advise on care homes and private pension

mac666_2

Hi everyone,

Looking for a bit of advise for my grandmother.

Grandad has beeen assessed as needing to be moved to a nursing home. When social services came they told nanny they would need all grandads pensions to pay for the care home.

Nanny is now getting herself in a twist as she was a tradional house wife and never worked so has no credits.

Grandad has state pension, a private pension and railway pension.

Is the care home intitled to all his pensions?

Any help or advice gratefully recieved as this is moving very fast and we need to know nannys rights.

grey_lady

Do you know if his monthly pensions will cover the care home fee cost or if there will be a shortfall?

Does he recieve attendence allowance? has he been assessed to see if he has nursing care needs or just regular care needs.

mac666_2

Currently being assessed for attendance allowance. Sent forms off end of feburary, Unfortunatly he's gone down hill very quickly.

He has nursing care needs. The social workers couldn't believe he was still at home.

Don't know about care home fee's yet. Will find out in the next few days as they think they have found him a room already:eek:they only did the assessment today.

blossomhill_2

Age Uk have lots of useful info and an advice line - HTH

Could the room they have found him be an "assessment" bed or a "respite" bed? - these can be free while assessing the person's needs for a permanent home

It soudns like your nan may have been his carer, in which case she can ask for an assessment of her own needs, which should include finances

sleepless_saver

Good advice above to contact Age UK. Have a look at this Age UK link, especially the factsheet on paying for care in a care home if you have a partner.

There are clear rules about what can be taken and what she should have. For example, they should leave her with half his railway and private pension. She may become entitled to pension credit because of the income reduction and the Pension Service will be able to get that sorted.

mac666_2

Thank you all so much.

This has all been such a shock and trying to get everything stright as don't want Nanny going without.

Thank you for the age uk link its so helpful.

Pollycat

mac666 wrote: »

Currently being assessed for attendance allowance. Sent forms off end of feburary, Unfortunatly he's gone down hill very quickly.

He has nursing care needs. The social workers couldn't believe he was still at home.

Don't know about care home fee's yet. Will find out in the next few days as they think they have found him a room already:eek:they only did the assessment today.

This may be different from him going into an 'ordinary' residential care home.

His fees may be funded by your local PCT under 'Continuing Health Care' although I understand this is very hard to get agreement to.
There's a number of threads about CHC on the 'over 50s' board.

This website has some very good guides and factsheets, I used them when it was obvious that my Dad would need to go into a care home:

http://www.counselandcare.org.uk/finding-and-paying-for-a-care-home
Assuming you are in England, look at Guide 16 and also Guide 27 for information about CHC.

You can ring them up and they'll post which guides you want out to you.

My Dad was self-funding for the short time he was in a care home (savings in his name of over £23,250).
He had 2 small private pensions and we elected for Mum not to receive half of them as without them she was entitled to Guarantee Pension Credit and therefore housing benefit (they lived in a council-owned warden-controlled senior persons flat) and council tax benefit.
Maybe we had that choice because Dad was self-funding.

Does your Grandad have savings in his own name?

Good luck, it can be a very stressful time for all concerned.
#1 - get your Grandad into the best place for his needs
#2 - allay your Nan's worries about money

Let us know how you get on.

LisaW123

As another poster has commented, your Grandad may be entitled to NHS continuing care. This is notoriously difficult to obtain, however. There are many criteria, but mainly NHS continuing care funding is available to those who's needs are complex and deemed primarily medical. Those who suffer from, for example, Alzheimer's rarely obtain continuing care funding as their needs are deemed primarily social, ie, they are unable to look after themselves. I would have a word with one of the health care professionals (a doctor would probably be your best bet) about the likelihood of your Grandad obtaining continuing care funding.

As far as I'm aware, all of your Grandad's income will be taken into account during a financial assessment for care home fees, including all pensions and savings. Fees can be offset by attendance allowance and in some cases where full continuing care is not applicable but there is a nursing element involved in the individual's care, there is a small top up for this.

Even in the event that all of your Grandfather's income goes on care home fees, your Grandmother should not be left in penury. She will get a state pension despite her lack of contributions and this will be topped up with pension credits. I think the minimum with credits is around £137. Not a huge amount but that would bring the recipient into the qualifying bands for other benefits, like council tax and housing benefit if their home is rented.

When your Grandfather's funding situation is resolved, she will need to speak to the DWP regarding her own financial situation.

sleepless_saver

We're assuming the OP's grandfather is in England. OP, let us know if he's not as the way all this works is different in other parts of the UK.

sleepless_saver

Pollycat wrote: »

He had 2 small private pensions and we elected for Mum not to receive half of them as without them she was entitled to Guarantee Pension Credit and therefore housing benefit (they lived in a council-owned warden-controlled senior persons flat) and council tax benefit.
Maybe we had that choice because Dad was self-funding.

Good point, I oversimplified this in my previous post by saying that she would get half the occupational pension. The OP will need to work out what the best scenario would be for his grandmother (try benefit calculator).

JuneBow

As other posters have said, it is likely that Grandad would be eligible for NHS continuing care if his primary needs are nursing.
That said, if this fails, 50% of his private pension will be disregarded for the means test for LA care.
See CRAG 8.026 http://www.dh.gov.uk/prod_consum_dh/groups/dh_digitalassets/documents/digitalasset/dh_125836.pdf