Personal Allowance (Is this all?)
- Thread starter Taraloka
- Start date
If the LA is paying towards your mother's Care home fees, then yes, I'm afraid all incidental expenditure has to come for her allowance.
It does come to nearly £100 a month though.
I managed to continue to give gifts for my family with my husband's allowance.
I'm sure the family will understand if they have to be a little less than they might have been before.
It does come to nearly £100 a month though.
I managed to continue to give gifts for my family with my husband's allowance.
I'm sure the family will understand if they have to be a little less than they might have been before.
I don't understand. If your mother is well over the upper threshold of LA contributing towards your mother's care home, why is her allowance restricted? Also, why is the LA involved at all?
I believe if you are self-funding, personal allowances don't come into it. However, even then I would be very careful about someone with dementia giving away money. It could be classed as deprivation of assets unless it's in a small range and it can be proven that she has always done that. Because once Social Services do fund care, they will not look too kindly onto money that could have gone towards a care home being given away to others.
I can't see what it has to do with the CH administrator if your mother is self-funding.
Yes, once the LA start contributing towards the CH fees but it's the LA financial officers who will be responsible for that not the Care home.
Have you had a financial assessment from the LA?
When that happens, yes, as Beate says, they will look at the past years's bank statements and will query any unwarranted spending but birthday and Christmas gifts which are the usual amount will not be questioned.
Beate is right. If your Mum is self funding then the allowance does not come into it but her money has to be looked after and spent in her best interests. It is her welfare that is important and sadly not that of the rest of her family. Having said that to give amounts in line with what she has given in the past for Christmas and birthdays should be acceptable as long as you can prove her gifts prior to care so you have evidence of such gifts
The £24 allowance only happens when the LA are contributing to her care. Then your Mother will contribute her state pension and any private pension she has and she can hold back the £24 for her personal needs. If she has a spouse then they will be left with half of a private pension.
My husband is in a nursing home and he has an account there that I top up monthly. It means that the services I wAnt him to access can be paid for by the home. It is used to pay for chiropodist, hair etc. I buy his toiletries and clothes.
The £24 allowance only happens when the LA are contributing to her care. Then your Mother will contribute her state pension and any private pension she has and she can hold back the £24 for her personal needs. If she has a spouse then they will be left with half of a private pension.
My husband is in a nursing home and he has an account there that I top up monthly. It means that the services I wAnt him to access can be paid for by the home. It is used to pay for chiropodist, hair etc. I buy his toiletries and clothes.
Thats cleared that up then.
I have already been keeping a list of all things we have bought for mum….right down to bottles of mineral water which she loves. Underwear, toiletries, vests, sweeties….you name it I'm keeping a record and receipts. She normally gives everyone £20 each for birthdays and Xmas. Thats to me and my 4 siblings, her 8 grand children and 7 great great grandchildren….that is a lot per year……SO do I carry on this tradition and keep a record or check with the Social Worker/Finance?
Please don't think we are skin flints……my mum has wanted for nothing all her life and we are very closely knit and are heartbroken she is slowly leaving us. BUT why should we let the CH eat up her hard earned savings and believe me it WAS hard earned.
I have already been keeping a list of all things we have bought for mum….right down to bottles of mineral water which she loves. Underwear, toiletries, vests, sweeties….you name it I'm keeping a record and receipts. She normally gives everyone £20 each for birthdays and Xmas. Thats to me and my 4 siblings, her 8 grand children and 7 great great grandchildren….that is a lot per year……SO do I carry on this tradition and keep a record or check with the Social Worker/Finance?
Please don't think we are skin flints……my mum has wanted for nothing all her life and we are very closely knit and are heartbroken she is slowly leaving us. BUT why should we let the CH eat up her hard earned savings and believe me it WAS hard earned.
To be on the safe side I would check though they are small amounts because of the numbers involved then it adds up to a substantial amount. Better to worry about it before than have the worry later on down the line if someone queries it.
No one gets free care. As your Mother is self funding she gets to keep her pensions and attendance allowance if she receives it. When the LA contribute then she will loose all the above and then just have £24 to cover her needs.
It is hard and it does feel unfair but unfortunately the fees have to be paid, one way or another. I don't think anyone paying care home fees is happy that we have to do it. One day it might change but probably not to hold our breath.
Jay
No one gets free care. As your Mother is self funding she gets to keep her pensions and attendance allowance if she receives it. When the LA contribute then she will loose all the above and then just have £24 to cover her needs.
It is hard and it does feel unfair but unfortunately the fees have to be paid, one way or another. I don't think anyone paying care home fees is happy that we have to do it. One day it might change but probably not to hold our breath.
Jay
I would say carry on with tradition.
But do keep a record as in the future when the finance officer calls and IF they ask it will be your responsibility to account for it. To go back to the personal allowance, Yes it is low, far too low. However remember that whatever happens in the future and if your Mother does need funding from the LA she is allowed to keep £14250 and can spend that as she sees fit.
I hope she has many more years to decide what to do with it.
I would say carry on with tradition.
To go back to the personal allowance, Yes it is low, far too low. However remember that whatever happens in the future and if your Mother does need funding from the LA she is allowed to keep £14250 and can spend that as she sees fit.
I hope she has many more years to decide what to do with it.
The £24.50 may be ok if residents were not losing their property all of the time.
My step mother was only in care for a week and she broke the frame of her glasses which cost £50.
We were lucky an optician had one as the manufacturers were no longer making them.
She kept on losing her slippers. She had 6 pairs and only had odd slippers at one point.
We bought 3 bottles of talcum powder which a lady kept on taking when she was wondering around.
About a dozen bottles were found in her room after my step mother died.
She also got a nail infection and sandals had to be purchased and to get the correct ones I had to do a 50 mile round trip.
We also purchased clothes which we found were unsuitable as she kept on taking them off.
In the week she was in care we spent about £350.
It was fortunate she had CHC funding. Some relatives may not be able to pay for all the things which go missing.
William
We had to buy orthopaedic slippers £35, new knickers and more vests as her stuff kept going missing in the launderette!!! (and they are tagged) She had somebody else's knickers on last week which made me blow up in the CH. She would've been APPALLED if she knew this.
More trousers, nighties, etc. EVERYTHING I am keeping account of.
The CH asked me for £4 last week for them to print out mums room tags for her clothes even though they are getting £700 a week!!! My mum is now know as G12……. (her house and room number).
God this just gets more horrible. Its undignified and disgraceful.
Sorry for the rant…..at least I deleted all the swear words!!!!
More trousers, nighties, etc. EVERYTHING I am keeping account of.
The CH asked me for £4 last week for them to print out mums room tags for her clothes even though they are getting £700 a week!!! My mum is now know as G12……. (her house and room number).
God this just gets more horrible. Its undignified and disgraceful.
Sorry for the rant…..at least I deleted all the swear words!!!!
Incorrect.
First, it is not the business of the care home administration to decide such matters. The only concern they should have is that your mum pays her bill. There is no question of their limiting whatever rmoney she may have left over from her income - if she pays the bill and has money left over then it is hers.
Second. so long as your mum is fully self-funding then whatever money she has is hers to use as she pleases. However, some care does need to be taken so that gifts etc are not classified as excessive because in that case they may be regarded by the local authority, when they do the financial assessment, as trying to give away money so that it can;t be used to pay for care fees (this is called a Deprivation of Asset). The assessment would be done whenever your mum looks like she may qualify for local authority funding (partial or full) for her care home fees.
However, simply continuing a long-established custom of gift-giving to granschildren for special occasions should not be a problem, so long as the amounts are reasonable and do not (say) deplete her savings or cause a shortfall in her income, and are in line with amounts she has given previously.
Should your mum in the future start to receive local authority funding, then it is indeed correct that whatever income she has must be used to go towards paying whatever portion of the fees is possible - but in that case, a given amount each week is reserved for her exclusive use no matter what, in essence is is a form of "pocket money" that she may use as she wishes.
Although the amount is not huge, it should be enough to provide for birthsay and Christmas gifts, perhaps not as generous as they might have been in the past though.
I ordered my own woven name labels and sewed them in everything, even slippers. Every handkerchief, scarf gloves etc.I had address labels for all solid things.
I bought iron on ones and they lasted really well despite high temperature nursing home washing and dryers. I wouldn't expect a home to do this.
Hi Taraloka
You have reminded me.
I was asked for £10 for labels to be put on my step mother's clothes but they still went missing.
In theory I could have asked them to get it off the son.
I was told this would cover the labelling for the rest of her life.
William
