Care home top up fees - worried about the cost

securityguy

"My Parents have been told that they must pay the top up fees"

That is simply not true. They have no obligation to pay for anyone other than themselves.

Morglin

SS are doing their usual of trying it on. They try to save on their budgets, and if they can find a gullible relative, then so much the better.

Granny has to give them all she's getting bar £23 - the rest is topped up by SS or the NHS, depending on what level of care will be needed.

Tell them 'no' and mean it.

Lin

Gavin83

Mojisola wrote: »

I would think very carefully about this. The responsibility is similar to being a guarantor for a debt - your parents will have to pay whatever the top-up fee is for as long as your Gran lives. It certainly won't stay at £20 a week and they could find it very difficult when they only have pensions as income.

What happens if one of your parents died before Gran - the survivor would be left trying to pay a top-up fee out of a single pension!

If the home your Gran gets put in isn't good - keep kicking up a fuss until it improves or SS move her somewhere else.

Thats not quite true. The top up fee can change and likely will increase over time but they can choose to stop paying it if they wish, there is no obligation to. However, should they do so she'll be required to move to a home that does accept the council rate, the council won't suddenly start paying it instead.

Believe me, elderly people do not move very well, a move to an alternative home could very well kill her so this is a last resort.

It would be a good idea to ask the council for a list of homes that accept their standard rate, there will certainly be some options.

Lovelyjoolz

Thanks everyone, for your responses. I'm not surprised that the Social Worker is telling fibs but the fact that Age Concern also told us that yes, we do have to pay top up fees shocks me if it's not true!

I think we will tell the Social Worker that we cannot commit to paying the fees and see what she does then.

securityguy

"Age Concern also told us that yes, we do have to pay top up fees"

Are you _sure_ they said that? It seems odd that Age Concern said something so obviously untrue. The contention that children might have a legal liability for the costs incurred by their parents, or indeed vice versa, is so obviously crazy that no-one can seriously believe it. Are you sure Age Concern didn't say "if you want her in this particular home, and the fees are higher than the council's standard rate, then either you or someone else has to fund it because the council certainly won't?"

Does your grandmother have a house that can be sold?

claire16c

There is no way your parents are liable for the fees. What a load of rubbish.

Mojisola

Gavin83 wrote: »

Thats not quite true. The top up fee can change and likely will increase over time but they can choose to stop paying it if they wish, there is no obligation to. However, should they do so she'll be required to move to a home that does accept the council rate, the council won't suddenly start paying it instead.

The forms that our council pushed in front of me quite clearly said that I would be liable for any increase in the top-up fees. The contract was open-ended - it wasn't time-limited or have a renewal date. Once committed, I would have been responsible until Dad died.

securityguy

Mojisola wrote: »

The forms that our council pushed in front of me quite clearly said that I would be liable for any increase in the top-up fees. The contract was open-ended - it wasn't time-limited or have a renewal date. Once committed, I would have been responsible until Dad died.

And what would have happened if you refused, or were unable to pay? There's a huge element of bluff to this sort of stuff. Such a contract would attract words like oppressive and unconscionable, and courts would start muttering about a requirement to obtain independent legal advice, before they would be willing to enforce it. It's also interesting to speculate just how they might actually enforce it.

Of course, the wise man would finesse the issue by simply refusing to sign such an instrument.

Mojisola

securityguy wrote: »

And what would have happened if you refused, or were unable to pay? There's a huge element of bluff to this sort of stuff. Such a contract would attract words like oppressive and unconscionable, and courts would start muttering about a requirement to obtain independent legal advice, before they would be willing to enforce it. It's also interesting to speculate just how they might actually enforce it.

Of course, the wise man would finesse the issue by simply refusing to sign such an instrument.

I don't know as I didn't sign. They were arguing that Dad couldn't pay the top-up fee because he was going to be on a deferred payment scheme - I argued that he was self-funding even if the payment was deferred and they agreed in the end.

We were glad there was money around to pay the extra in Dad's case. He only needed residential care at first and I couldn't have let him go to the one home in our area that cut their costs to fit the council's pay level.

You could see from the moment you walked in the home just how they were keeping costs down - I felt really sorry for the residents.

Goldiegirl

My mum had dementia and had to go into a home.


The council gave me a list of suitable care homes , and I selected one from their list which I felt was most suitable for her.


For the first couple of months my mum paid her own fees, as she had sufficient in savings.When her savings fell to the cut off point (it was about £23000, then, not sure what it is now), she became local authority funded She paid what she could afford which was basically the amount of her monthly pension income. and the social services department paid the rest.


There was never any suggestion that I would pay on her behalf. If there had been this suggestion I would have declined their request. It is the responsibility of the person in the care home to pay their way - not the responsibility of the family.


I've said it before and I'll say it again. My mums social services department were brilliant. I was obviously lucky, because I find it quite eye opening the way some social services departments seem to carry on