Care home fees – is Mum's estate entitled to a refund?

Silverladymj

My mother has been in Nursing Home due to dementia for 3 years, she was self- funded for the 1st 2 years & qualified for assistance from Social services from November 2019 due to her capital falling below the threshold of £23,250 (it was actually £18,000 in November).  I am her POA & requested a review of this date & after nearly a years delay (due to the pandemic) in November 2020 they accepted that it had fallen below the threshold a month earlier  & agreed to backdate the assistance 4 weeks,  to October 2019. The problem now is that  I had already paid her Nursing Home full fees of £1311 per week, for those 4 weeks, but now her Client contribution was only £257 per week. When I spoke to the home about the backdated assistance, in December 2020 they said there wouldn’t be any fees to pay for a while as Mums account was in credit (but they could not tell me by how much at that point). A few weeks later, sadly Mum passed away with Covid . As the executer of her will I asked the home to send me a cheque for the credit on her account. I expected this to be the difference between the full fees paid & the client contribution (for the 4 weeks backdated by Social service), minus the months charges up till when she died which I had not been asked to pay due to the credit. After much chasing a final account was received in May 2021, saying nothing was due, but £150 was owed to them, but they would waive this due to their delay! I could not believe it and asked to see all their calculations. So - On the account they have given a credit for the amount paid to them by Social services for the 4 weeks they backdated assistance, then they have added on a charge for the client contribution that would have been payable for this period, making a net credit of about £600, which is wiped out by the final months fees for December 2020!

 I have telephoned them  for an explanation and they are adamant that the account & credit have been calculated correctly, I said “you have charged me twice for the same period, both at full fees  &  the client contribution”, they disagreed. It almost seems like a creative bit of accounting so that they don’t have to give me any money back! I am not sure where to go next with this issue, or who is in the right?

Further info - Mum was assessed for NHS funded care in the Autumn but did not qualify. Our local authorities limit for care homes £590.  We have never agreed to pay any  “top up” fees and could not afford to, being on a small pension.

Marcon

Silverladymj said:

My mother has been in Nursing Home due to dementia for 3 years, she was self- funded for the 1st 2 years & qualified for assistance from Social services from November 2019 due to her capital falling below the threshold of £23,250 (it was actually £18,000 in November).  I am her POA & requested a review of this date & after nearly a years delay (due to the pandemic) in November 2020 they accepted that it had fallen below the threshold a month earlier  & agreed to backdate the assistance 4 weeks,  to October 2019. The problem now is that  I had already paid her Nursing Home full fees of £1311 per week, for those 4 weeks, but now her Client contribution was only £257 per week. When I spoke to the home about the backdated assistance, in December 2020 they said there wouldn’t be any fees to pay for a while as Mums account was in credit (but they could not tell me by how much at that point). A few weeks later, sadly Mum passed away with Covid . As the executer of her will I asked the home to send me a cheque for the credit on her account. I expected this to be the difference between the full fees paid & the client contribution (for the 4 weeks backdated by Social service), minus the months charges up till when she died which I had not been asked to pay due to the credit. After much chasing a final account was received in May 2021, saying nothing was due, but £150 was owed to them, but they would waive this due to their delay! I could not believe it and asked to see all their calculations. So - On the account they have given a credit for the amount paid to them by Social services for the 4 weeks they backdated assistance, then they have added on a charge for the client contribution that would have been payable for this period, making a net credit of about £600, which is wiped out by the final months fees for December 2020!

 I have telephoned them  for an explanation and they are adamant that the account & credit have been calculated correctly, I said “you have charged me twice for the same period, both at full fees  &  the client contribution”, they disagreed. It almost seems like a creative bit of accounting so that they don’t have to give me any money back! I am not sure where to go next with this issue, or who is in the right?

Further info - Mum was assessed for NHS funded care in the Autumn but did not qualify. Our local authorities limit for care homes £590.  We have never agreed to pay any  “top up” fees and could not afford to, being on a small pension.

What a misery for you having to deal with this on top of your mum's death.

Please could you clarify one thing? If the fees were £1311 per week, the Council paid a maximum of £590 and your mum's contribution was £257, how was the balance of £464 per week funded? Could that be clouding the issue in some way?

sheramber

  can you copy the account details here so it will be clearer who paid what.
If your council's payment was short of the care home fees then, unless you topped it up she would not be able to stay there.

Silverladymj

Just to clarify, Mum was moved to a cheaper room when she started to receive assistance, she did not have to move out as all the nursing homes in my area (East Sussex) are really expensive & they are all at least £1000 per week!. No "top up" fees were payable, we could not afford that.   Her client contribution for the 1st 4 weeks was £257.07 pw, paid to nursing home, Social services paid £333.52 pw, so home get £590.57 pw, plus the nursing contribution from the NHS (not sure what that is, but its not included in calcs anyway). On the account they have given me a credit for £1572.31 (4 x £333.52), and a deduction of £1028.28 (4 x £257.07). Account shows full fees paid up until 17 November 2019, so there is an overlap where I have paid full fees already. Thank you for any help you can provide.