Next steps...unpaid care home bill

BooJewels

@elsien has just said what I was going to post - that you raise all of those points in writing - especially the length of time it has taken.  I'd also ask for a breakdown of exactly how they calculated the sum they're billing you for - if that wasn't already sent with this latest letter.  It'll almost certainly be unfathomable when they do.

But I'm not that surprised either.  My father died in care in 2020 during the first big lockdown - he'd been there a few months and was self funding.  But as his medical needs had changed, they then looked at continuous health care funding and he was undergoing assessments for that when lockdown stopped such meetings, so it never got sorted before he died. After some sort of post-Covid audit, they revisited his case and said they'd review it retrospectively - and should he have been entitled to that funding, they'll reimburse the estate, as long as I can prove what was paid for his care. But that was almost 2 years ago now and we were told it could take up to 3 years - such reviews are done by a different authority.  Thankfully I'm not holding my breath and don't actually expect to get anything. So they're certainly not in any hurry when they might have to part with money.

I'd certainly suggest - if you do have to end up paying for these fees - that you do so in instalments. My Mum had been in the same care home a little earlier and Dad was run ragged by the assorted funding assessments for her care, they were constantly reworking it and sending great wedges of calculations to him.  He got a final corrected bill after she died and in a fit of pique Dad told them that as it had taken them 18 months to get the sums right, he'd spend the same length of time paying it back, so please work out a payment plan accordingly. So he paid it in 18 instalments - I made the last few payments when he was already in care himself. 

elsien

If your local authority complaint goes nowhere then you may be able to complain to the ombudsman but keep an eye on the timescales. You have 12 months from when you became aware of the issue. 
Home - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

BikingBud

elsien said:

Spendless said:

elsien said:

Spendless said:

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. 

 

Even with savings of less than 14K people still need to contribute their state pension income and other benefits, aside from the personal allowance of £25 and any mobility component of PIP/DLA which you can keep. The care component would stop after 28 days anyway.
 The "free local authority care" is a bit of misnomer in that respect.  I suspect that is what has happened here - that family were not aware of this and after the lady's death have distributed that money that had built up in the bank account which should have been due to the local authority.  

Apologies I've misunderstood, what's being said as I'm aware you can only keep £25 in that scenario (FIL recently went into care and as in that position)

 In that case how can the money build up? I thought it was automatic taking the amount out. Oh do you mean if the £25 a week 'pocket money' builds up and isn't spent?  

Eg - Just in case I'm confusing myself this is an example of what I *thought* happened

Mr X goes into a care home, doesn't own their own property and only  assets are £14K in a bank account. Mr X receives 2 pensions, 1 private, 1 state. 
Mr X is allowed to keep the £14K in the bank but the state and private pensions are used to pay for his care and he is left with £25 a week to live on.

That's what I mean,  at the point the OP Mum went into care how much did they have in assets, was any income taken from Mum to pay for care? Where did the undisclosed sum shared between the 3 beneficiaries come from? 

They weren’t aware that Mum‘s pension should have been going towards care home fees. So it was going into her bank account and stayed there until she passed.
The local authority can’t just automatically help themselves to money from someone’s account And the DWP will continue paying it to the named person or the appointee if there is one.
Someone has to arrange the payment and because the family weren’t aware, that didn’t happen.
Hence a complaint really being the only option.
And maybe getting a local counsellor on board? 

OP wouldn’t wouldn’t have to pay it within 14 days, so that’s just something they put on the letter. They would have to go to court if the OP’s complaint was not successful, win the judgement and I would expect the OP would be in a good position to set up a payment plan if necessary. Although you’d hope the other beneficiaries would step up to the mark, It’s being a genuine error. 
The local authority would have been aware of the death; the delay appears to have been in sending the bill out when the OP was not expecting it. Which doesn't surprise me as in my area there's a wait of a couple of months plus  to get the assessment completed in the first place, let alone start to to pay it. 

That the local authority had knowledge and failed to do anything to mitigate thier exposure would be my main focus.

It would take 15 mins max to send a pre-drafted acknowledgement of death notification letter with advice that any previous assessment would be reviewed and there may be a need to recover costs from the deceased's estate. 

By providing this to the executors, sufficient warning has been given and claw back can be fully justified. 

Tryinghardtosave

I appreciate all the feedback. We have written back outlining all of the points. I will post the response/outcome here when I get it..

Thanks

M.