Continued care funding help needed please help

mikkir

My dad is in a care home , CHC was applied for by social services without our family knowing, the care is costing £1400 per month from my dads private pension that he saved hard to put away during his 50 years as a succesful business man. My mum is skint and on anti depressents and I am recovering from a nervous breakdown (partly grief and partly all the red tape etc)
We may even have a case for negligance against the local health authority but that is not important.
The deatail are listed below any help will be greatly recieved.

Also my mum had a visit from the Tax office today on an unrelated issue but the man present said that if the pension was an annuity then no charges would be met by mum or dad, is this true???

Thanks for all the heavy reading you have to do to get through this but I am running out of places to turn. mikki

Poppy9

So sorry to hear about your father.

Have you sent this letter yet? If not consider being exact about how many weeks he was in X hospital as 3-4 weeks sound as if you are vague and they will be looking to pick up an weaknesses.

Regarding if the operation is unnecessary, why were they so keen to operate (you said you father had decided against twice). Rather than say it was unnecessary just ask why a clinical decision was made to repeatedly offer your father this operation and what benefits he would obtain.

Regarding fees. If he is in a nursing home this element of the bill will be met by Health Authority but the residential element he will be assessed to contribute towards. Typically in my LA the nursing home element (I'm not 100% sure but is approx.) i£110 per week and the residental care £300-400.

Your father will be assessed to contribute towards this and you should ensure he is receiving his full entitlement to benefits.

I assume caring for your father at home is not an option. If it is, or does become one, you can look into Direct Payments which will give you the control to buy in the care you want at home.

monkeyspanner

Sorry to hear of your dads illness.

In order to try to assist could you clarify a few points?

- What was the outcome of the social services application for CHC?
- Is your Dad in England? (Wales and Scotland have different systems)
- If so has a full CHC assessment using the DST (decision support tool) been done?
- Private pension income normally derives from annuities and is assessed as income for care fee purposes, together with state pension. Do you know why the revenue employee thought it should not be assessed?
- If your dad is self funding you should be able to get Attendance allowance for him and this would continue until 28days after CHC funding is awarded. AA is not means tested. Is he in receipt of AA?
- Has your mum applied for any benefits?

You could try www.counslandcare.org.uk which is a charity specialising in this area and they operate a helpline.

mikkir

Thanks for the responses.
In reply to monkey spanner the CHC assesment was that my mum has to pay for all cost for my dad beind in an EMD unit.Although we only got a standard letter from social services stating this and at the time we wernt even aware of this fact.
Didnt know about the assesment tool ! Any links?
No idea why he thought this about annuity.
My mum got a letter about AA for my dad that she already recieved due to his atheritis(?!?) saying she has to pay £700 back ; the amount paid to her since he has been in a care home.
And my mum has been told as she still has 1/3 of my dads pension coming she is not entitled to anything the man was from pension tax credits office.

Thanks again Mikki, u give me hope.;)

ukmaggie45

Hi there Mikki,

Sorry to hear about your Dad, quite understand why it has affected both your and your Mum's health.

You say your Dad is in an EMD home - was he assessed before being discharged from the hospital to the home? His needs should have been assessed fully.

You may find this thread of interest.

Best wishes, and good luck with helping your parents.

Maggie

monkeyspanner

mikkir wrote: »

Thanks for the responses.
In reply to monkey spanner the CHC assesment was that my mum has to pay for all cost for my dad beind in an EMD unit.Although we only got a standard letter from social services stating this and at the time we wernt even aware of this fact.
Didnt know about the assesment tool ! Any links?
No idea why he thought this about annuity.
My mum got a letter about AA for my dad that she already recieved due to his atheritis(?!?) saying she has to pay £700 back ; the amount paid to her since he has been in a care home.
And my mum has been told as she still has 1/3 of my dads pension coming she is not entitled to anything the man was from pension tax credits office.

Thanks again Mikki, u give me hope.;)

Hi Mikki
Here is a link to age concerns leaflet on attendance allowance and care home funding. Is the council partially funding your dad? If not he should still be entitled even if in receipt of the nursing allowance.
http://www.ageconcern.org.uk/AgeConcern/is13.asp

Here is a link to the DST
http://www.dh.gov.uk/en/SocialCare/Deliveringadultsocialcare/Continuingcare/DH_073912

On the right hand side you will find a link to the National Framework which sets out the CHC rules.

I am surprised that the CHC decision was communicated to you by the social services as they do not manage the assessments. I think you should contact the relevant section in the Primary care trust and ask for a copy of the assessment and their decision. If this is not forthcoming or you don't agree with it lodge an appeal and ask for an independant review.