Council demanding o/s care home fees from family after death

tooldle

msb1234 said:

I can’t understand how there wasn’t enough money in her account to cover her final fees, as surely it was based on her pension income?

Yep, the insurance policy is possibly a red herring. What needs explanation is, what was going on with pension monies and care fees during the period of hospitalisation and hospice. The bank balance on date of death is mentioned without commentary on monies owed to the estate. 

crazygeordiegirl

My sister and I were trustees and beneficiaries of the life insurance 

I’m not 💯 sure why the pensions did not cover the arrears due - my sister dealt with my mums finances and had LPA , i am wondering if their should have been a proportion of pension money due to her date of death which wasn’t received and this is where the shortfall in her bank account balance has been (which would have paid her share of the care home fees ) All I know is the council are saying she needed to pay it out of the life insurance payout , which I didn’t think was correct . They knew she had life insurance as they had access to her bank statements which showed she was paying the premiums . 

maman

So your sister is correct to question the fees due as, although the care home knew that your mum had insurance they wouldn't have known that the pay out was not part of the estate. 

Also, I'm assuming that your mum's share of the fees going out and the pension payments coming in should also show up on the bank statements. If these aren't showing, for the relevant dates, then they need investigating to put your case to the care home. 

tooldle

crazygeordiegirl said:

My sister and I were trustees and beneficiaries of the life insurance 

I’m not 💯 sure why the pensions did not cover the arrears due - my sister dealt with my mums finances and had LPA , i am wondering if their should have been a proportion of pension money due to her date of death which wasn’t received and this is where the shortfall in her bank account balance has been (which would have paid her share of the care home fees ) All I know is the council are saying she needed to pay it out of the life insurance payout , which I didn’t think was correct . They knew she had life insurance as they had access to her bank statements which showed she was paying the premiums . 

One of both of you (if you haven’t already) will need to pull together a set of accounts for the estate. Was mum a tax payer. Asking as you mentioned pensions rather than just state pension. If you are absolutely certain the estate is insolvent then you can just walk away. If the estate is insolvent the council may ask for evidence of the insurance policy to determine that it does / doesn’t fall outside the estate. 

Silvertabby

When my sister died, her benefits ended on her date of death - but her (housing authority) rent was due until the end of the month.  Possible something similar is going on with the care home fees?

My sister was insolvent, and had a hoarding problem.  When I handed the keys back to the HA, they tried to tell me that I, as next of kin, was legally resonsible for clearing and cleaning her flat, plus rent to the end of the month.  Absolute bllx.  I told them (politely!) that they were wrong, and that was the end of it.  I suppose they try it on in the hope that some people will believe them.

msb1234

Following on from your latest post, I’m wondering if the arrears are due to your mum paying to her life insurance policy each month. When the LA carried out a financial assessment for her fees, they would likely not have taken into account the insurance premiums. For example, if her total income was £1000 a month, she would have been billed for £1000 less the personal allowance of (approx) £30 a week, so around £880 per month. If she had an insurance premium of £200 a month, she may well have been paying a shortfall each month thus incurring an ongoing deficit of £200 each month. 

Could this be the case?