I have been suspended

purple.sarah

aliasojo wrote: »

Bless you.

Thank you, how sweet of you

thegirlintheattic

You need to contact your union and pay back the money immediately.

Resigning will not help, any reference will contain the information that you left whilst being investigated.

Either way you are probably going to be in the brown stuff. ISA Adults will probably get involved and you will not be working in care work again. Similar cases have had the police involved.

Training is neither here or there. You NEVER take money from a vulnerable person and I don't know any sensible person who would.

purple.sarah

OP, ask the union for advice, they may be able to help. Also seek legal advice and look for jobs in a different sector as this will be a barrier to future care work. It's clearly going to come out so you should admit to taking the money and pay it back after taking legal advice. I can't see that you would be allowed to keep your job after the double breach of trust, taking the money and then lying to your employer. It's largely irrelevant that the service user consented to giving you the money. They could have felt under pressure, you are not in an equal position since they are reliant on you for care. I remember when I worked as a carer we were not allowed to accept gifts from clients, never mind ask them for anything!

Wyndham

How much are we talking here? And how long was the gap between borrowing and, well, today?

dandelionclock30

Thats irrelevant, doesnt matter if it was 10p or 10K.
The issue is that carers/support workers etc are not allowed to ask service users to lend them money as its abuse of a power relationship.

Wyndham

It is relevent if the OP is going to use the 'didn't know' argument others have suggested. If it was 10p yesterday then that's one thing, if it was £200 six months ago, then I think that proves an intention to not repay.

dandelionclock30

I see what you mean, but hes still stuffed because the rule is no borrowing full stop ever. It doesnt matter if he intended to pay it back or not.
People seem to be struggling with grasping this but its a really basic thing in the care sector.

Pennywise2012

Although it appears the OP genuinely intended to pay it back, from the employer's POV it's going to look like theft - there was an agreed day to pay it back, the OP didn't pay it back or make arrangements to, the first the employer hears about it is when the son complained (and I imagine it was one hell of a complaint, I know I would be raging), and then when confronted, the OP denied all knowledge of the loan.
I think the whole 'not covered in training that you can't borrow money off clients' defence is neither here nor there - it may have worked if the OP had paid the money back as agreed, but they didn't.

marybelle01

I am afraid that I have to go with Amyloofoo on this one. In these circumstances, no matter what the mitigation, this would result in a referral to the ISA, whether or not the OP resigns - it isn't in the gift of a registered body to decide whether or not the offence is such that it should result in action by the ISA, because the rules are clear that we must report. What the ISA does is then up to them, but in the circumstances I cannot see that they would take no action at all.

This is a "relevant action" under the financial abuse rules which include "unauthorised withdrawals from vulnerable adult’s account, theft, fraud, exploitation, pressure in connection with wills or inheritance" and at the very least form exploitation, since the OP's sole reason for their contact with this vulnerable adult is to meet their support needs - not to tell them sob stories about how hard up they are and borrow money on the basis of that, which is exploitation of their professional relationship with the client. Whether it consititutes theft in legal terms is probably irrelevant unless the OP is unable to pay the money back - in terms of the ISA is may very well do so anyway, and they do not have to meet the legal test(s) to decide that. The ISA only have to meet the "employment" test in their determination - "reasonable belief". And I am afraid that the OP's denial, when first questioned, that they borrowed any money at all, is not likely to cast a good light on this. They obtained the money from a vulnerable adult, and the fact that she was not mentally impaired is not relevant - she is vulnerable, and should not have been placed in a position to agree or refuse a loan to her support worker. The money was not repaid. And the OP's first response was that they borrowed no money. Changing that story now is the honest thing to do, but it leaves a serious question about why they denied it when they knew it was true - which leaves reasonable belief that they thought they could get away with denying the money had been loaned.

I can see no real prospect of the ISA not regarding this seriously - which closes a lot of career paths to the OP. I am afraid a total change in occupation is the only realistic outcome here.

Taadaa

Uncertain wrote: »

Exactly.....

Although it is very poor practice (and most likely gross misconduct) to borrow money from such a client it is not a crime if it was a genuine loan and the OP intended to pay it back.

Exept the conveniently forgot and moved house into the bargain, making it difficult for the lender to trace them, hence the reason she mentioned it to her brother. There is no proof they planned to give it back. And we have no idea what sum is involved here, it could be thousands :eek: