Reclaim Care Home Costs for Free- New MSE guide

barry6521

I'm going through it at the moment what a performance there sole object is make sure you are not eligible ,if any one has filled out the DST form then they will know what mean any help would be great, I have a very dear friend who without his help I would not of even got off the ground to him I a big thank you.

margf

barry6521 wrote: »

I'm going through it at the moment what a performance there sole object is make sure you are not eligible ,if any one has filled out the DST form then they will know what mean any help would be great, I have a very dear friend who without his help I would not of even got off the ground to him I a big thank you.

Take a look at this site.
http://www.beaconchc.co.uk

I have found excellent free information on here, they also offer a paid service, has anyone any experience of Beacon?

Marg

arenapera

Hi. I submitted a claim in Sept 2012 and to date have still not managed to get the NHS to progress the claim. They agree from the information supplied that they are willing to progress through their process but are only at point 2 of around 9. ie, waiting for information from her gp, care home, nhs consultants and until they receive this, cannot move forward. Is there anything I can do to make them chase this information and progress with the claim? Does anyone have any useful advice on this subject (especially you Martin Lewis) as I guess that thousands of people are effected by this.

lipcurl

arenapera wrote: »

Hi. I submitted a claim in Sept 2012 and to date have still not managed to get the NHS to progress the claim. They agree from the information supplied that they are willing to progress through their process but are only at point 2 of around 9. ie, waiting for information from her gp, care home, nhs consultants and until they receive this, cannot move forward. Is there anything I can do to make them chase this information and progress with the claim? Does anyone have any useful advice on this subject (especially you Martin Lewis) as I guess that thousands of people are effected by this.

Hi Arenapera, I submitted my claim at the beginning of 2012 and only in the last couple of weeks have received notification of the start of proceedings which is the panel meeting. From 2012 until recently I sent short emails every few months asking for updates. There's been no explanation as to why it's taken so long for my case but the Assessor confirmed there are a great deal of cases they're dealing with. Maybe the delays are affected in different areas? It is a very long time though!

Doc_N

lipcurl wrote: »

Hi Arenapera, I submitted my claim at the beginning of 2012 and only in the last couple of weeks have received notification of the start of proceedings which is the panel meeting. From 2012 until recently I sent short emails every few months asking for updates. There's been no explanation as to why it's taken so long for my case but the Assessor confirmed there are a great deal of cases they're dealing with. Maybe the delays are affected in different areas? It is a very long time though!

Having exactly the same problems. I'm convinced that the real reason for the delays is the hope (expectation?) that claimants will die or give up for other reasons before any claim has to be settled.

I did push the health authority hard at one point to get them moving. That resulted in a reasonably quick review - followed by an equally quick decision not to proceed with a full retrospective assessment.

That decision, when we examined it more closely, was clearly flawed, and based on a completely incorrect interpretation of the facts. It was obviously a Friday afternoon job, and a disgracefully shoddy piece of work - though doubtless an excellent piece of work from their viewpoint.

With our knowledge of the medical issues, backed up by the solicitors' knowledge of the legal issues, we persuaded them that the decision was incorrect, and they have now agreed that a full retrospective assessment will be carried out. I have about as much confidence in that process as I had in the initial review, and I fully expect it to have to go to a full hearing.

I have no confidence whatever in the way these claims are being handled, but there's precious little that can be done about it apart from fighting them at every stage. The involvement of the local MP might 'encourage' them, perhaps.

davidsuffolk

I made retrospective continuing healthcare claims in 2012 for both my aunt and my father who died while in nursing homes. I was told today that my aunt was now number 225 on the list to be assessed and as she was number 240 nearly 7 months ago that means it will not be sorted until around 2023!
I can't believe even a PCT can take 11 years to finalise so I made formal complaint about the timescale and also wrote to my MP who is Secretary of State for Health though I doubt either will make much difference.

margf

It is an absolute disgrace the time it is taking for these cases to be heard/resolved. The only consolation I can offer is the interest (in my case which was 8%) has to be paid up to the date the case is resolved.
I rang them on a fortnightly basis chasing, I am sure they had just had enough of me calling them and gave me a date.

Doc_N

I agree - this is a disgrace. Pretty obviously, there's been a policy decision at ministerial level to do as little as possible to progress these cases - probably on the basis that there would be little public sympathy for claimants and that as those claimants tend to be older the longer they can shelve it, the more of those claimants will die off.

There's nothing for Health Authorities to gain by progressing claims, and everything to gain by delaying them.

I did manage to get things moving by threatening to involve the local MP, and the outcome was at first sight positive. They did the initial review and issued a decision. Unfortunately it was a badly flawed decision (for which they've had to apologise) purely aimed at getting the claim off their books without a full review.

Do not trust these people - their sole aim is to get the cases kicked out or delayed indefinitely. Why would they want to do anything other than that?

davidsuffolk

Had a letter today from my MP saying that he had written to the CCG asking for an explanation. We will see what response that gets.

davidsuffolk

Small update.MP's letter just got a cc reply and my formal complaint to the CCG got a (nice) letter back basically saying how "complex these cases were" and that "they could not therefore offer a timescale." I replied saying I could not accept that, however complex the cases were, it could need 11 years to resolve and asked if they disputed my calculation. They replied reiterating they could not give a timescale but that the Dept of Health expected them to have resolved all cases by 31st March 2017. I could have accepted that but they still wouldn't commit to even that, a 5 year timescale so I complained to the ombudsman.
I had no great expectations that this would make any difference but I did receive (co-incidence I'm sure) packs regarding both my relatives with "continuing healthcare checklists" enclosed. Both seemed a fair assessment (6C,3B,2A & 3C,5B,3A) and "referral for full assessment for NHS continuing healthcare is necessary". It remains to be seen what difference this will make to getting a resolution but at least after 3 years now I have the first sign that something may be happening.