Reclaim Care Home Costs for Free- New MSE guide

noelphobic

jenhugs wrote: »

Ok so my nan has been in a residentaial emi unit since around 2000. She had to sell her house and and her life savings have now all gone. She has pics disease. Now the money has run out the social are contributing so much but now my mum has to cover the shirt fall. Mum tried to look after my nan at first but it was horrendous, eating from the cat bowl, pooing on the floor. To the point where I had to call social services and advice my mum could not cope any longer. I know that sounds terrible, but mum was not able to get her up and down the stairs, in and out the bath and just deal with NANS every day needs.
Mum has recently been in touch with a solicitor regarding my nans case.
Now for the questions.
Firstly: we are in Wales, can we still claim? This solicitors is saying they can.
Secondly: they want 200 pounds up front for nans medical records is this the norm?

Thanks for reading and thanks for any input.

You say your nan's life savings have all gone. That shouldn't have happened as there is a lower limit at which the person in care only pays on a sliding scale. Then there is another limit at which point the person in care should be fully funded, apart from top-up fees. The figures off the top of my head are around £23k but not sure if that is where the sliding scale begins or if that is where the person no longer has to pay fees from their own savings.

Is it the solicitors who are asking for £200 for the medical records? We paid very little for any of the records we obtained, in some cases nothing at all. We obtained records from the GP, care homes, hospital and social services. In most of those cases the notes were provided free of charge but I think one or two of them charged a nominal fee. If it is the solicitor who is asking for the £200 I would check whether this is a standard charge they levy and/or the respective holders of the records will actually charge this much. Otherwise you could consider obtaining the records yourselves.

noelphobic

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

.
So if you employ a "professional" to evaluate your claim, £200 seems cheap.

not if the £200 is JUST for obtaining the records rather than going through them to find salient information!

In my experience obtaining the records was the easy bit, although I know others have not been as lucky.

homehelp1933

SocialCare wrote: »

Hi. A report by the Health Service Ombudsman in 2003, prompted a major review of cases going back to 1996. In July 2007 the NHS chief executive wrote to PCTs explaining a desire to bring the review process to a close. He asked PCTs, using appropriate awareness-raising initiatives, to encourage local people who wanted to request a review of a case that involved care provided mainly before April 2004 to raise it with them

before November 2007. However, you can still ask the PCT to review such a case, indicating why you have not raised it before. The PCT has a duty to ensure that no one with a legitimate claim to a review misses out.

Don't worry about the legal jargon in the proposed reading of the Coughlan case. The case is helpful in that it sets the benchmark for the primary health need that MSE mention in the relted article.

Write to your local PCT and ask for a review of the case and just explain why you haven't asked before. Probably likely that the reason being you weren't aware of the potential eligibility for CHC funding.

Very best wishes.

The above info is extremely helpful - both my parents were resident in Nursing Homes until their deaths (My father from Lung Cancer in March 2000 and my mother who was suffering from Alzheimers and was in a Nursing Home from May 2000 until she died in Jan 2004) So I don't qualify to re-claim as both my parents died before April 2004 - however, after reading your post and they way this whole situation has been handled, I will at the very least now send a letter to my local PCT asking for a review - as you have said above, the PCT's were asked to use 'appropriate awareness raising initiatives'. It is only in recent months when this issue has been in the news more (I assume due to the deadline of 30th September rapidly approaching!) that I have become aware of the possibility to reclaim. Whether or not I am successful, it does now mean that people up & down the country will be far better informed. It is a stressful enough situation to find yourself in without having to deal with issues such as selling family homes to pay for fees, as I had to do.

Good Luck to everyone - worth the cost of a first class stamp even if you think you won't be eligible for a refund, at least you will have asked the question.

katykitten

my father passed away on 10th April after a long and traumatising 5 years with vascular dementia, he was due to be assessed on the day he died so i am planning on claiming retrospectively as he had a lot of health needs prior to this although he spent a month in hospital in between two nursing home stays - has anyone successfully claimed under these circumstances? Even if i get £10 back i will persue this to the hilt as my father worked from the age of 16 to 78, brought up four children, and never ever claimed a single benefit in his life - the current system i find frankly abhorrent and the fact that we have to fight to get funding is appalling!

jenhugs

Re my nan basically her whole life savings have gone apart from 12k. My nan and grandad where s/e for most of their lives with a garden nursering business. They worked bloody hard it is the principle to me, I am not saying my nan should not have contributed but the whole lot? Around 250k!! Now she has 12k left she is getting part funded but because it is a more expensive home then the amount contributed my mum has to pay the short fall. It is not fair to move my nan after all this time in her home!

jenhugs

Re my nan basically her whole life savings have gone apart from 12k. My nan and grandad where s/e for most of their lives with a garden nursering business. They worked bloody hard it is the principle to me, I am not saying my nan should not have contributed but the whole lot? Around 250k!! Now she has 12k left she is getting part funded but because it is a more expensive home then the amount contributed my mum has to pay the short fall. It is not fair to move my nan after all this time in her home!

noelphobic

jenhugs wrote: »

Re my nan basically her whole life savings have gone apart from 12k. My nan and grandad where s/e for most of their lives with a garden nursering business. They worked bloody hard it is the principle to me, I am not saying my nan should not have contributed but the whole lot? Around 250k!! Now she has 12k left she is getting part funded but because it is a more expensive home then the amount contributed my mum has to pay the short fall. It is not fair to move my nan after all this time in her home!

I couldn't agree with you more. My mum's illness cost her around 100k, less than your nan, but still an awful lot of money. My parents didn't have a high income and lived very frugally - too frugally in my opinion.

Is there a cheaper home that your nan could move to? I'm not asking because I think you should do that, obviously, but if there is no cheaper home then you can appeal against paying top up fees on the basis that there is nowhere your nan could go without paying top up fees.

Willowgill

Hi again - thank you for your response Monkeyspanner - your assumptions are correct. I've spent the last couple of days sorting out all the paperwork for my Mum's case and my husband is today hand delivering the lot to the Doncaster PCT to be sure it arrives before 30th. I've written a comprehensive letter to the Chief Exec saying why I think her case should be reviewed and enclosed copies of all her assessments, the correspondence I received from the council and the PCT and the memory clinic my parents both attended back in 2008 when they were diagnosed as one of the assessments said they had not been officially diagnosed! I have a question which I don't know if anyone can answer. During the entire time Mum was in care the council took her pension by direct debit from the bank each month leaving her just the requisite £20 a week spending money. This was during the period she was funded 50-50 by both NHS and the council, during the time she was only funded 50% by NHS and was accruing the other half on her property and in the final 6 months when she was fully funded by NHS. I don't know if the claim should include this or if it's just the part she funded herself from the property - is it generally accepted that everyone contributes from their pension towards their care? I can't actually remember the situation with my dad as it was all over in a few weeks but I have a feeling his pension was not taken from him while he was in the care home. I'm not really hopeful of a refund of any sort but as everyone else on here says it's the principle of it all.

noelphobic

Willowgill wrote: »

Hi again - thank you for your response Monkeyspanner - your assumptions are correct. I've spent the last couple of days sorting out all the paperwork for my Mum's case and my husband is today hand delivering the lot to the Doncaster PCT to be sure it arrives before 30th. I've written a comprehensive letter to the Chief Exec saying why I think her case should be reviewed and enclosed copies of all her assessments, the correspondence I received from the council and the PCT and the memory clinic my parents both attended back in 2008 when they were diagnosed as one of the assessments said they had not been officially diagnosed! I have a question which I don't know if anyone can answer. During the entire time Mum was in care the council took her pension by direct debit from the bank each month leaving her just the requisite £20 a week spending money. This was during the period she was funded 50-50 by both NHS and the council, during the time she was only funded 50% by NHS and was accruing the other half on her property and in the final 6 months when she was fully funded by NHS. I don't know if the claim should include this or if it's just the part she funded herself from the property - is it generally accepted that everyone contributes from their pension towards their care? I can't actually remember the situation with my dad as it was all over in a few weeks but I have a feeling his pension was not taken from him while he was in the care home. I'm not really hopeful of a refund of any sort but as everyone else on here says it's the principle of it all.

If someone is granted fully funded NHS continuing care then their pension or any other benefits would not be taken into account so this should be refunded if you win your case.

realshannon

in answer to a previous post, the percentage I am sure is 25% and I think it rises to 28% if it needs to go to appeal stage. to me, that is a bargain, for someone to take that strain and stress away from us is great. they clearly have a standard template letter ready to go off to each PCT and that will basically state to them that we intend to further this so, as I understand it, that is all that needs to be done at the mo, lodge a letter to state that you will be claiming. good luck everyone and I will post back as and when I hear anything interesting or useful