Deferred payment agreement

[justteanbiscuits]

My Mum has vascular dementia and LBD. She was living alone, and when she started wandering at night, she moved into a really nice home last year. She, and us (her kids) chose for her to move before it an emergency so she could be involved in the decision.

She was assessed by social services, and turned down for any residential help, though they offered to fund carers 3 times a day (but no overnight which was the danger time as it were). So looked at her finances and decided, with selling her house, self funding was the right thing to do.

How ever, since getting FPA, it turns out her financial position isn't as good as we thought (long story involving a loan), and her house isn't selling and we're out of money. I have been funding the last 5 months, and the last of my savings was used up by this months payment (her home costs 3 x what I earn a month so this is a huge thing over our head at the moment!).

We applied for Deferred Payment Agreement in January and were told it would take around 6 weeks. Due to council incompetence, them mislaying documents etc etc we still haven't received a decision from them, and they're still giving us "6 weeks till decision" line.

Her dementia has progressed quite rapidly over the last 3 months, and she now has very little truly lucid time. She knows where she is about 50% of the time, but not WHY she is there, or that it is a care home. She can spend days trapped in utterly awful nightmares, and will talk at length about having just returned from a weekend away and the like, and keeps packing to go on holiday. She's 'happy enough' 75% of the time, but the other 25% she is so so distressed. This is to say, going home is NOT an option for her. Social services have refused to reassess until September.

Anyone have any idea what we can do about the deferred payment scheme? Or what might happen if they still fail to get it arranged? I'm very uncomfortable about approaching the home and saying, basically, we can't pay. Any other magic ideas?

You need to talk to the home. My grandmother was self funding and we didn't pay the bill until after she had died and that the house had been sold.

That's what the deferred payment agreement (DPA) is. The council funds it until the person dies and you repay, with a small level of interest.

Unfortunately, it's looking like we will run out of money before the council bother sorting our DPA. No one informed us about DPA when she moved into the home else this would have all started a year ago and hopefully be sorted by now!

This was arranged directly with the home - the council wasn’t involved at all.

Wow. OK, well, I know this isn't something the care home offers as the contract is very clear about when payments must be made by and that residents unable to pay will be expected to move out if social services won't cover their care.

There are several things that could delay a DPA. Everything has to be checked out by the LA to ensure it meets all of the conditions for a DPA and this takes time.
You mentioned a loan that has caused problems. Was this an equity release loan on her property? If so, the company who provided the equity release will have a charge on the property and sometimes they are very reluctant to agree to the LA adding another charge on the property. Many just completely refuse.
Also, there has to be enough equity in the property to cover two years of care home fees.
Perhaps call your LA and ask to speak to someone in the department dealing with DPA’ and explain your difficulties and find out if there are any problems.

I've called the LA a number of times. They just say they're still dealing with it and it takes 6 weeks. They are unable to understand we applied 16 weeks ago and just keep repeating the 6 week line. They say they have everything they need.

The loan wasn't equity release and has been fully repaid. And the equity in her house is enough to cover about 7 years of care. We hope it won't come to that as her needs are getting more and more and we hope social services will start paying towards it.

If they're going to turn it down we need to know as at that point we will need to do an equity release on her house.. which I don't even know if we can do on her behalf with POA. It's the lack of decision and huge fear that my Mum could be expected to live independently again - which would mean me having to leave my job and my husband / kids which would be pretty disastrous for me and my family. But with a disabled son, my sibling is in even less of a position to do that.