo of the letter!
"You've been reading SOS when it's just your clock reading 5:05 "
0
Comments
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the date that she should be paying from is the date she was awarded ate
tendance alowance.
most councils use AA/DLA/PIP care awards to help offset the costs of providing are.
my LA charges 70% of DLA/PIP care awards and lower rte AA awards0 -
the date that she should be paying from is the date she was awarded ate
tendance alowance.
most councils use AA/DLA/PIP care awards to help offset the costs of providing are.
my LA charges 70% of DLA/PIP care awards and lower rte AA awards
Thanks for your reply, I understand that and its not in question as to whether she will pay what they have decided is due. Its the payment of the arrears that I am concerned about and whether an appeal is likely to be successful or not.
She uses her AA for other things in addition to the cost of the 60 minutes of care each week."You've been reading SOS when it's just your clock reading 5:05 "0 -
each LA has its own methods of deciding charges and how much they expect the service user to contribute.
as she is on pension credit none of her income would have been used for a financial assessment anyway.
my LA take 70% of any DLA/PIP care or AA award. ( they only use the lwer rate amount even if higher rate is in payment) it is a flat rate and they take this amount regardless of how little or how much care is given.
i have a PA funded by social services. she works 22 hours a week and i pay £167 a month towards the cost.
i would still have to pay this amount regardless of if she worked 5 hours a week or 50 hours a week.
so your gran would need to pay arrears for the period between claiming AA and an award being made.
i dont understand what you want to appeal about because it seems to me that the LA haven done anything wrong apart from the financial assessment being a bit late.
i hope that answers your query0
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