care home overpayment

satrdayboy_2

not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but if anyone wants to point me in right direction please do. My mother in law recently passed away and was living in a care home and paying to stay threre. My wife has just found out that a family member who was looking after her mothers finances forgot to inform local authority when her savings had dropped to £16000. So she has been paying to stay at the care home when she believes that the local authority should have been paying. Her question is can these fees be reclaimed. Thanks

pmlindyloo

satrdayboy wrote: »

not sure if this is the right forum for this question, but if anyone wants to point me in right direction please do. My mother in law recently passed away and was living in a care home and paying to stay threre. My wife has just found out that a family member who was looking after her mothers finances forgot to inform local authority when her savings had dropped to £16000. So she has been paying to stay at the care home when she believes that the local authority should have been paying. Her question is can these fees be reclaimed. Thanks

Sorry but you are getting a bit confused about the savings limit for benefits and the savings limit for care home fees.

For care home fees any capital under £14250 and social services (local authority) would contribute.

For any capital between £14250 and £23250 there is a sliding scale.

Over £23250 and the person is fully self funding.

http://www.ageuk.org.uk/Documents/EN-GB/Factsheets/FS10_Paying_for_permanent_residential_care_fcs.pdf?dtrk=true

The other thing to consider is that everyone contributes for their care regardless of whether they have any savings/capital. They do this by using their pension (s) (minus about £25 a week for personal expenses)so your MIL's bank statement should show her pension going in and then a contribution towards the care home fees going out. You MIL should have received an invoice/receipt from the care home for her fees.

It is complicated!

The best thing you can do is gather together her bank statements (and any other paperwork concerning her savings) and speak to the LA saying that you are concerned that everything is in order. The LA should be happy to look at the paperwork (especially if they think your MIL owed them!) and hopefully deal with it all.

If it is found that your MIL has been paying more than she should then I do not know if they would backdate because of failure to inform - sorry.

And just to add, the person doing this (although I said 'you') should be the executor of the estate.

If your MIL owned a property then this will make things even more complicated.

Good luck!

satrdayboy_2

Thanks for your help pmlindyloo, its up to my wife and her sisters if they want to pursue, downloaded the document, so she can read it herself. Thanks again