Next steps...unpaid care home bill

Tryinghardtosave

Long story short, at the start of 2020 my mother went in to a nursing home. She suffered with dementia. At the time we were told that it would be covered by funding from covid budgets. My mother then passed away near the end of 2022.  Fast forward to now. I have recently received a bill from the council telling me that there is an outstanding care bill balance to be paid to them. The bottom of the letter asks for it to be settled within 14 days or to provide your reasons for non-payment in writing to the credit control team. 

When dealing with mums estate, we used the gov tell all service, informed the banks etc and once we had access to her funds we paid the few small bills and then split the estate between the 3 children - me being one of them.

Where do we stand on this, considering that her estate has now gone and there is nothing left. Do I simply write back to them informing them of this ?

I did initially deal with them when mum first went in to the care home, and I am assuming they are now asking me to settle the outstanding bill ? 

Appreciate any advice on this. 

elsien

Did your mum have a financial assessment at any point and for what period are they saying the bill is for?
Because if you’ve owed a bit whole time, she’s been in care, I would expect that they would have chased it up long before now.
Did your mum have capacity when she went into the care home and may she have signed a deferred payment agreement? Was there a power-of-attorney in place?
if I remember correctly, the Covid blue beds were short-term places so at some point, there should’ve been a long-term decision around your mother. Your mum could go home or not and that’s also the point at which funding assessments should have been carried out. 

I think probably the first thing I would do is send them a prove it letter clarifying exactly what is owed, when from and when any assessments were carried out/who with.

Tryinghardtosave

When mum originally went in, the council spoke to myself asking about her finances. All I knew was that she didn't have very much and I was not able to give them very specific information, only what I knew about. 
Her house prior to her going to the home was rented. She went to the nursing home after a period in hospital after having had a stroke and subsequently breaking her hip in a fall. It transpires that they wrote to myself at that address back in May 22 about the charge they have come up with after doing a financial assessment.  The charge is from June 22 until her death in October 22. They have now written to myself at my home address chasing this up. 

Ref44

Given that mum went into the home in 2019 there should have been a needs assessment carried out  and if she was staying in the home a financial assessment should have been done at that time. Soicial services tend to be very remiss in dealing with such things. Allowing you say mum didn't have much in assets at that time she may well have had her care costs covered. If she was claiming a pension then her bank balance would have increased over time and a contribution to costs would likely have been needed.

I would be asking the council for full detail of what happened with your mum. You can't do a Subject Access Request as she is dead. The East Riding of Yorkshire have what they call a Deceased Information Request which is effectively the same thing. Check your council's website for Data Protection which should tell you their procedure. . You want copies of all memo's assessments, reports emails letters etc in relation to your mums time in care. Armed with that info, you can then have an idea as to what has or has not happened. Doing a first? financial assessment in 2022 given mum went into a care home in 2019 is unacceptable.

Are you saying the council wrote to your mums old address (I presume she stopped renting it in 2019) in 2022 re her affairs?

If it transpires that mum did owe something for her care, the beneficiaries of her estate could find themeselves being chased by the council to cover the cost.

Savvy_Sue

I can only echo how appallingly slowly the wheels can grind in these situations: MiL was initially admitted for palliative care in 2022. After a year (and a marked improvement in some aspects of her health) there was an assessment of her care needs. It's only taken a further 8 months for us to be told that the NHS stopped paying for her care back in January, so they wanted to do a financial assessment. As it happens she'll be self-funding, but I have no idea how long it will be before they say what the weekly cost is (it depends on whether she's receiving a nursing care supplement) and what the backpayment is. 

And yes, we have asked from time to time what is going on, and been told not to worry about it! 

elsien

So there was a financial assessment but it was sent to her old address? 

Have you checked the figures to see if they are correct? Normally for anyone local authority funded any pension and other benefits would go towards the fees leaving her a £25(ish) a week allowance. So what happened with your mum’s money during that period - is that what was later distributed to the beneficiaries instead? 
It would be the responsibility of the executor to check for any outstanding debts before giving any money out. 

So first of all check  they’ve got their sums right.
You can also make a complaint to the council that you were misinformed, although you know that there was a financial assessment so not quite clear cut unless that is something you’ve only just found out. If you are unhappy with the response, you can then take it to the local government ombudsman. 

Then discuss with your fellow beneficiaries what is going to happen if they do still insist on the money, bearing in mind that the executors will be the ones that they go to first. Saying the money has gone isn’t going to cut it unless there’s a good reason.

What sort of sums are you talking about?

Tryinghardtosave

To answer a few questions

Early 2020 mum went in to care, some one from the council rang me about her finances, I was unable to give definitive info, but they told me she would be covered under covid funding. 
Mum passed in Oct 22, and I received a letter recently asking for 6k in care home fees. 
In about Feb 23, her estate was divided up to her beneficiaries. 
I then discovered that they did an assessment in May 22, and put a charge on from then until Nov 22 which totals a bit over 6k. 
hope this helps a bit more. 

ProbateNewbie

But Covid didn't happen until 2020, so how could they say they were funding your Mum from Covid budgets in early 2019? 🤔

Tryinghardtosave

my bad, yes, early 2020, as she didn't make 3 years in total in the care home. I will edit my previous posts. 
Thanks for noticing. 

elsien

I don't have anything else to add to my previous post about the options open to you. Mum's pension etc should have been going towards her care home fees so that is what you need to challenge if you feel that you were not correctly informed. 

Spendless

How much did Mum have in assets (eg cash in bank accounts etc since there wasn't a property) at the point she went into care because if it was less than £14, 250  than surely Mum wasn't required to contribute anyway.?

If it was more than that amount and Mum should have paid £6K then isn't worse case scenario that the beneficiaries are asked to pay back £2K each? Though I think the onus is in the executor/administrator of the estate to check if any bills are owed before distribution.