Any advice please re backdated council bill for care home charges.

[Pete R]

I have checked this out and they ARE supposed to do a new financial assessment when someone moves to a care home.

My point is that they are not following the CA guidelines.

There is no point in having these guidelines if they are going to be ignored by some LA's.

As they had not produced a bill or arranged for a new financial assessment I thought that they were footing the bill as they could not find suitable accomodation I didn't think they would just send a bill a year later.

Had they informed us about the charges in advance, my mother may have just said that she would go home and waited for sheltered housing. (she had more capacity then)

I will just discus this with an advocate now.

Are the LA asking for more than your Mother's pension/benefits?

 

[mydiamondmum]

I don't understand your question Pete R, but it doesn't matter anyway.

As stated I will now just discus this with an advocate.

 

[Paul A]

Yes I do have power of attorney. I am make some progress and am negotiating with the LA.

They have now produced a financial assessment. The thing is they did not see me so I did not show them any documents since the last one in 2014 before the care home.

Either they are able to check bank account details without you knowing or they have just made up the assessment based on the last one but just adding the rise in the pension.

I would not put it past them just making it up.

That being the case I would argue that they still haven't done one and can not produce a bill until they have.

Does anyone know if they can access bank account details without you knowing?

I can only go off what I have just done. I got the assessment form emailed to me from the LA, completed it, sent it back and it was all agreed in a day. I only sent a few months of bank statements, the whole process was painless, and not very invasive. All I had to do is contact the DWP and stop the attendance allowance.

Now I save about £700 per week.

 

[Helly68]

Just to add this here. When I was involved in my mother's financial assessment, the council made a number of mistakes. I don't mean disputed figures (though that may well have happened), but that at one stage they sent me a financial breakdown - for someone else *shudders*. The implications for confidentiality and information governance are huge. I challenged them. The said - well the figures are more or less the same! I was staggered.
After this I checked, and got other to check, info at each stage. Eventually the council paid the bulk of the fees, with Mummy making a contribution. I was deeply unhappy about the process, but accepted the outcome - and needed my life back.
Check everything and get advice - legal or financial if necessary. Insist the council explain the process and decision making.

 

[Paul A]

Just to add this here. When I was involved in my mother's financial assessment, the council made a number of mistakes. I don't mean disputed figures (though that may well have happened), but that at one stage they sent me a financial breakdown - for someone else *shudders*. The implications for confidentiality and information governance are huge. I challenged them. The said - well the figures are more or less the same! I was staggered.
After this I checked, and got other to check, info at each stage. Eventually the council paid the bulk of the fees, with Mummy making a contribution. I was deeply unhappy about the process, but accepted the outcome - and needed my life back.
Check everything and get advice - legal or financial if necessary. Insist the council explain the process and decision making.

I also have not given up with the CHF, just had a Top 100 law firm start a no-win no-fee, they are top of their game having
won over £170 million for clients... It's fair to say they must me pretty good!!!!!!