Help for Gran

Becles

My Gran is in her 80's. A few years ago she sold her house and moved into a sheltered accomodation flat. It was a 3 bed house with gardens and just too big for her to manage, and it was also in an area that had gone downhill so she was scared going out and was targetted by conmen saying work needed doing on the house.

Recently she's developed dementia and is causing us some concern. She's been prescribed tablets for it but she keeps forgetting to take them, so my Mam has to travel through daily to make sure she takes them. She keeps trying to leave the complex at odd times, and keeps packing random items in carrier bags to take with her. We are worried about her going out at night in the dark. She's also saying things that never happened - like a leak developed on the toilet that wet the bathroom carpet, but she claimed some children had been in messing about in the bath and throwing water everywhere.

We're waiting for an appointment with a hospital consultant, and a nurse has assessed her last week and will be contacting social services after the holiday weekend. It seems likely that they will recommend that she goes into a residential home so there are people to keep an eye on her 24/7, and make sure she eats, takes her tablets etc.

There is a home nearby where her friend lives and she seems keen on going there, which is good news as we don't want her going anywhere where she would be unhappy.

How would we stand money wise? She has savings left from when she sold her house, but it won't last forever. We realise she'll have to pay her own fees until her savings run out.

Can she go into the home she likes, then would the state pay her bills once her savings run out? We'd rather just have her move into one place and stay there, rather than have to move her again when her savings run out.

Also is there anything else either Gran or my Mam is entitled to, to help with looking after her in the mean time?

healy

I would think it is worthwhile to put a claim in for Attendance Allowance, this will not affect any savings that she has as it is not means tested. It also may be helpful to get the help of a Welfare Rights Officer to fill out the form, they can be found at the CAB, Local Council or Disability Organisations.

margaretclare

healy wrote: »

I would think it is worthwhile to put a claim in for Attendance Allowance, this will not affect any savings that she has as it is not means tested. It also may be helpful to get the help of a Welfare Rights Officer to fill out the form, they can be found at the CAB, Local Council or Disability Organisations.

Yes, this is a good idea. Have a look in the phone book/Yellow Pages locally to see if there's an Old People's Advocacy Service.

Yes, attendance allowance is very worthwhile - top rate is £62.50 a week, non-taxable and non-means-testable. http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/DisabledPeople/FinancialSupport/DG_10012425

It might also be a good idea to look into something called an 'Immediate Needs Annuity' - EdInvestor knows all about these.

HTH

Margaret

Becles

New development:

I told my Mam about the annuity, but she has now told me that herself and her brother decided a couple of years ago that it was daft for Gran to keep all the money from the house in a savings account. The explained this to Gran, so she split the money between them and it's been spent.

pippa_r

When my Gran reached a point where she needed help and I didn't know where to turn, I contacted Age Concern. They were excellent. They sent a lady round to discuss her options, offer advice on benefits and help fill out relevent forms.

degz

Totally agree with pippa_r. Age Concern should be able to help. Many have links with the local Pension Service who use Age Concern premises to hold free consultations with people, they are brilliant. The pension service can also do home visits (the pension service) So contact the Age Concern local to your gran, many have their own websites, they are autonomous to Age Concern England but if you go to https://www.ageconcern.org.uk you can search by town, postcode for local branches. Some Age Concerns have benefits officers or advocacy workers but it all depends on funding if they have them or not, but they should be the best people to help.