In care homeniw how to fund it!

[Silverbirch2]

Dh grandmother is now setting into a care home. Dh is awaiting POA and we with other family members are starting to look to the future as she has under £23000 savings that are going to disappear quickly. So we're looking at house sale. Anything we have missed? I'm thinking we need to sell asap to fund care.
Dh grandmother obviously still has capacity and understands what is going on and has agreed this needs to be done- (shes shocked at the cost of the home and sad she has to sell as she wanted to split it to give to family!)

Have you had a financial assessment with Social Services? If they are involved I believe that payments can be paused until the house is sold.

Does she get Attendance Allowance? It’s not means tested, and provided she is fully funding, no local authority contribution, she can still get it while she’s in a care home. It’s not much compared with care home costs, but every little helps. The fact that you all feel a care home is necessary suggests she may be able to get it.

I had social services involved with my grandmothers care, they advised me to sell her house and they would only get involved once that money ran out and she was down to below 23k, they then washed their hands of her and the money went down fast! I had to do an account with the care home on the promise of the house sale, once sold I paid them back the money owed, when her money ran out we did a financial assessment with social services and they advised what she needed to contribute per month from her pension, they get to keep around £23 a week, but her private pension was also subject to their assessment too so basically they take most of it. Good luck with it all, I found it all very difficult, selling the house was the easiest part for us.

Get social services involved. They may be able to do a deferred payment scheme

www.moneyhelper.org.uk/en/family-and-care/long-term-care/deferred-payment-agreements-for-long-term-care

@MereDintofPandiculation she has £20000 savings does this make a difference? I think she had an assessment ...... care home is £750 a week so I'm guessing theres council top up?

Thank you all- seems complicated! And different family members doing different bits isnt helping 🙈

I think they get around £500 per week from the council direct to the care home, possibly more or less for different areas

It is easier if one person takes control of it all, the social worker assigned will ask for one point of contact to deal with meetings/forms etc

@Thewayshetalks yes her 65 year old son is point of contact as he was doing alot of 'care' he seems vague and confused over what's going on. My dh ( her grandson) has gone for POA which was her choice. We live miles away so this is as good as we can do.

The council contribution is not very much but her pension(s) should cover a reasonable chunk of the cost; it doesn't all come out of savings so they may last longer than you think.

There's no particular significance to £20,000 if there is still a house that can be sold. I think the significance is that when/if she gets down to the last £20,000 of everything, then the council start to pay in full. But I never reached that point with DM.

You can get council tax exemption for the house if the only resident has gone into care. Don't forget to cancel the TV license. I suggest you go through a few months bank statements to see what has been paid out and what can be either cancelled or refunds requested.

Strictly the house insurance becomes invalid if the house is empty for more than 30 days. I would try to make it look lived in, with lights and radio on timers.

Redirect the post, either to you or to your mother. But better you so that you know what is going on. Also sign up for the service that is supposed to stop junk mail. Mail Preference Service??

@filka thankyou-things I hadn't even though of there!

The additional insurance payment for the house being empty was reasonable - i don't remember what it was but just that it was reasonable. Don't be afraid to call the insurers and tell them that the house is empty from (date), yes they will charge a bit extra but then you know that the property is still covered. They asked that someone went in once a week and that there was minimal heating over the winter to stop the pipes freezing.

Is it possible to let the house to help cover some of the costs and avoid eating into so much of the property's value?

@RosesAndHellebores good idea, not even considered that

My dad was in same position. If she owns the house then they will pay for her care contributione as she has over the threshold of the £23500 because the house is Included in the attributes. He was in private care first which is a lot cost me around 4k a month as he had over the threshold so NHS wasn't applicable apparently. He had to go into private until the money ran out. An NHS place came avaliable as money dwindled under the threshold and he moved.

Dads dwindled and we transferred him to a NHS one which took his contribution each month. They took all of his government pension and by law they have to leave them with at least £10 a month. Anything such as private pension isn't taken. It may sound like a lot but dad had to buy own pads for incontinence. They did refer him to continence service but covid back log meant he lost more savings as he had to pay around 50 a month for them.

If meet criteria maybe entitled continuing health care which means government pay costs instead of person who needs care.

I know this might sound bad but dad didn't have capacity and you mentioned your nan does. Would a warden controlled place be better. I know where I live they have built some with craft room in. No this might not be applicable but cost maybe less.

Anymore information please let me know

Strictly the house insurance becomes invalid if the house is empty for more than 30 days. I would try to make it look lived in, with lights and radio on timers. Sensible precautions, but don’t try to deceive your insurers. If anything did happen you’d find you were not insured.

Has she been assessed for CHC funding?

If successful this would cover her care home fees.

If she has under threshold savings / investments etc as well as a property she was living in (& no other properties) at time of admission to care home, you can ask local authority (adult social care) for an assessment and financial assessment. She may be entitled to 12 weeks property disregard funding which is LA helping out for first up to 12 weeks and they will advise you about applying for a deferred payment against property (not strictly a loan against property but sort of like that) if it takes longer to sell her property. So based on very limited info you shared she may be entitled to some LA funding assistance before she becomes self funding.

CHC criteria is set very high so don't let that take you down a rabbit hole. If she isn't even in a Nursing home, rather than a residential home, her needs are in general less unlikely to be anywhere near CHC level. But you can always look on "HM Gov continuing healthcare" website to see... (look at the HMGOV website only not other websites offering you "help" to claim it as often they cost and aren't as helpful as they claim to be)

Threshold savings /investments are £23.250 in total. The value of her sole property (she was living in) if so can sometimes be disregarded for first 12 weeks as explained, the value of this is included after then.

The local authority adult social care will likely have information about paying for care in care homes (their financial charging policy) that you can look up online.

They took all of his government pension and by law they have to leave them with at least £10 a month.

It's called Personal Expenses Allowance (PEA) if someone is funded by LA in a care home and they are financially assessed (all their income etc) to pay towards it. Current PEA rates are about £26 per week in England (higher in Wales and Scotland)

Refer your DGM in law quickly (get her LPA finances or adult DD or DS to do so) to her local social care sept as they cannot backdate further than when you contacted them for assessment under the care act 2014. & what I've explained covers up to first 12 weeks of chargeable placement only.

If she has capacity to sign financial documents and relative doesn't yet have POA that relative can 'informally' help her to fill out financial forms and be involved in financial assessment as long as DGM in law signs and is involved and in agreement in financial assessment and no unreasonable delays in completing that process.

Disclaimer : I'm a social worker but not her social worker so I can only say what is generally available public information on financial assessments and poasibilities to consider- and is dependent on her actual individual care assessment outcome & financial eligibility decision from her actual financial assessment

The bar is set high for CHC funding but it isn’t impossible to achieve.Two of my relatives got it.

The key factor in getting funding isn’t how ill/infirm the patient is, but how unstable their condition is, and how much nursing and medical care they require.

I would give it a go.

www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/money-work-and-benefits/nhs-continuing-healthcare/

@HogInAManger
I appreciate that you think this will help, but until OP gets a social care assessment this is all a moot point.

Nothing OP said would indicate anywhere near a CHC level of need and therefore I stick to my point that it's a red herring, unnecessary complication that is unlikely to be relevant

I do CHC social care assessments all the time (and also had a relative who did get CHC funding when they were incredibly unwell with unpredictable behaviours to related to a brain tumour),

Ime MNers bandy around CHC without understanding how high the NHS criteria is set in terms of the 4 measure or "complexity, of a nature, unpredictability and intensity". All of which must be evidenced by health and nursing care records which I doubt a standard residential placement would do without there having been lots of evidence they cannot meet her needs without extra funding. No where near a £750 weekly rate..!

Here is the HM Gov guidance on CHC

www.gov.uk/government/collections/nhs-continuing-healthcare-and-nhs-funded-nursing-care

I wish that MNers stoped misguiding people about CHC
😞
Every social worker I know considers this and does a Chc checklist if they think someone might even meet the (very low level) CHC checklist. Very few people that get a positive CHC checklist and go into full CHC MDT 60 page decision support tool (DST) are actually assessed as full CHC eligible