Guidance needed for Mum diagnosed with Dementia

jasonhenley

Hi all
Apologies if this has been asked, I’ve done a search but everything is a bit over whelming at the moment. 

My Mum of 78 has just been diagnosed with Dementia. She owns her house and has c£60k in assets. She’s at an early stage of this though and can make her own decisions. I am proceeding with LPOA for both health and wealth. 

Question is, can someone point me in the right direction to what is best to do regarding her house and assets. Eventually she will need care, but was advised by a local carer to arrange for assets to be sorted. 

Any advice if what’s best would be great. 

Thanks

pramsay13

What do you mean by assets to be sorted?
Proceeding with the power of attorney is crucial as it is well overdue, but not sure there is anything else to be done at this stage. 
Are her health needs being met in her own house currently?

badmemory

I do hope the carer was not suggesting that her assets should be reduced.  POAs are as already said absolutely vital or you could find an LA nominee handling them with a fee with you having no say at all in any outcome.  Apply for all possible, attendance allowance should help ease some financial strain of carers.  Try to get her involved in anything which stimulates ie not sitting in front of the TV 24/7.  The longer she stays out of a care home the better quality of life hopefully.

If she needs to go in a care home some LAs go back many years to make sure deprivation of assets does not come into play.

elsien

Presumably the house she will carry on living in.

 It’s not inevitable that she will end up in residential care, but if she does then, yes, her assets will need to be used to pay for it.
considering trying to get rid of them now, in order to avoid care home fees in the future, it’s just going to cause a world of pain further down the line. Assets give choices that otherwise people may not have

Just support her to carry on managing her money as she always has done.  . 

Teapot55

You may already know this:

‘ There are 2 types of LPA:

• health and welfare
• property and financial affairs

You can choose to make one type or both’. 

See https://www.gov.uk/power-of-attorney 

Green_hopeful

You may be able to get care in her own home when she starts to need more help. My mother in law stayed in her own home until a few weeks before she died. Care at home was much less money than in the care home. She was also able to get attendance allowance which meant she didn’t have to pay council tax. Not massive amounts of money but it all helps. We tried to keep her social life good as well so she had a social visit from the carers in the afternoon where they took her out for a walk and some tea and cake. We also took her out a fair amount. We thought even if she didn’t remember she enjoyed it in the moment. 

Keep_pedalling

You are doing the most important thing by getting the LPAs sorted. I have no idea what there care worker was referring to, but nothing needs doing as far as the house is concerned, and you just need to make sure her savings are getting a decent rate if interest. 

bouicca21

As @Green_hopeful says, organising care at home can keep her out of a home for a long time (in my mum’s case, several years).  Don’t just think in terms of carers, there are day centres, lunch clubs, and you can organise meals on wheels, cleaners, gardeners and people who will visit and chat.  A lock box for the keys so that the carers can get into the house without needing her to get to the door will be useful if there are mobility issues.

Keep_pedalling

If you have not already done it look at applying for attendance allowance. It is not means tested and can be used to help pay for some of the things suggested in the above post.

Green_hopeful

Yes we had a cleaner and gardener. My mum found a seniors club through church was really good. We also found a dementia club at some sheltered accommodation that took outside people. Unfortunately they thought she was too poorly to go. We live locally so could do a lot of organising and banking etc.