Moving elderly mum from her home on the Wirral to a care home in London near me

[loliya]

My mother needs to be in a residential care home but wants to be in one near me so that I can visit regularly. She lives in the Wirral and I live in Haringey (Finsbury Park). She will be self funded as she owns her own home. The care home I am interested in is Cheverton Lodge in Archway. My worry is what happens when her money runs out. Will she be evicted? Which local authority will be required to pick up the bill? Has any one had a similar experience that could advise?

[thesandwich]

No experience but I have heard age uk are very helpful with such issues or cab. Talking to the home itself would be worth doing too but get some facts first. Well worth contacting your local social services as well- they can advise.

[loliya]

Thanks for that.

[Cherubneddy1]

If she is self funding and moves herself to the home near you without involving Soc. Services at all, when the time comes, it will be your local Soc. Services who will, in theory, pick up the funding, as her "ordinary residence" will be in London at that point.

However, she will need to be assessed to see if she is eligible for residential care funding at that point. And if they agree she is eligible, they will need to look at the most cost effective way of meeting her needs, so if the home you've chosen is more expensive than other homes, she may need to move.

[hatgirl]

Actually Cherub ordinary residence may depend on if Social Services in Wirral have assessed OPs mum as requiring residential care. Depending on the circumstances/ her mental capacity etc Wirral may still retain OR for her, despite the fact she may be 'full charge'.

[Cherubneddy1]

Hatgirl. Yes, of course if The Wirral "place" her in London, then she will remain their responsibility. But I read it that she will be totally self funding and therefore contracting directly with the home in London until her funds fall below the threshold and she applies for funding. Obviously, if she does not have accessible cash and needs a 12 week property disregard and deferred payments scheme to utilise the capital in her property, then she will need to be "placed" by The Wirral and remain their responsibility.

There are lots of variables but I was just trying to simplify things 🙄

[Mosaic123]

Does she have a few years of funding or just a few months? If it's the latter it's harder to deal with. The new Home may ask how much she has and be less keen to take her. Sorry, I know it's all upsetting when it is care you are after.

[loliya]

Great information. She has a couple of years of self funding and then that is it. I will contact all the relevant people and do some fact finding so that I am clear. Looks like care homes want to do face to face assessments before anything else so it may be she has to go in a home in the Wirral as there is no way she could cope with coming all the way to London and then go back again. My house is not adapted for her needs and I cant carry her - her mobility is very bad. So I think circumstances have dictated solutions to a certain extent.

[hatgirl]

In my experience OP some care homes will often send someone to assess your mum rather than expecting her to travel to them. At the end of the day it's potentially worth £1000s to them every year (especially if she is a self funder initially as they charge self founders more) so it's worth their while travelling.

they may also accept a social services assessment if one has been completed recommending a particular level of care. I ththink no as part of their registration though they are really supposed to complete their own assessment.

It would be beneficial if your mum has this assessment even if she is going to be self funding initially as it makes things easier in the long run if/when you have to apply for funding from the new local authority.

It's also worthwhile for the reason that you can if you wish ask for your mum to be placed as 'full charge' by the local authority rather than as 'self funding' which should be a bit cheaper for her. The downside of this is that you are limited to homes that will accept the local authorities rates unless you personally are willing to pay a third party top up. The ordinary residence issue isn't really for you to worry about it will be for the two councils to argue about if it ever becomes an issue.

Sorry cherub I wasn't meaning to come across as crabby, I've just dealt with too many complicated OR issues recently. The Care Act was supposed to make it clearer... ha bloody ha!

[hatgirl]

Sorry to be clearer by 'it's worthwhile having this assessment' I mean a social services assessment for residential care.

[hidinginthegarden]

I'm not sure I am help much but would you /she consider a elderly care annuity ? I haven't looked into it properly yet but it would pay care home fees on an on-going basis for an investment. The example I saw was an investment of about 3 yrs worth of fees.
But I'm not recommending - I just came across it as an idea!

[devilinme]

I'd get her assessed for NHS continuing health care (CHC). If she needs care due to medical needs, the NHS pay up to £850 ( I think this is right) per week even if you own your home.

[hatgirl]

CHC is very difficult to get thes days.

To be eligible for it the medical needs usually need to be intense, complex and/or unpredictable in their nature.

[loliya]

Thanks for all your info. She did have an CHC but was refused. Her brain is fully functional, she can hold a conversation and argue her point really succinctly so she is not considered needy enough.