Help/Advice on Moving Home & Care Authority

[BeverleyY]

Hi

I have been away from here for a long time, because honestly I found it very depressing knowing what the future held for my Dad who was living with us.

In the time away, I moved him to Residential Care as he was getting more un-predictable at night, and after 10 years of him living with us I just couldn't cope any longer.

I recently moved back to London after living in Kent and was doing the trip to see him twice a week, but 2 weeks ago he developed pneumonia and has been in hospital very poorly. My sister and I stayed at the hospital in 24hour shifts never leaving his side. He is now back in his residential home, but it has made me realise it is better to move him nearer to us as I know this will happen again.

He has been self funding up until now - but has just dropped below £14230 last week when we paid an invoice.

Kent County Council have a ceiling of £350 a week, but I live in London and care homes are £1000+ From what I gather the London Boroughs pay ceilings of around £750 a week. This leaves me with an enormous unaffordable top-up.

The irony is, until I took my Dad to live with me he worked and lived in London! He actually worked for a Local Authority and receives a pension from them. I feel that moving him out of London has now severely penalised him and will have made the move back impossible :-( I am just beside myself with worry that if he is hospitalised again and again, I just cannot easily get to visit him every day (train is £65 return! or an hour and a halfs drive).

Does anyone know the minimum time someone has to live in an area to become funded by them? I am considering taking him back to live with me for a period of time (and taking leave from work), then saying to his new Local Authority that I cannot cope, and having him placed into a home from there. This is a ridiculous thing to have to do, but I cannot see any other way. How many weeks/months etc would they need to be 'resident' at an address to be funded by that care authority?

Any advice would be most welcomed.

 

[starryuk]

Hi Beverly,

I am afraid I don't know the answer to your question, but am bumping up your post.

I am wondering if your dad may have some rights because you live in London. I seem to remember that when I was looking for council sheltered housing for my mum, they asked me how long I had been living here and then said mum would be eligible to be put on the housing list because of me...if you see what I mean.

What about contacting you local authority and asking them without giving your details.

Hopefully someone who knows will be along soon.

 

[BeverleyY]

I found out that there is no minimum, but I have to
get through a 'best interests' meeting first.

Next hurdle, if they agree to a move, is trying
to get them to increase their standard rate so that
the top up is more affordable (£400-£600 a month rather
than £1200). :-(

 

[nogginthenog]

We moved my MIL who was council funded from one area to another . We got help from a charity called "council and care" who advise on these issues.

We argued that it was essential to the MIL's wellbeing that she be allowed to move to live near family and had this written into her care needs assessment

The funding council initially took the view that we would have to pay a top up. We were advised that the legal position was that the council is "allowed" but does not have to fund the difference and when we queried this the top up went away. [ in our case the top up was not huge, about 50 pounds a month as I recall ].

The move took quite a long time - and looking back I think the MIL's social worked probably worked quite hard for her to get this sorted )