Loan via Deferred Payment Scheme re Care Act

Bellabella_2

I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this, but....

I'm just wondering if anyone has, or knows someone who has, applied for a loan via the Deferred Payment Scheme, which is an aspect of the Care Act, and been refused or even just had their application knocked back at the start. Basically, you can borrow money to pay care home fees against the value of your property for a low interest rate. Local Authorities are legally obliged to give these loans to anyone who qualifies.

longjohnjohnson

Presumably, they think they don't qualify, and presumably, they've given a reason for knocking them back?

Bellabella_2

If applications aren't accepted/processed, it's not possible to know whether the applicant is eligible or not. 

LAs are legally obliged to give loans to those who qualify. Ergo they are legally obliged to accept applications. 

longjohnjohnson

Bellabella_2 said:

If applications aren't accepted/processed, it's not possible to know whether the applicant is eligible or not. 

LAs are legally obliged to give loans to those who qualify. Ergo they are legally obliged to accept applications. 

You're being very evasive.

Just what exactly has gone on here?

Bellabella_2

Not being evasive. I asked a question. Clearly, you aren't able to answer. So.... 

kaMelo

Are you saying the local authority are refusing to acknowledge an application or they have looked into it and said they don't qualify?

sourcrates

Bellabella_2 said:

I'm not sure if this is the right section to post this, but....

I'm just wondering if anyone has, or knows someone who has, applied for a loan via the Deferred Payment Scheme, which is an aspect of the Care Act, and been refused or even just had their application knocked back at the start. Basically, you can borrow money to pay care home fees against the value of your property for a low interest rate. Local Authorities are legally obliged to give these loans to anyone who qualifies.

Hi,

You are mis-understanding how a deferred payment arrangement works.

You do not get a loan as such, under a deferred payment agreement, the council will pay your care home fees and secure the loan against your property.

You can delay repaying the loan until you choose to sell your home or until after your death.

So no money changes hands, like with a conventional loan, they simply put a charge on the property used as collateral, and the loan is repaid from the proceeds of the eventual sale.

I have such an agreement currently with our local council, with regards to my brothers house.

Bellabella_2

Social services did not process an application for a loan under the DPS, despite 3 reminders (2 emails ignored). After 2 months of waiting anxiously, I called the finance dept, and no application had been forwarded to them, as it should have been, so I requested one asap. First thing the next morning, a member of the financial assessment team called me to try and persuade me not to apply for a loan as they were taking 6 months to process and were often unsuccessful. He said better to apply for a bank loan (not easy in your 80s). I complained informally about the delay and the (bizarre) phone call, was assured by a manager he'd investigate, then heard nothing, despite sending two (again ignored) emails politely asking for an update. As under the Care Act LAs are legally obliged to give loans to those who qualify, I would have thought they were legally obliged to accept applications, as how would they know who did or didn't qualify without accepting the application and processing it. In the end, we didn't qualify, but the two month delay while the application was ignored had a huge negative impact in various ways. I 'really' can't go into more detail here. I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a similar experience. Is this a one off screw up, or are LAs maybe trying to avoid giving out these loans? If so, why? 

sourcrates

I don`t know if different councils operate different policies on this, but ERYC simply informally agreed to the arrangement in my case. 

Bellabella_2

ps. I'm looking for info here, not a fight; I find replies here a bit adversarial at times. The stress associated with the above situation, on top of two very tough years, has impacted on my mental health. Positive contributions very welcome.  

Bellabella_2

sourcrates said:

I don`t know if different councils operate different policies on this, but ERYC simply informally agreed to the arrangement in my case. 

Understand if you don't want to give more details, but I am curious.... Under the Deferred Payment Scheme aspect of the Care Act, there would be a financial assessment to ascertain whether the applicant qualified for a loan (got to have under 23,500k in liquid assets I think), then a first charge would be put on the property as a guarantee that any money loaned for care home fees could be recouped once the property was sold (a bit like equity release). All LAs should now be abiding by this, though I 'think' they're allowed to offer their own scheme if it's better. Are you saying that ERYC informally agreed to loan money for care home fees with no guarantee of getting it back or maybe they asked for something else, something less complicated, like a solicitor's letter? (This is different to funding btw, which is a whole other minefield).