Thank you for your reply
@Shedrech . Everything that I do as an attorney is and has been done with what is in the best interests for my mother . Mum will never be left without a roof over her head or without additional funding for her care needs you can be assured of that. Despite mum getting some help with council funding I have been required to top up my mother’s care plan by providing 12 hours of additional care cover per week since I do not have anywhere near the disposable income to pay the approx extra costs of £250 pw. In addition to that I am solely responsible for covering everything from prescriptions, daily and weekly shopping ,gardening and maintenance and just about everything in between. If I did not spend hours on maintaining my mum’s huge garden every month that in itself would also add another £100 pm to her monthly bill.
I have no work and there is no possibility of me finding work due to the imposed council hours and other daily commitments in regard to mum’s house and wellbeing. I have no choice but to cover at the councils request due to cost, the alternative would be for the council to throw mum into the cheapest local carehome which I know in her present condition would destroy her. I am so glad that as a family we did not take that route particularly with regard to covid and all the heart breaking news stories that have emerged from within our care homes.
Mum is receiving the upper amount of attendance allowance which is supposed to help towards extra care needs but even this is only a drop in the ocean when compared to what extra care payments would be required if I had not sacrificed my right to work and cover mum’s extra needs.
I understand attendance allowance can be used in anyway a receiver see’s fit so I guess this amount could be given to me for the situation that I have been forced to accept in order to make mum’s life and staying in her own home financially possible?
In essence what I am trying to say is that by helping me to help her mum’s money is being spent in her best financial interest. If I decide to tell the council “I’m off I need work” where is the extra £1200 pm going to come from to keep mum at home? She already has well over half of her monthly income taken for care costs but reducing mum’s savings to rainy day money of £14250 will have the added plus of giving her almost £2000 per year more disposable income for her care needs and general everyday expenses.
Regarding my direct question is your answer definitive, I have seen plenty of information regarding asset deprivation before the council do a financial assessment but none at all about what a person is allowed to do with their money once they go below the upper threshold. The only thing I would add is that my mother still has enough presence of mind to know what she is saying when it comes to helping her family out and as a responsible son who has cared for his mother for years ,many as her only carer, I would never leave her short of anything she needs, she will always be provided for in every way .