Continuing care

[merlin]

March last year my wife who is in a home was finally granted Continuing Care after a struggle lasting about 9 years. Well before this time all of her funds were down to the lower threshold and the county chipped in with a grant, but of course took all her pension and other payments leaving a short fall for me to top up.

Then based on the score for the annual March 2014 assessment (after she had broken her leg in a fall) the resulting assessment sheet gave her a score for CC which was duly granted.

She was then re-assessed twice in a period of 2 months for reasons that are now obvious at the end of 2014 and as a result I have now received a letter that has withdrawn the CC and now has to be reassessed yet again.

Not only does this indicate total incompetence but has also totally screwed up her finances (we have separate bank accounts) so that she is probably above the financial threshold for a CC grant and will have to pay back money that is rightfully hers to get back down to the lower threshold again and regain a CC grant.

I never had much confidence in the system but I have to admit I had not realised it was so devious nor that once CC was granted it could be taken away so easily

Anybody had a similar experience?

Merlin

 

[Saffie]

so that she is probably above the financial threshold for a CC grant and will have to pay back money that is rightfully hers to get back down to the lower threshold again and regain a CC grant.

I'm afraid I'm a bit confused Merlin and I'm wondering if you are a little too.
In the above extract from your post (my bolding) do you in fact mean LA payments? That is the only payment where a threshold of capital is relevant.
It isn't actually a grant but the subsidy paid by the LA to make up the fees after including the pensions of the person concerned once the capital has fallen below £23,250.

The point is that CHC is paid by the NHS and applies for specific criteria and if that criteria should change then the CHC funding will stop. So it's wise to try to remain aware of the funding issues and anticipate such a situation arising. It seems to do so more frequently nowadays with NHS in crisis - and that's if you're fortunate enough to even gain the funding in the first place which is very difficult!

(I believe that CC is Continuing Care, which I think might be what is paid for a period of time after someone has been in hospital - though I might very well be wrong as I have no personal experience of this.)

You mention that you used to pay a top-up but I hope you know that you don't have to pay this under normal conditions though of course, you may choose to do so for your wife to have a more attractive room or extra facilities.

You can also appeal against the CHC decision if you have the stamina to do so.

 

[merlin]

Hi Saffie

First of all my apologies for not acknowledging your post earlier and that was because, not having used talking point for some time, I had forgotten how to do it!

You are perfectly correct in your summary of the problem - yes I do mean LA subsidy payments. And the threshold was indeed that after which she has to pay to make up the fees for the care home.

The care home in fact tell me that that they get more money for somebody on CHC than the LA and indeed the top up I pay is for a few special items at the home. She already has a smaller room and yes I was going to get her a bigger one with her extra funds.

Anyway it seems it will all fall apart now and we go back to square one, which is a blow. I really feel the whole process is so devious and can now see the purpose of the sudden flurry of assessments was to cover up mistakes in the assessments in granting her CHC.

I already have an appeal pending from the very original assessment and there has been no response so far after about 4 years, so yes 'stamina' is the correct word. To be honest I've finally run out of steam after some 10 years of continual argument with the authorities. I've found the LA more reasonable than the NHS but as far as any more assessment are concerned I shall not bother to attend because it is pointless.

You may well be right about CNC being paid after coming out of hospital as that was the case after she had broken her leg and had to go in for a few days for a plaster cast. So it does all begin to add up but doesn't make it any better and is very stressful!!!

Thanks for your help

Merlin