My Mum has been in a care home for over 2 years and has very advanced Alzheimers.
I rent out her old home (having LPA) and use rent plus state pension plus attendance allowance to pay part of the fees. She is on the defferred loan scheme for any shortfall and has been on this since entering the care home.
I have just had a DST assessment done for CHC. This has been refused, but Mum has been granted 30% Funded Nursing Care from April 1st.
I am appealing the decision not to grant CHC, but am accepting the FNC payments while the appeal goes through.
Currently fees are £454 a week and she pays £254 a week. She now gets an extra £136 a week in FNC. This is paid by arrangement every 4 weeks.
Some weeks ago I got a letter from the council stating that new rules meant that she now had to pay for her care from April 6th till November in 3 installments, totaling £14,500. There was also a "fishing" form asking for details of all her assets and incomes. The letter went on to say that I should expect a further letter detailing the discount for being on the deferred loan scheme. So I waited for this. And waited.
It didn't come, but what did come was a very threatening letter (dated 26th May, but arriving 1st June) stating that if I did not pay the full £14,500 "that I had agreed to pay" by June 2nd (the next day!) they would send out a county court summons without further reference to myself. Talk about having a gun put to your head.......
I immediately wrote back stating that the deadline given without any opportunity to respond was unreasonable, that I had never agreed to pay that sum, that My Mum is on the deferred loan scheme, so does not have to pay any more than the current 4 weekly amount and that as her circumstances had just changed, the amount on the bill was now incorrect.
Today, instead of the expected summons, I have had a further letter, which without once referring to my response, issues threats of debt collection agencies, county court proceedings, all associated costs and additional costs etc, etc...
I would be most grateful for any advice on how I should phrase a suitably appropriate response without resorting to semtex.
Can they actually get away with this?
As they have not sent the promised summons, do they know they are on dodgy ground? If so, then should I call their bluff and insist that they go to court, rather than wasting time with debt collectors, as I will not indulge them in further correspondence etc...?
Can I counter-claim (yes), but for what? Demanding money with menaces? Being terminally stupid?
Can they even consider demanding payments over and above what is already being paid when a CHC assessment/appeal is in progress? (I read somewhere recently that this would be unlawful).
I hope that someone can provide me with some useful advice on how to successfully counter this, as I am extremely worried about all this and really do not need it when I should be focussing all my attention on the CHC appeal.
I rent out her old home (having LPA) and use rent plus state pension plus attendance allowance to pay part of the fees. She is on the defferred loan scheme for any shortfall and has been on this since entering the care home.
I have just had a DST assessment done for CHC. This has been refused, but Mum has been granted 30% Funded Nursing Care from April 1st.
I am appealing the decision not to grant CHC, but am accepting the FNC payments while the appeal goes through.
Currently fees are £454 a week and she pays £254 a week. She now gets an extra £136 a week in FNC. This is paid by arrangement every 4 weeks.
Some weeks ago I got a letter from the council stating that new rules meant that she now had to pay for her care from April 6th till November in 3 installments, totaling £14,500. There was also a "fishing" form asking for details of all her assets and incomes. The letter went on to say that I should expect a further letter detailing the discount for being on the deferred loan scheme. So I waited for this. And waited.
It didn't come, but what did come was a very threatening letter (dated 26th May, but arriving 1st June) stating that if I did not pay the full £14,500 "that I had agreed to pay" by June 2nd (the next day!) they would send out a county court summons without further reference to myself. Talk about having a gun put to your head.......
I immediately wrote back stating that the deadline given without any opportunity to respond was unreasonable, that I had never agreed to pay that sum, that My Mum is on the deferred loan scheme, so does not have to pay any more than the current 4 weekly amount and that as her circumstances had just changed, the amount on the bill was now incorrect.
Today, instead of the expected summons, I have had a further letter, which without once referring to my response, issues threats of debt collection agencies, county court proceedings, all associated costs and additional costs etc, etc...
I would be most grateful for any advice on how I should phrase a suitably appropriate response without resorting to semtex.
Can they actually get away with this?
As they have not sent the promised summons, do they know they are on dodgy ground? If so, then should I call their bluff and insist that they go to court, rather than wasting time with debt collectors, as I will not indulge them in further correspondence etc...?
Can I counter-claim (yes), but for what? Demanding money with menaces? Being terminally stupid?
Can they even consider demanding payments over and above what is already being paid when a CHC assessment/appeal is in progress? (I read somewhere recently that this would be unlawful).
I hope that someone can provide me with some useful advice on how to successfully counter this, as I am extremely worried about all this and really do not need it when I should be focussing all my attention on the CHC appeal.
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