can deferred payments also be used for live-in care from an agency?

[NotAnEMERGENCY]

(I am also posting this in the 'dementia' topic.)

Does anyone know whether the council's deferred payment can be used towards care agency fees? Or can it ONLY be used for care home fees?

MIL has vascular dementia and has been self-funding live-in care from an agency for 3 years. She will run out of savings soon and will need to move into a care home. We were intending to use the council's deferred payment loan for the care home fees until her house has been sold. We were thinking of moving her in a couple of months, giving my OH some time to try to get her used to the idea of moving. (The combination of dementia, lockdown and us not living locally makes this all rather challenging!)

We have just found out that the care agency want to start adding 'waking night' care, meaning she will run out of savings much sooner than we had originally anticipated (potentially

Hello

No you cant use a deferred payment for dom care in the home.

Speak to your area social services, explain that she is running out of funds - assume this is to the £23,250 threshold rather than completely running out? - and ask for an assessment asap with view to residential care with a deferred payment. If she is assessed as eligible they will pick up the funding now and sort the DPA.

If her funds have run out and she can also have dom care at home funded by SS but not as much as it sounds like she needs.

I'm not sure I quite understand this. The deferred payment scheme is to allow time to sell the home because the proceeds of the sale are needed for care home fees.

But if she's receiving care while still loving in the home, then the value of the home is disregarded in the financial assessment, so the deferred payment scheme doesn't apply because there is no need to sell the home.

When she runs out of savings, her care will be funded by social services. But they won't pay for more care than they think she needs, or pay for waking overnight care if it would be more expensive than placing her in a care home.

They definitely won't pay for the level of care OP is saying she needs as dom care in the home.

I work for social services and we only usually fund put to 4 double ups a day in the home. This is often as much as a residential placement but if it keeps the person at home then it's worth it. We rarely pay for overnight care, if we do its usually an emergency and short term.

So yes, if she has run out of money and needs no more than 4 double up calls a day to be safe then that can be done. Her income will be assessed though and will probably still have to contribute.

Other local authorities to mine may play it slightly differently but ultimately it's about best value for them, because the budget doesn't grow on the agricultural money tree.

You need to call SS straight away though as they won't back date any pick up of funding, it can only go from the day they were made aware of it.

Thanks for all your replies!

To clarify: She will definitely be moving into a care home, it's just that we are worried we won't be able to get her to move into a home before her bank balance gets to zero.

She has already dropped below the £23,250 threshold and now only has enough money for less than a month's worth of care agency fees. My OH started asking the council about direct payments to contribute to her dom care back in mid-Jan (before she reached the £23k threshold) but they have been EXCEEDINGLY slow in responding and getting anything sorted. They assure us it will be backdated to when she reached the threshold but really we need money going into her account NOW to delay her running out of savings to pay the care agency.

We had originally been planning to move her into a care home within about 6 weeks (to 'build up' her understanding of the situation and get her used to the idea of a home etc) but the fact that the agency want to start 'waking nights' care means she will run out of cash much sooner.

That's why we wanted to know whether a deferred payment loan can also be used for dom care (given that her house will definitely be going on the market ASAP) to buy us a bit more time.

I have tried phoning the social care team at the council but all of the numbers I have are going through to voicemail and no one is calling me back! It is so frustrating!