dementia patient/care home fees

bestpud

I don't know if this will be of any help at all but there seems to be some scenarios whereby your friend would not have to pay:

http://www.helptheaged.org.uk/en-gb/AdviceSupport/FinancialAdvice/CareHomeFunding/as_funding_190106_3.htm

Your property
If you own your own home, its value will usually be counted as capital. However, there are some important exceptions to this rule:

• Your property should be disregarded for the first 12 weeks after you enter into care permanently.
• If your husband, wife or civil partner (or unmarried partner) lives in your home, then its value will not be counted as capital in the assessment.
• If a relative aged 60 or over lives in your home, then its value will be ignored.
• If a relative under the age of 60 who is incapacitated lives there, then again the value will not be counted. (In general, someone could be judged to be incapacitated if they are receiving a sickness or disability benefit such as Incapacity Benefit or Disability Living Allowance.)
• If your home is occupied by your estranged or divorced partner and he or she is a lone parent with a dependent child, its value will be ignored.
• The value of your property should be ignored if you are liable to maintain a child under 16 and your house is the child’s main home. The child must be either a relative of yours or a relative of a member of your family.
• The local council is also allowed to ignore the value of your property if it is the permanent home of someone who does not fall under these categories – for example, your carer. The local council is not obliged to do this, but can choose to use its discretion.
• If you are a temporary resident in a care home the local council should ignore the value of your home. You can be classed as temporary for up to 52 weeks, possibly longer at the discretion of the local council. See Temporary Residents for more information.

If you jointly own your home with someone who does not fit into any of these categories, for example a relative under the age of 60 or a friend, then things are more complex. In this situation, the local council will give a value to your interest in the property. This value depends largely on the price that your share of the property could realistically command from a willing buyer.

bestpud

As DMG said, it depends on whether she is deemed as having a medical need too. That is well worth looking into as they don't tend to volunteer this information! The social worker should know the ins and outs of it.

hassie

thanks best pud have just read this myself and have told her about the help line.
The point 7 seams to apply to her situation.
cheers every one is so kind.xx
It was the social services and hospital who provided respite care who said she had to go into care for her own safety.

bestpud

hassie wrote: »

thanks best pud have just read this myself and have told her about the help line.
The point 7 seams to apply to her situation.
cheers every one is so kind.xx
It was the social services and hospital who provided respite care who said she had to go into care for her own safety.

Definitely follow up the medical line then. She can ask that on the phoneline too. My understanding is she should not pay for nursing care if there is a medical need. Has she been transferred from hospital to the home?

My friend was told not to let her dad be dischaged from hospital until he had his care home place as doing so would make it harder to get his care free. She was moving him into a different county though, so perhaps that made it different. She still had to fight for it though and he had very clear medical needs, so tell your friend not to take no for an answer straight away!

hassie

no she wasn't in hospital when she went into the care home.She used to go into our local hospital for respite care.The social services and hosptal both said my pal wasn't able to give the 24/7 care any more and had to let her mum go into a home.They first put her in a care home but because she wandered around too much she needed a more secure unit so they put her in a proper dementia home.My friend didn't want this but trusted their judgement.Monday bekons weekends are never a help when you need advice.;)

Mojisola

hassie wrote: »

purple12,i have already said her entitlement to aa was stopped when she first went into a care home earlier in the year.

Get your friend to double-check this.

This is from Help the Aged's website - https://www.helptheaged.org.uk/

"If you are ‘self-funding’, or in other words paying the full cost of your care yourself with no help from your local council, you can claim Attendance Allowance, even if you are receiving Pension Credit or other income-related benefits.

However, if you are getting financial help from the local council you will not be able to claim Attendance Allowance. If you are already receiving Attendance Allowance when you enter the home you can continue to receive it for the first four weeks."

So the Council can't stop her AA and expect her to pay for herself.

finlaybaby

It sounds like she would qualify for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding, where the person needs to have ongoing, complex, intense, unpredictable health care needs. If this is the case, then ALL her fees would be funded by the NHS.

Ask her social worker to complete the checklist for NHS Continuing Healthcare funding and hopefully she will be awarded it. Can be a longish process, good luck, X

purple12

If she's regarded paying her own fees - i.e. the charge is being placed on the home, then her entitlement to AA should not have stopped. It only stops for people whose fees are being paid or subsidised by the LA.

And to be honest, it's worth asking for a continuing care assessment but I wouldn't bank on getting it. I've done some myself and the level is very high (unsurprisingly). But it never hurts to ask.

monkeyspanner

As purple says it would be worth looking at continuing care, Under this system the NHS(via the PCT) has to pick up the total cost of care. This system is entirely separate from the means tested local council system. The assessment is based on a number of criteria and determines if the patient's primary care need is health related. As in this case the care home could not manage and a move to a nursing home was needed then this will be a factor in the assessment. Due to large discrepancies in the awarding of continuing care funding across different PCT's a new standardised system of assessment was introduced in october 2007. Obviously due to the cost of fully funding care costs this system is not widely known and the PCT's are reluctant to use the funds central government has allocated to this area. The assessment system is open to interpretation and can be protracted and difficult. Continuing care funding is available in any care setting including the patient's own home.

We have just been successful in getting retrospective funding for my MIL. It has taken many hours of research, 2 assessments, an independant retrospective review, 3 panel meetings and a considerable amount of effort and about 10 months from start to this point. As background information the PCT in my MIL's area has a financial reserve in excess of £3million to cover payouts for cases under appeal and is concentrating on sorting out cases going back up to 8 years where in many instances the patient is deceased.

On the specific issue of council funding it is interesting to note that it is against funding policy for the council to fund care in the case of a patient who might be eligable for continuing care and they should take these cases up with the PCT. However, this often does not happen particularly where there is a possibility of getting hold of patient's assets. A good source of information about these funding issues is www.counselandcare.org.uk which is a charity.

hassie

:mad: :mad: :mad: Hi,I thought I would just update you with the latest.m y friend has been told by the help the aged solicitor that the social services/council are correct and they are now having to send her mum back home for her to again take care of her.As far as I'm concerned this is an absolute disgrace as it was the s.s who said she had to go into care in the first place.She is still fighting hard but a date for her coming home is being planned.Will update when I again no more .Thanks for reading,hassie:mad: :mad: