Financial assessment for care

bindyboo

My dad who is disabled and immobile is having private care in his own home. They go four times a day, he needs two carers in the morning and two at night and one the rest of the time.

He did have £100,000 but now down to £30,000 as he has had to pay for his own care since January 2025.

We are still waiting for allocation of a social worker and it's driving me mad as I want to know how much he needs to contribute once he gets to just over £23,000.

He would like to keep the carers he has but the council wont pay the same hourly rate, so he needs to pay another £798 a month extra , besides whatever else he needs to fund.

I can imagine this will bankrupt him. He doesnt want to go in a home and sell his house really.

Today the council rang and still not got a social worker, we have been waiting since feb.

So I asked for someone to do a financial evaluation first, but stillhaving to wait goodness knows how long.

I would have thought there would be an online calculator where you can input ingoings and outgoings, but not on Lancashire county councils page

elsien

Some of the financial assessment will cover disability related expenses, which is often sticking point as to what can and can’t be included and a simple calculator wouldn’t take that into account.
if you haven’t already, you should have a proper think about what could be included to bump his allowable income up a bit.

Lancashire do have their charging policy on the website which is quite detailed, and you should be able to get a rough idea from that.
He will need a care assessment, which should come before the financial assessment, the theory being that his needs will be assessed before money comes into it. That is why he needs the social worker. He will be allocated to personal budget, which is the most that the local authority will pay towards his care.

You do need to consider the possibility that at some point he will not have enough income left to fund the £800 a month extra for the carers that he has now and what are his views on getting used to new carers sooner rather than later, or hanging on as long with them as long as possible

bindyboo

Thanks for your reply. It's hard to get and trust new people around him all over again. He now gets really anxious about things. Suppose I will just have to see what the social worker says whenever that maybe.

It seems there are too many people needing care right now and not enough staff to cover it all or fund it.

Yet dont get me started on all these cut backs, yet they have money for wars etc

elsien

In my area, social workers are leaving in droves. The ones that are staying seem to be going off sick fairly frequently.

The system does appear to be at its worst at the moment and many local authorities are operating a triage system with regards to timescales and the level of need.From their perspective, at the moment your dad is safe and cared forwhere other people aren’t

I think the only thing you can do as your dad’s money approaches the the limit is just keep phoning them to push. And then complain if you need to.

Albermarle

In my area, social workers are leaving in droves. The ones that are staying seem to be going off sick fairly frequently

Is that anything new ? From my experience there has always seemed to be a pretty high turnover of staff, and regular time off sick.

elsien

From my perspective it is worse than it has been previously.

Going back to the OP, have a good read up about disability related expenses because sometimes they get rejected far too easily. Ask for the reason for any rejection in writing. Then put together a good case about why you still think they should be included when the financial assessment is finally done and say you want it to go to panel.

bindyboo

Is there a charge for doing the assessment via the council?

elsien

No there isn’t.

And when you get to the point where they will be funding him, there is no option - they have to assess anyway.

bindyboo

Thanks everybody for their help

bindyboo

Has anybody had any joy with Compass care for CHC funding from NHS.

I did submit an enquiry and I've been bombarded with phone calls and emails.

But not gone through with any discussion yet as I am afraid it will be too stressful and they seem to charge about £7,000 if successful.

But what if you arent successful, then that would leave my dad with that m oney less.

elsien

Try Beacon as a starting point. They don’t have at the same level of service but they have a comprehensive tool kit to give you an idea of where to start and they do phone advice. I would suggest you properly have a read of all the domains and how CHC works first before paying out what could effectively be a third of your dad’s money fees with no guarantees

https://beaconchc.co.uk/how-we-can-help/free-information-and-advice-on-nhs-continuing-healthcare/ .