Deprivation of assets

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  • onwards&upwards
    onwards&upwards Posts: 3,423
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    elsien wrote: »
    That can be true - my grandmother ended up scared to go out. But I'd still like to have the choice. In part, the reason she became fearful was there was so little going on that she didn't see the point of coming out of her room. It was a bad care home, but sadly the power of attorney didn't want to see the issues.



    Extra expenses - chiropodist, hairdresser, clothes (care homes aren't noted for the care they take of laundry), cigarettes, continence pads if the NHS ones either aren't prescribed and don't suit, toiletries, newspaper/anything else you want to treat yourself to, activities and trips out (where available), for one person I know, kennel fees as she won't contemplate her dogs being rehomed, your own wheelchair if you have mobility issues.
    If you're not doing much, the personal allowance is probably adequate; if you're still active it may not be.

    £26,000 pays for a lot of haircuts and soap.

    The state pension alone could cover most of that, it’s a poor excuse for denying people the right to spend their money on staying in what has become their home,
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,551
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    £26,000 pays for a lot of haircuts and soap.

    The state pension alone could cover most of that, it’s a poor excuse for denying people the right to spend their money on staying in what has become their home,

    You don't get to keep your SP if you are council funded - just weekly pocket money.

    If you have between £23,250 and £14,250, you still have to contribute towards the fees from your savings.
  • onwards&upwards
    onwards&upwards Posts: 3,423
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    Mojisola wrote: »
    You don't get to keep your SP if you are council funded - just weekly pocket money.

    If you have between £23,250 and £14,250, you still have to contribute towards the fees from your savings.

    So at what point are you forced to move? If it’s when you literally don’t have enough money to afford staying where you are then that is understandable, but posters were giving the impression you’d be forced to leave cash sitting in the bank for non existent heirs while being evicted out of your chosen care home into a council one!
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 16,439
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    £26,000 pays for a lot of haircuts and soap.

    The state pension alone could cover most of that, it’s a poor excuse for denying people the right to spend their money on staying in what has become their home,

    Nobody is denied the right to stay in their own home, it is only when their needs cannot be met there that you have to move. Some can stay longer because they have family to help them stay put or can afford to pay a live in career but you can’t expect more than a few hours home care paid for by the LA, after that residential care is the cheaper and almost certainly safer option.
  • Mojisola
    Mojisola Posts: 35,551
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    So at what point are you forced to move? If it’s when you literally don’t have enough money to afford staying where you are then that is understandable, but posters were giving the impression you’d be forced to leave cash sitting in the bank for non existent heirs while being evicted out of your chosen care home into a council one!

    If you self-fund in a home that charges more than the council allowance and your capital reduces to £23,250 and no-one is able to pay the top-up fee, the council may try to force you to move to a cheaper home.

    In practice, you could argue that moving home would be detrimental to your welfare and fight to stay. You would have to pay the council everything bar the pocket money to go towards the fees.
  • Sea_Shell
    Sea_Shell Posts: 9,272
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    What if you started out with a sizeable chunk of cash and got yourself a place in a £1500 a week swanky 5* home.

    Do they assess your ability to pay this amount and for how long? As your money dwindles, do they routinely reassess your ability to fund yourself?

    At some point it will, in their eyes, become unaffordable, unsustainable.

    Will they then ask (force) you to leave at that point??
    How's it going, AKA, Nutwatch? - 12 month spends to date = 2.47% of current retirement "pot" (as at end February 2024)
  • elsien
    elsien Posts: 32,522
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    edited 19 May 2019 at 11:20AM
    Sea_Shell wrote: »
    What if you started out with a sizeable chunk of cash and got yourself a place in a £1500 a week swanky 5* home.

    Do they assess your ability to pay this amount and for how long? As your money dwindles, do they routinely reassess your ability to fund yourself?

    At some point it will, in their eyes, become unaffordable, unsustainable.

    Will they then ask (force) you to leave at that point??

    It can be negotiable, depending on how much over the local authority rate the care home is. It can be possible for the care home to reduce the fees, the LA to increase the top-up and for the weekly rate to meet somewhere in the middle. And depending on the individual circumstances there may be a case for it being very detrimental to their wellbeing to be moved.
    But as there are people who put relatives in top of the range care homes knowing that the money will only last a few months, and then they expect the tab to be picked up because "it wouldn't be fair to move granny now she's settled" quite simply that isn't affordable. So more often that not, then yes people do have to move at that point. The expectation is that the person or their power of attorney would be taking those factors into consideration as they go along. Not just cross their fingers and hope that funding will continue. because chances are that it won't.
    People also have to move for other reasons, such as their health needs changing and the care home no longer being able to meet their needs if for example they need a higher level of nursing care. A home for life isn't really a thing for any of us, unless we're lucky and our circumstances don't dramatically change.
    All shall be well, and all shall be well, and all manner of things shall be well.

    Pedant alert - it's could have, not could of.
  • AnotherJoe
    AnotherJoe Posts: 19,622
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    When my mum went into such a swanky private care home, there was no assessment at all. Othe homes may of course have different rules.
    She also had a 6 week "waiver" on paying fees immediately (they were still due) to be able to put her house on the market or otherwise raise funds if she didn't immediately have the money to hand (I suppose some might have had to sell investments)
    As she died after about 4 weeks I never got to see what would happen if the money ran out, as it was a private run home I'm sure she would have been moved into a cheaper council one and I woudl have expected no less.
  • Keep_pedalling
    Keep_pedalling Posts: 16,439
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    So at what point are you forced to move? If it’s when you literally don’t have enough money to afford staying where you are then that is understandable, but posters were giving the impression you’d be forced to leave cash sitting in the bank for non existent heirs while being evicted out of your chosen care home into a council one!

    This will to a certain extent be covered in a financial assessment at the point of first needing residential care. A lot of self funders will only have funds to last a short time, so placement should ideally be in a LA approved home that takes both private and LA funded residents so a traumatic 2nd move can be avoided.
  • onwards&upwards
    onwards&upwards Posts: 3,423
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    Nobody is denied the right to stay in their own home, it is only when their needs cannot be met there that you have to move. Some can stay longer because they have family to help them stay put or can afford to pay a live in career but you can’t expect more than a few hours home care paid for by the LA, after that residential care is the cheaper and almost certainly safer option.

    I said ‘what has become their home’ meaning the care home they chose to move to and have been paying for perhaps for years.
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