Dementia care but no money?

[overitunderit]

My dad was diagnosed with Alzheimer's a few years ago. Today he casually mentioned he hadn't even thought about care and said there was no money to pay for it other than his share of the house that his wife lives in. The house is probably worth 300k. What happens in a situation like this where someone ends up with care needs and has no savings or money?

Social services will assess his needs and if he has less than £13k they will cover what they think he needs. Between that and £23k he pays a part. Above that it's self funding. Attendance allowance isn't means tested so make sure that's claimed. As long as his wife lives in the house it won't be counted. Age UK are good at advising what benefits can be claimed and about funding.

Thanks for the reply. I'm guessing in that situation we wouldn't get to choose his care home?

He will have to pay a mean tested contribution towards his care fees, this will be based on his income if he has no capital.

When MIL went into a care home we were given a list of suitable homes that didn't need a family top up and DH could express his preference. We were lucky that his favourite had a vacancy in the nick of time. We were in the situation that FIL was insisting he could still cope with looking after her with 4 x daily visits even though he had terminal cancer and she couldn't be left at all so not like she needed a space to get out of hospital. If it's left until it's urgent it's usually a question of where has a vacancy. But that can be the same even if you are self funding.

We were in a very similar situation a couple of years ago.

We checked out all of the local Care homes first by reading the CQC reviews but also read the family and resident reviews. This was during lockdown so we couldn't visit.

We knew that DMIL needed care as she was in Hospital and we were liaising with the Discharge Clerk and her SW.

In the end the SW offered a place in a home with good reviews within walking distance from us and FIL. The home was a little tired but the staff were great and you could tell that they were really fond of her.

Has your DF had a recent Care Needs Assessment? Does he have carers coming in currently?

No he's not at that stage at the moment. He has no involvement from any outside sources at the moment. My dad and his wife seem to prefer not to talk about it or any future contingency planning other than the PoAs they have put in place. I've tried to raise future care with my dad a few times and he is very non committal about it and it's clear he doesn't want to discuss it.

No he's not at that stage at the moment. He has no involvement from any outside sources at the moment. My dad and his wife seem to prefer not to talk about it or any future contingency planning other than the PoAs they have put in place. I've tried to raise future care with my dad a few times and he is very non committal about it and it's clear he doesn't want to discuss it

I think denial is pretty common. DFIL also insisted that he wanted to "keep her at home" without any real understanding of what caring fit another human involved, let alone one with Dementia.

It's all so frustrating and probably upsetting for you, especially if they are refusing to do things that would no doubt make things easier for themselves, like his DW contacting the local Carers group.