'Fairer Contributions' towards care going to leave Mum with very little money to live on!

[birdybirdbird]

Does the following seem right in the current age of austerity? Or should I go back and get this re- assessed?

Mum has just received an Alzheimers diagnosis which sits alongside a whole load of other issues.
Her only source of income is ESA benefit. PIP assessment is an ongoing saga and she is under pensionable age.
She pays TV licence, water, home insurance etc and has reduced council tax.

She is in a LOT of debt to the electricity company, which I am currently trying to sort.
She continually dips into her overdraft and so gets bank fees.
I pay her phone and careline alarm bills.

The council have assessed her as needing to pay £30 a week towards her care. So £120 a month. By my calculations (including a rough estimate of her electricity usage bill), this would leave her with £57 a week. My calculations don't include the fact that she has energy debts she needs to pay off OR the overdraft fees she accrues.
Does this seem fair/in line with what you would expect?? I have no real clue about these things so am trying to gauge opinion. Have I made the situation worse by paying some of her bills for her? She was just in so much debt before that I had to sort some of it - my aunt lent cash to pay off her massive overdraft. I thinking we've made the situation worse as she's ended up being assessed as better off than she really is!

The "dipping into the overdraft" needs to stop if at all possible, depending on why thats happening it might be worth seeing if it can be totally removed - if shes struggling with Alzheimers and is dipping in to get snacks/fags/etc without realising its costing a crazy fee then it might be better to not have it.

That's a fair point @StormTreader. My worry about getting rid of it though is if she has spent all her money and then a Direct Debit is due to come out, it bounces... This was basically how she ended up in debt in the first place. Well, that and the bipolar disorder spending habits! Payments to various places weren't authorised as she didn't have enough funds, she got fined by the bank every time and she ended up with home insurance being cancelled etc etc. I had no idea any of this was going on until she ended up in hospital last year and started going through it all!

I find all the financial stuff so hard to deal with - doesn't help that I live hundreds of miles away either...

My council also takes all income over jsa level even though DWP say you need more to live on. I'd get electric to charge monthly use plus debt bill so you can show them. She does need have enough to live on.

My council let me keep low PIp care towards actual disability expenses they then take the rest. I get keep mobility which means can just about keep head above water.

Could you get cab or age uk to check her benefits? Sounds very little.

Would it be possible to go to a two bank account system then? One that the bills come out of that has the money to pay them moved in as soon the money comes in, and then she can spend the money thats left from an account with no overdraft?

It sounds as if part of the problem, at least, is to do with her inability to manage her spending. Benefits, even if sufficient, wont cover that.

Also if the bank gets a sense there is a problem, and a problem which might get worse, they may well cancel her account/overdraft, not least as part of a duty of care.

Is there anyway she would allow you to step in, and manage her living expenses (not much work if you can get DDs set up) probably via a POA, and then leave her with the sort of student type account where she can withdraw money, but not set up direct debits or have an overdraft. You will probably need to step in at some point, and as someone who ended up spending a full year sorting out my mums chaotic finance, my advice is the earlier the better. You will save time in the long run.

(I have done this with my mum, and have a phone app, so if she or a carer need money in an emergency it can be transferred into this account by me using a phone app. But otherwise it is simply a pocket money account.)

If, even with her spending capacity limited, no overdraft fees, and a good look at things like utility bills, you can't make the figures add up, you probably need to go to CAB, MIND or Age UK and get someone to help with an appeal.

You and she could talk to the bank about changing her bank account to a Basic Bank Account www.moneysavingexpert.com/banking/basic-bank-accounts.

But this would only be a temporary, minor help. I agree she also needs someone to have a Power of Attorney.

Sorry, birdybirdbird, it all sounds rather shit.

It sounds like you need to take over full management of her finances - and getting this arranged while she still has enough presence of mind to agree to it is really important as it becomes much more difficult if you wait until she no longer has capacity to consent.

Her living expenses are greater than they need to be because she has reduced capacity to make sensible decisions. The sooner you step in, the less bad the mess that needs clearing up. It is only going to get worse if you delay.

www.moneysavingexpert.com/family/power-of-attorney