Can SS claim back money for carers?

[charlie10]

FiL was in hospital for 3 weeks in October following a fall. He has vascular disease, lymphedema, ulcerated legs, but was reasonably mobile before his fall. When he came out he was using a zimmer and had limited mobility, and he was allocated a care visit twice a day. His carers have been reduced to once a day at some point, and now there is a Financial Assessment booked for a few days' time to see if he needs to repay SS for the visits (as I understand it, all since hospital discharge). I think SS were subsidising the cost not paying all of it

He is over the $22500(?) threshold but if he has to repay a big whack he may well come under it

A) I thought there was something about free care for the first few weeks after hospital if required? Intermediate care?

B) If his savings drop below the threshold as soon as he repays SS would they immediately pick up part of the bill again, or would he have to have yet another FA?

I don't have too many details about it as BiL in England doesn't know too much and FiL is threatening to cancel all help cos it's a rip-off

 

[Ohso]

Here is a link that might help.

My own experience is, mum went into hospital June 2018 and was discharged a couple of weeks later, she lives alone and was allocated 3 care visits a day/7 days a week of 30 minutes each time.
This was to give (prompt) medication and offer general personal care and offer food etc.

I was told by Social Services that this would be free for 6 weeks and then assessed again, in reality it wasn't assessed till much later and then left in place because it was needed.

At this point mum was send a Financial Assessment form that I wasn't able to complete as I was awaiting LPA and didn't have full access to mums accounts, I explained this to them and it got put on hold but eventually was asked to complete it in January 'as best I could, as it can always be updated when you know'

I did this late January and only this week have had a letter back telling me that mum has been assessed as being over the £23,500 threshold and will now be responsible for paying her care package in full ( £171.99 a week) from 29th October 2018.

The invoice for the back dated payments is due in the next 3 weeks, so a bill of approx £2400

As far as I can gather the 6 weeks isn't always given, and is sometimes restricted to 2 I guess depends on lots of criteria, but as this is all new to me I wouldn't hazard a guess at how it works in reality.

Hope that helps

 

[charlie10]

Hi Mandy.....thank you, it's always useful to hear of someone else's experience and that sounds fairly similar to what I think has happened to my FiL.....will read the link and sit down and try to work it all out.....bit of a minefield isn't it!

 

[clarice2]

Hi Mandy.....thank you, it's always useful to hear of someone else's experience and that sounds fairly similar to what I think has happened to my FiL.....will read the link and sit down and try to work it all out.....bit of a minefield isn't it!

My husband came out of hospital with a care plan for 4 visits a day. I was told that he would be paying for this as he was self funding. The carers told me we should have first 6 weeks free so I rang to ask about this. I was told that when someone comes home and they are expected to need help for a short time, rehabilitation, they do get a few weeks free. My husband was not going to improve as he was now bed ridden and physio had failed. So we had to pay for everything. As we were self funding I was able to change the care plan to better suit us, without involving SS.We only had a social worker to help with arrangements for coming home then we were on our own.

 

[charlie10]

@Clarice.....thank you for sharing your experience, I suspect this is how our assessment is going to go too. I really don't understand why the free weeks shouldn't apply to everyone.....seems as if you're penalised for being in a worse condition than someone else! Hopefully we'll know what SS say at the weekend and we'll know what we're dealing with!

 

[clarice2]

@Clarice.....thank you for sharing your experience, I suspect this is how our assessment is going to go too. I really don't understand why the free weeks shouldn't apply to everyone.....seems as if you're penalised for being in a worse condition than someone else! Hopefully we'll know what SS say at the weekend and we'll know what we're dealing with!

I agree. I couldn't understand why my carers were convinced that everyone they went to got first 6 weeks free. Simpler if everyone got it then some people would no longer need it and it would be stopped. The ones that did need it now had to pay.

 

[charlie10]

Absolutely....and wouldn't it be lovely if carers were more knowledgeable about entitlements.....they're probably the most common health service contact family have. I guess a lot depends on the quality of the agency....