How to get council to act when self funder runs out of money?

[Roseredblue]

Mum is now well below the lower threshold & will soon run out of money. She lives in her own home with care package of 4 visits a day. Council deemed her self funder because she has a 50% share in a small property currently rented to elderly tenants (for which she receives £250), which the other owners refuse to sell until the tenants move to care. Council has also refused to grant a Deferred payment Agreement on the rented property. Her monthly income is a quarter of the cost of her care package. 17 weeks ago I submitted a request for reassessment through the complaints department. Supposedly council has to reply in 20 working days, or 30 if they inform you its going to take longer. Despite emailing & calling there was no response until I emailed the head of legal. We then got a reply the next day apologizing for the delay & saying the case had been escalated to a manager & specialist in the Safeguarding & Prevention team. That was 23 days ago. In reponse to my latest inquiry they say we will give you an estimated time line when we hear back from the team. Another family member was then able to contact a senior complaints manager who said they understood the urgency & were monitoring the situation.
Initially the council was billing us for care & agreed to defer payment while the reassessment took place but then in January without warning or explanation the Care Agency started billing us directly & so they have to be paid every month.
The local government ombudsman wrote back to say that they thought the council needed more time to respond & it was pretty clear from their letter that they had not read the two files I sent with all the correspondence I had had with the council.
My question is does anyone have any suggestions of how to deal with the council & get them to act without engaging a solicitor? I have talked to Age uk at length. We only have 2 or 3 more months of cash.

 

[SeaSwallow]

Hello @Roseredblue and welcome to the forum. I am so sorry that you are going through this, it must be so stressful. I really do not have any answers for you but would suggest that you contact the Alzheimer's Society help desk for advice. I have attached their details below. They will be available between 10 - 4 tomorrow.

Contact us

Find out how to get in touch with Alzheimer's Society by phone, email, post or online.

www.alzheimers.org.uk

It might also be an idea to contact your mum's MP and local councillor for advice and to see if they can help you.

 

[Gosling]

Hello @Roseredblue and just a welcome from me too to this friendly and supportive forum.
I am sorry to read about what you are having to go through with your Mum. You certainly don't need all this extra stress and worry. I hope the Alzheimer's Society helpdesk is able to give you some advice.
Please do remember, members here really do want to help and you will always find understanding and a listening ear.

 

[canary]

I should imagine that the problem here is that rental property that someone else owns 50% of, and they are refusing to sell. I can understand why they dont want to sell, but I expect that the council is being hard hearted and going along the lines of there being no legal reason why they should not. I think the LAs are restricted about what sort of properties that can, and cannot, be used for a deferred payment agreement

Unfortunately, this puts your mum in a cleft stick as there is not a lot she can do about it. It is all a bit of a mess.
I hope someone can sort something out soon

 

[Jessbow]

is the person that owns the other 50% of relevance? How did mum come by a share ownership like that - and when?
Is there time frame around the tennants moving into care? how come the other shareholders wants/need carry more clout? Is is owned jointly, or tenants in common?

 

[Louise7]

Council has also refused to grant a Deferred payment Agreement on the rented property. Her monthly income is a quarter of the cost of her care package.

Hello @Roseredblue welcome to the forum. Under the Care Act legislation local authorities can only offer a Deferred Payment Agreement (DPA) in respect of payment of care home fees, not 'care at home' fees. You mention that her monthly income is only a quarter of the cost of her care package, that sounds quite low. Is the £250 that she receives from the rental property weekly or monthly? You may need to consider if the rental that is being charged to the tenants is at 'market value' as this could help to boost your mum's income. Also, if you haven't already done so it's worth checking to make sure that she is receiving all of the benefits that she is entitled to eg Attendance Allowance, council tax reduction/exemption etc. Hopefully the Dementia Support Helpline will provide some useful information to you too as the situation must be a worry.