LA financial assessment - Charging rent to disabled adult daughter living at home?

Siketribe

HI, apologies that this is quite a long post but..............

We have a disabled daughter who has learning disability and behavioral problems. She has no independence and requires 24 hr care / supervision and this is going to be the case forever. She spent a period of time in a care setting but that has collapsed and now she is living back at home and with myself and my wife and will do for the forseeable future. Whilst in the residential setting, Lily did not receive the PIP element of her benefits.
Lilys care package currently is, one to one care 12hrs a day 7 days a week funded jointly by the local authority and health as she was awarded Continuing Health Care. She currently receives  High rate PIP and ESA.
As she has care funded by the LA she is subject to a financial assessment to determine how much she should contribute to her package of care from the benefits she receives.

As part of the financial assessment, we have to provide details of her outgoings which impacts on how much she is required to contribute weekly.

When her twin brother was still living at home and working he paid "keep" as a contribution to the cost of running the household - energy / food / water / etc.

The LA does not recognise "keep" when completing the financial assessment but would take into consideration rent, if a rental agreement were in place.

It is not realistic for her to live with us for years and years and not contribute to the running of the household but unless a rental agreement is in place then any contribution she makes is not taken into account when the LA does its financial assessment so therefore any assessment is made will not accurately reflect her outgoings.

Finally our daughter does not have the capacity to understand or sign a rental agreement.

My question is therefore - 

What are the options to ensure that she retains the appropriate amount of her benefits that properly reflect her outgoings including a contribution to to household bills /rent/keep.

Can I (dad) charge her rent and her appointee (mum) sign the agreement.

Any other advice or experience would be welcome.

Many thanks in advance 

The Sike_tribe

 

elsien

An appointee does not have legal authority to sign a tenancy on behalf of some-one who lacks capacity. That requires a deputyship or application to the court of protection,  neither of them cheap options. 

I’m not sure it would work anyway because then you would have all the other obligations of being a landlord? 

Food is not included in the financial assessment so she would be expected to pay for that anyway. She will be exempt from council tax. The house will be insured and maintained whether she is there or not. So that just leaves the utilities which she can still contribute towards as she had to be left with a minimum amount anyway? 

Unfortunately the system isn’t designed for people in your situation but you could maybe look at arguing a higher proportion of disability related expenses? 

Siketribe

elsien said:

An appointee does not have legal authority to sign a tenancy on behalf of some-one who lacks capacity. That requires a deputyship or application to the court of protection,  neither of them cheap options. 

I’m not sure it would work anyway because then you would have all the other obligations of being a landlord? 

Food is not included in the financial assessment so she would be expected to pay for that anyway. She will be exempt from council tax. The house will be insured and maintained whether she is there or not. So that just leaves the utilities which she can still contribute towards as she had to be left with a minimum amount anyway? 

Unfortunately the system isn’t designed for people in your situation but you could maybe look at arguing a higher proportion of disability related expenses? 

Thanks very much for the response. It pretty much answers my queries. We have submitted some evidence of increased bills etc. so we will see where that leads.
I had already considered that the rent thing might create more problems than it solved but I just wanted to be sure I wasn't missing anything.
Thanks again,
The Sike_tribe