Check your bills! (Social/Support Workers)

aliasojo

I realise this type of issue may only interest or affect a small minority, but I felt it was worth highlighting none the less.

There are various groups of people who may have to pay to obtain specialised services through their local Councils, like care or support packages etc.

We fall into one of these categories as my eldest son has a Support Worker who is employed to befriend people like my son and to help them live their lives more fully. They are usually allocated on an hourly basis and in the case of my son, he sees his Support Worker for 4 hours every 2 weeks. Not exactly a lot, but better than nothing, and it enables my son to feel independent from me for a while and he can feel 'cool' when he's down at the Bowling Alley or at the pictures etc. (Not that I'm not cool you understand but a 22 year old feels differently and gets fed up being with his Mum all the time. )

Anyway, we have to pay a certain amount towards this service. The charges are on a sliding scale depending on the income of the person concerned. We receive monthly bills, usually for 8 hours of Support time.

At first, I just paid whenever a bill came in, but recently I've been feeling that the hours billed for were not actually tallying with the hours my son went out. After keeping note in a diary of days and dates when my son went out, it would seem that the Support Worker has been submitting hour sheets for times when he hasn't actually done anything.

It's being looked into at present and the appropriate Council department has been very helpful and sympathetic.

If anyone is in a similar circumstance, it may be worth checking you are paying the correct amount. Although I regularly check credit card statements/phone bills/shopping receipts etc, I wrongly assumed that there wouldn't be any problem with a Council Support bill so I paid up without checking.

I was told off the record by someone that some (and I stress that this may not be the case with my Son's Support Worker) people will take advantage as they think a disabled person would be easy to try it on with. Many mentally disabled people handle their own budgets albeit with some help and they are therefore very vulnerable.

I know that if my Son was dealing with his own affairs, he would have been oblivious to the discrepancies and would have paid up as normal.

If any of your family members are in a situation where they have to pay for services, please do check that all is as it should be.



Rush: If you're reading this........I have another candidate for your 17 acres.

April2

If the worker has been completing timesheets or other documents falsely, it is false accounting - a criminal offence under the Theft Act 1968.