stolen money help!!

katsclaws

Perhaps you could get a free half hour with a solicitor to get some advice

cavework

OP Please let us know the outcome ..I really want to know the end result on this one.
xxx

victory

carol53 wrote: »

VICTORY: haha i know this has more drama than eastenders x

Go and see a solicitor:D

meer53

I look after my MIL's finances, she is in a home with Dementia. She gets £150 a week state pension which includes Pension Credit and her nursing home fees are about £524 per month. Approx figures but she is left with about £79 a month spending money.

If the OP's gran was receiving £300 a week from another source, this is what needs to be looked into. Unless she has a huge private pension then i can't see how this can be explained. Isn't there a description on the PO statements against the credits ? If they happen to be some sort of benefit then there will be a huge amount to repay as she's been in the home for some time.

swampduck

Wow!! A real can of worms is opening here!!
Power of Attorney is a legal status/document and if I remember rightly when my aunt went into a nursing home my brother and sister set about applying to the Court of Protection etc to get it going (It had been set up years before by my aunt in case it should be needed). At any time any of the nephews and nieces could have asked to look at the paperwork and we were all given a copy of the POA.
Regarding the amount of care that had to be paid for - that varies from home to home and how much is paid depends on the kind of care required. Care for dementia patients is more expensive than general care and some care comes free - irrespective of how much the patient has in savings or pensions!!
But massaging the figures which is what appears to have been happening here is classed as benefit fraud and the POA executors could find themselves in real hot water.
Purely out of curiosity who paid the funeral expenses - if it was paid by the POA executors then that goes some of the way to clearing some of what was misappropiated!!

Swampy

Jojo_the_Tightfisted

Have either of them been in receipt of benefits?

If so, I'm sure the DWP will be interested to hear they've had an income of many thousands of pounds undeclared in the period.

JIL

The whole family will not be accountable for any overpayment.
The poa in effect takes over the legal aspect of that persons finance and as such if your grans premium bonds had come up, the poa would have been responsible for informing the DWP. Something is very wrong here. There is no way your nans income would have been so high. It would have been means tested to leave her with the pocket money and the rest would have been swallowed up in fees.
My guess is the DLA did not stop and aunty took advantage.
Phone up the DWP say you have a relative going into that home and ask how much they would get. And how its worked out. Dont get into specifics just an overall "how does this work" Good luck.
This explains funding quiet well
http://www.alzheimers.org.uk/site/scripts/documents_info.php?documentID=125

carol53_2

hi all me again...
well on the PO statements the ref is DWP... thats why mam rang them up, i know £70 of it was DLA and i think the rest was state pension, the nasty aunt that took the money was on benefits...
next step is defo to ring the DWP again and SS ,but i think there sick of us ringing as there really seem to be not that bothered. and keep saying the figure make sense.
the funeral was paid for by anne , out of insurance money.
on the statements she stopped taking the money in march, 2 moths before nana died, in march nana had a bad turn and we didnt think she was gonna make it so im presuming anne got scared as the reality was that the money situation was gonna crop up soon... so she stopped it.

carol53_2

oh forgot to say, jean rang last night i told her what everyones been saying, and her hsuband is in a union at work and apparently they can provide a solicitor for them so hopefully we will get some where soon. I will keep u all updated
enjoy your weekend...

itsmecathy

Hi there :beer:

Maybe your gran was in receipt of the high rate mobility component of dla, which would have given her a weekly income of £54.05 per week.IIRC this would not have been taken into account by social services when calculating her contribution to the care home. It should though have been used my the POA for her benefit and not pocketed. Would this amount plus the £23 personal allowance that should have been available for your gran account for the amounts your aunt admits to withdraing?

I would suggest that you inform the dwp that she was in a care home, if she as still claiming care component of dla they will look to reclaim this from the estate - not sure how! I would also phone the OPG and advise of your concerns that the poa was not acting in your grans best interest. They may then investigate. Finally I would speak to social services, inform them of your concerns, ask them to look whether the yearly review which should have happened for your gran addressed whether her personal allowance and possibly her dla mobility component were being used properly for her benefit.