Who pays for social care ?

margaretclare

ERICS_MUM wrote: »

Speak to Adult Care at your council. They will do an assessment of his income, savings etc and necessary outgoings and calculate how much they will contribute toward home care, which they can arrange for you via a registered healthcare company. Well at least that's how it went for my Mum. They sent her a bill every month for the excess payment over and above their contribution.

You can also get equipment that would help your elderly relative. Mum had a stool for in her shower and another for in front of her basin. Also a frame to fit over the toilet seat to make it higher and provide grip handles so she could sit down and stand up more easily. We bought these from a mobility shop. We also got her one of those alert pendants that she wore round her neck. If she had a fall or felt ill when we weren't there, she pressed the button and help would arrive.

During her last few months we arranged meals on wheels for lunchtimes, worked out about £5 a day for 2 courses and Mum was billed monthly.

We were very satisfied with the support we received and were happy to pay for these things. In my opinion there is no way any council can afford to provide that complete service to everyone that needs it without charging for it.

This is excellent advice, rooted in experience.

I still think the OP has not given enough detail to enable anyone to make a reasonable response. It's like dragging teeth! We now know that the OP is disabled and his wife is his carer. It's obviously very unfair - and physically impossible - for her to become carer to another person, with different but difficult needs. We now know that the OAP referred to (horrible term - how about senior citizen?) is male and is recently bereaved. He needs help with washing. Washing himself, or washing clothes? Not specified.

Soon after bereavement is not always the best time to make a major decision like change of home. Moving in with relatives does not always work. There can be friction in a multi-generation household.

The OP seems mainly focused on the issue of money and, by inference, doesn't want 'Them' asking him for money. Well, they won't. People are expected to pay for themselves, as far as their resources allow.

I would suggest that the elderly relative should, as a matter of urgency, apply for Attendance Allowance. This is money designed to help pay for personal care including washing of self.

The aids and appliances EricsMum suggests may be difficult or inconvenient to install in someone else's home, although I agree they can be a godsend in the right place.

50Twuncle

margaretclare wrote: »

This is excellent advice, rooted in experience.

I still think the OP has not given enough detail to enable anyone to make a reasonable response. It's like dragging teeth! We now know that the OP is disabled and his wife is his carer. It's obviously very unfair - and physically impossible - for her to become carer to another person, with different but difficult needs. We now know that the OAP referred to (horrible term - how about senior citizen?) is male and is recently bereaved. He needs help with washing. Washing himself, or washing clothes? Not specified.

Soon after bereavement is not always the best time to make a major decision like change of home. Moving in with relatives does not always work. There can be friction in a multi-generation household.

The OP seems mainly focused on the issue of money and, by inference, doesn't want 'Them' asking him for money. Well, they won't. People are expected to pay for themselves, as far as their resources allow.

I would suggest that the elderly relative should, as a matter of urgency, apply for Attendance Allowance. This is money designed to help pay for personal care including washing of self.

The aids and appliances EricsMum suggests may be difficult or inconvenient to install in someone else's home, although I agree they can be a godsend in the right place.

Thanks for the advice - I believe that he is already claiming AA
Will check though
By "washing" - I meant "self" - he can hardly stand - but then neither can I for too long !

elsien

If you are looking to have the local authority assessing support needs and assessing finances to see who pays for this, then your relative should request a Care Act assessment. He can have advocacy support for this if he would have substantial difficulty in being involved in the process for any reason. This can also look at whether he can be supported to stay at home if this is what he prefers, at least in the short term, while he has time to come to terms with his bereavement and consider his longer term options.

margaretclare

50Twuncle wrote: »

Thanks for the advice - I believe that he is already claiming AA
Will check though
By "washing" - I meant "self" - he can hardly stand - but then neither can I for too long !

Thanks for the clarification.

If he can't stand to wash himself is it not possible for him to sit down to do it?

We recently had this when DH was at home awaiting the surgery which he's had on 4th Feb. He had a damn great splint on his leg, not allowed to bend the knee, so couldn't even get into our walk-in shower and sit on the drop-down seat therein. Couldn't get the splint wet, you see!

Solution was for him to sit on a towel on top of the loo and wash in the hand-basin opposite. I helped by washing his back.

As EricsMum says, there are all kinds of aids to help with these routine tasks. A wipeable seat for the bathroom so he can wash and have a shave?

ERICS_MUM

I should have mentioned in my earlier post that equipment such as the extra high toilet seat and stool for in front of the bathroom basin can be free of VAT with proof that it's for a disabled person (I can't remember what proof is needed but it's not onerous).

My Mum had a walking trolley with wheels rather than one of those 'zimmer frames' that you have to lift to move it forward. It had a basket type thing fixed to the handlebars so she could carry things from room to room. We bought her a gadget for washing her feet - a very narrow sponge on a long stick which meant she could have a scrub, even between her toes, without having to bend down. And a long handled shoe horn so she could put her shoes on without bending. We also bought her a strong magnifying glass so she could read the newspaper !

We found that practical help and gadgets is very important - it helped Mum live a normal and comfy life despite her restrictions.

There are some very good mail-order and on-line catalogues selling living aids for disabled people. It's worth studying them for ideas on what would suit the individual. You need to be careful not to go over board, there's a lot of 'junk' that would probably end up gathering dust in a cupboard !

Mum paid for a lot of her equipment from her Attendance Allowance. It also covered the cost of a mobile hairdresser to go to her flat -£10 for a cut and dry every 6 weeks. She also had a private chiropodist go round every month to look after her feet, £25 per visit.

If your relative has to take a lot of medications, Boots can offer a free service whereby they manage repeat prescriptions direct with the GP and sort the pills into blister packs divided by date and time of day. They delivered 4 packs to Mum every 4 weeks. This meant we didn't have to worry about Mum getting confused with all the pills, most looked alike and were tiny. I don't know if this service is available country-wide or if we were lucky with our main branch.

My brother, sister and I did most of the arranging and buying of this stuff, with Mum paying from her Attendance Allowance. It would have been completely unrealistic to expect Social Services to do all this, just not feasible.

Good luck !

George382

Local authority Adult Services will do a needs assessment, not just of person moving in but also needs of carers needs. Will also assess him (not you)financially re contribution towards home care costs if home care an option. Threshold at which contributions required is quite low. Another option that may be offered is a personal budget, for him to use to purchase care/support in a way that best suits him. Finally OT assessment will determine what physical aids can be supplied to provide support. Although you can buy some (vat free) it is best to have an assessment to take account of height, weight etc!

lindos90

Hope someone can advise please. My relative has been in a dual registered care home for several years. Initially as a residential placement. Paid for by a combination of pension, LA funding and a 'top up' from me.

After a while the staff said they thought she needed nursing care, so asked for an assessment by the nhs. This was agreed, so although she stayed in the same room, and the nhs would pay some on top of the other payments to cover the additional cost of the nursing placement rather than residential.

The staff have now told me that my relative has been assessed for 'fast tracking' funding. They say she can stay in the same bed, but more of the funding will come from the nhs.

I know she is quite poorly, but don't really know why they have asked for fast tracking. I thought that was for people who needed funding quickly to move into a nursing home bed, in this case she is already there, and being funded by pension, me, the LA and nhs.

Has anyone else had a relative that was already in a nursing home bed that has been assessed for fast tracking?

Moonmin87

Hello

I have read reams of information on care home top up fees and wondered if anyone else had been in the same position as me. Basically my elderly grandmother is deteriorating rapidly - she has heart failure and is on oxygen 24 hours a day. She can no longer stay in sheltered accommodation, so social services have assessed her and she'll be moving to a care home ASAP.

My issue is this: she is a very anxious 97 year old who I love dearly, and I want the rest of her days (which we really don't think will be many) to be happy and peaceful. The home they have identified for her is miles away, in a town where she knows nobody, and the other option is a tiny, dark little room with barely any daylight in our home town. She spends all day in her room at the moment and just wants to be there with her belongings around her.

There is a slightly bigger room with more daylight available but the top up is £120 per week, which we (her family) can't afford. I have a good understanding of why she can't pay this herself - the Local Authority are trying to protect their budget, BUT in this situation, where we are pretty sure she is slipping away, her sons and I are wrangling with whether she could make a financial gift to one of us which we could then use to pay the top up? We know that this could be viewed as deliberate deprivation of assets, so we're just trying to get our head around the consequences of this.

Before anyone jumps down my throat about this, she has £21,000 in savings, receives state pension, pension credit and attendance allowance - by my calculations if we were to do this, even if the LA deemed it deliberate deprivation of assets and based her means test on notional capital, she would still have enough money to pay for at least 3 years of top up fees. Remember she's 97, has heart failure and is recovering from pneumonia so 3 years would be a miracle.

I hope that you can understand where I'm coming from - I'm not trying to play the system to get more money out of the council (this wouldn't happen anyway), I'm just trying to do the best by my Grandmother. I don't see many options in front of me and trying to decide what to do this week has been an emotional rollercoaster, so please be kind!

Thanks.

SVFM

Deprivation of Assets, normally applies when the asset is not used by the person themselves but given away to others.
I don't see why the money would need to be given to anyone as a gift. If your nan has this £21,000 she should be able to pay the weekly top up amount from her savings for the better room. IMO she would not be depriving herself of assets, as the money would be spent on herself to give her a more comfortable standard of room/living.
If it was me I wouldn't hesitate to move her into a better room and pay for it out of her savings with her agreement of course). Hope you manage to arrange for a better room for her.

Keep_pedalling

This is not deprivation of assets, and that money certainly could be used to top up her choice of accommodation. In her situation I can’t think of a better use for it.