Threatening letter from Council

Gemm83

Thankyou for all your advice. I will let her know 😊

bradders1983

Dont think you mum will be happy when she finds out she has to hand the grand back 🙈

Gemm83

bradders1983 said:

Dont think you will be posting smiley faces when you have to hand the grand back 🙈

I want my mum to do the right thing. If it means giving it back I will. Truth be told I'd rather have my nan back. It also sticks in the throat due to the way that the council handled the whole situation at the time and the level of "care" she received at the place! 

Pollycat

Is the £6.5k bill  the full rate for respite?If your Nan had no property and only £5k in savings, would she have been liable to pay for respite?
I'm not home and on my phone so can't check properly but I think when my Mum went into respite she didn't pay the full amount, she was also a council tenant and the council pay the full cost of her care (they take her pensions and benefits from her except for a small amount each week).
Don't automatically believe that the council are correct.
Sorry for your loss.

[Deleted User]

 Agree with the poster above. They've likely made an error somewhere. If she only had £5k in savings and no property likely they would pay 100% of her care. 

daveyjp

_shel said:

 Agree with the poster above. They've likely made an error somewhere. If she only had £5k in savings and no property likely they would pay 100% of her care. 

Councils don't have access to everyone's financial details so won't be aware how much money she had.

As others have said its a claim on the estate and needs dealing with correctly.

Grumpy_chap

Comments by others about the distribution of the estate, nothing further to add.

However, what is the £6.5k for?  As others suggest, if your Nan had no assets or value, then the cost of the £6.5k may not be chargeable to her.

Also, she cannot accrue further liability once she passed on.  That was an issue with my wife's grandmother.  After she passed away, the care home tried to claim costs for moving out and a void period between her Nan dying and the home having the room cleaned etc ready for the next resident.  All-in-all, the claim was for £19k and the whole lot got wiped on the basis that a deceased person cannot accrue further debts.

Gemm83

Pollycat said:

Is the £6.5k bill  the full rate for respite?If your Nan had no property and only £5k in savings, would she have been liable to pay for respite?
I'm not home and on my phone so can't check properly but I think when my Mum went into respite she didn't pay the full amount, she was also a council tenant and the council pay the full cost of her care (they take her pensions and benefits from her except for a small amount each week).
Don't automatically believe that the council are correct.
Sorry for your loss.

Council tenant all her life. When she went into care she had exactly the same thing. Pension and benefits taken except for small amount. 

She was there for 3 years and over the time she needed bits and bobs that needed to be paid for so at the end it's left with £5k.

Think mum is just upset that her last pennies are going to have to go to the council who were absolutely appaling throughout the whole episode. 

EssJayD

How long was she in respite for?  And was it definitely respite or more like an assessment type thing?

Do you have a breakdown of the dates etc?  I'm 99.9% certain from memory tat there is a certain period thats 'free' whilst care needs are assessed.  When was the financial assessment done, do you know?

Don't worry about this too much at this stage.  We got a similar letter and when I went back to them telling them not to be silly sending me something like that without a breakdown of fees outlining exactly why that amount was owed and why they were coming to me with it 2 years after the event within 2 weeks I got a letter of apology for the "clerical error".

Gemm83

EssJayD said:

How long was she in respite for?  And was it definitely respite or more like an assessment type thing?

Do you have a breakdown of the dates etc?  I'm 99.9% certain from memory tat there is a certain period thats 'free' whilst care needs are assessed.  When was the financial assessment done, do you know?

Don't worry about this too much at this stage.  We got a similar letter and when I went back to them telling them not to be silly sending me something like that without a breakdown of fees outlining exactly why that amount was owed and why they were coming to me with it 2 years after the event within 2 weeks I got a letter of apology for the "clerical error".

She had two periods. One was on discharge from hospital. The second was after the social worker deemed her safe to go back to her independent flat and was caught by a carer sticking cutlery in her toaster. This was over the space of 9 months.

It's officially a respite home but they put her in there because they didn't know what to do with her. She had a rare form of dementia and it took a while to get a proper diagnosis.