Residential Accommodation Financial Assessment ?

bivvyman

Hopefully im in the right forum !!

My mother is in an EMI unit with Alzheimer's - I have POA registered with the court .

Each year I complete a financial assessment questionaire from the local authority who are funding Mother's care - Mother has no house though has a trust fund , private pension and cash assets of approx 16K

My question is the personal expenses allowance of £22.30 per week , Mother has regular bills to pay for her " treats " so rather than draw down on her account to meet these my plan was to withdraw the year's allowance of £1159.60 and pay for treats as they occoured .

Am I allowed to do this ?

Any assistance greatly appreciated

monkeyspanner

There are two aspects to this you can consider.

The first is the financial assessment carried out by the council. this will include an element called tariff income. For each £250 of savings between £14250 and £23250 a tariff income of £1 a week is assumed and reduces the amount paid by the council. By withdrawing all the weekly allowances you could potentially reduce the amount the council will assess by about £4/week.

The second is if this is ok as far as your duties as a POA. This would be covered by the Office of the Public Guardian code of practice which you can find here.
http://www.publicguardian.gov.uk/mca/code-of-practice.htm

I would have thought that taking the whole years allowances in one lot would have caused you some practical problems e.g. accounting for the expenditure and do you keep it in cash.

bivvyman

Hi Moneyspanner , thanks for your reply - to date we dont take the full allowance of £22.30 per week and havent done so for the past 4 years . Perhaps I need a better definition of personal expense allowance - I thought it was a sum which was disregarded from the calculations so if we didnt use it went back into the pot for the following years calculation ,so rather than lose it , take it before it went back . Do we also have to provide receipts for this allowance ?

Just looking to understand the situation

Best regards

monkeyspanner

You are quite right in assuming that if you don't use it, then the unused income will become accrued capital and be assessed. However the only affect of this would be a £1 a week assessed tariff income for every additional £250 of savings. I say only but I wish I could get £52 a year income on £250 of savings!

It would become a problem if your Mum's capital exceeded the savings limit which is £23250 (in England) at which point the council would say she should be self funding until the savings came back under the limit.

I think you would need to take advice from the OPG regarding what are acceptable expenses that you can decide as POA. I have heard they are pretty restrictive in what they are happy about POAs spending, and what records of expenditure should be kept.

bivvyman

Hi Monleyspanner - followed your advice and asked OPG for advice - 10 days later they came back and said they couldnt offer me advice other that go to a solicitor -

Regards

monkeyspanner

bivvyman wrote: »

Hi Monleyspanner - followed your advice and asked OPG for advice - 10 days later they came back and said they couldnt offer me advice other that go to a solicitor -

Regards

That isn't very helpful. In that case I would do whatever is most convenient for yourselves.