Hi All, Mum is 97 with advanced heart disease and Alzheimer's. She has been in a brilliant care home for the last 18 months self funding. We are now at the point of having to ask social services to step in with funding. They have agreed that Mum needs to be in residential EMI care and have offered a sum of £790 to fund this (obviously Mum will contribute her pension and pension credit to the LA). Unfortunately this sum is about £300 per week short of what is needed to keep her where she is. We desperately want her to stay where she is - we feel moving her to a new environment (even if it's just as good as where she is now - which I would very much doubt) will be very detrimental to her. She is very frail now and deteriorating both physically and mentally quite rapidly. It is Mum's wish that she stays where she is.
I was asked by the social worker if the family would be prepared to top up - I said yes as I thought this could be paid out of Mum's £50K which she is allowed to keep (this is Wales). I have POA. My brothers and I are in full agreement about all of this. Since coming on this forum I have learnt that this is not allowed and as a family no one has funds to make such a large third party top up. It's ridiculous! Why shouldn't Mum use her own money to live out what short time she now has left in a home that she knows, that care about her, that she has friends in? What else is this £50K for? She's never going to be buying a property or a sports car or travelling to the Maldives.
So - what is the reason we not allowed to make first party top ups? - other than it's the stupid law!
I was asked by the social worker if the family would be prepared to top up - I said yes as I thought this could be paid out of Mum's £50K which she is allowed to keep (this is Wales). I have POA. My brothers and I are in full agreement about all of this. Since coming on this forum I have learnt that this is not allowed and as a family no one has funds to make such a large third party top up. It's ridiculous! Why shouldn't Mum use her own money to live out what short time she now has left in a home that she knows, that care about her, that she has friends in? What else is this £50K for? She's never going to be buying a property or a sports car or travelling to the Maldives.
So - what is the reason we not allowed to make first party top ups? - other than it's the stupid law!