Funded nursing care fees from council - care home didn't declare it

[Solastyeardotcom1]

My dad was in a nursing care home. We were told it would cost £x per week- fine. After meeting with social worker, I was told he should qualify for Funded Nursing Care -£110 per week. I applied to the council and it was successful. Council then turned round and said the nursing home had already applied months ago on dad's behalf. However we weren't told about this . I queried it with the home and said surely you now owe dad a refund in fees? They said no it was perfectly normal and as it cost them more to care for dad that money was absorbed. We have always paid the maximum weekly fees. Surely this is just a fudge and they are just bagging the money. Should we have received a reduction on our fees ?

I would imagine they do owe you a refund. I'd want to know how they did the assessment without you knowing. Is your dad able to sign forms himself because when I did these assessments I would go through them with the patient and family as appropriate. There is even a box for the patient or family to sign.

If the costs were more than the fees then they should have talked about this with you and looked at reassessing care needs. I would be shocked if what they have done is legal.

I would let your dad's social worker know. If it is essentially theft, or financial abuse then they are in a strong position to tackle the home about it. If they have done it to your dad then they may also have done it to others and Social Services would be interested in knowing that.

The only thing I query is that you wouldn't usually apply to the council for nursing care, its the CCG that pay for any health related care.

By any chance do the council pay the care home directly and then invoice you for it?

Thanks for this. Well sadly dad passed away and I've been stewing about this in between grieving and a million other things. I spoke to the council and they said sounds odd - didn't bloomed get back to me though ( no surprise rise there!) executor says doubt you'll get refund as they'll claim it as additional costs of looking after him. Tbh in the scheme of things it's not a. Massive amount of money but I just wonder if they are doing it to all the other poor old buggers who aren't aware ? Morally that's wrong isn't it ?

Thanks hat girl. Not sure cgt? No we always paid fees direct to home .

sorry to hear that Solastyeardotcom1

what often happens is that social services pay the home, collect the FNC contribution from the CCG (Clinical Commissioning Groups - what used to be known as the PCTs) and then charge the family for their contribution minus the FNC (in this case it sounds like your dad was means tested to having to pay the full amount).

The scenario you describe is that the you as the family pay the home privately and social services have no involvement in paying the home. It is unusual then that the the social worker would then chase up on your behalf the FNC as in that scenario it isn't really anything to do with the social worker or the local authority. If you don't mind telling me it would be helpful if you could let me know what the context of your conversation with the social worker was.

It depends on timescales really, the home may have given you as the family a price having already deducted the FNC from your cost knowing they could apply for it separately. That might be the case if he wasn't with them very long, if he had been there years and years its possibly slightly different.

Its one of those situations where the detail makes all the difference

although TBF it is odd anyway as usually homes don't care who is paying them as long as it gets paid....

I've seen this too , with a self-funded person in a care home that's part of a national chain. It ran to thousands and the money was refunded, but only after the care home realised their sleight of hand explanations weren't accepted. Have you tried CAB? I wouldn't expect SW to care unfortunately, as it's not their money, and they seem to let self-funders sink or swim.

If the care home advertises their fee as £x per week and the contact says £x per week then they can't later decide to charge a bit more. There could be additional costs e.g. if they arrange haircuts or provide other extras that weren't already paid for, but it'd be very odd if those extras exactly balanced the nursing care contribution.

the contract.says £x per week.

Sorry bad form not replying sooner. Thanks for your advice. Think I will contact the council and ask them again. Sounds like smoke and mirrors !