Care Home - funding for extras

[nokitchen]

Hello, not sure where to ask for this. My sibling is in a care home, solely funded by council. I told them I will buy extra things, such as pay for holidays, special furniture etc, but have been asked to pay for new glasses following a sight test. If someone's in a care home would this normally be paid for from their benefits? They receive PIP and a pension and all this is looked after by the home. I've no idea what is reasonable

The care home can manage benefits income under appointeeship. Meet with them, check they have set this up, any costs such as the glasses, clothing, should come out of this. Does he have any savings ie a bank account your mum may have managed for him? If so then yes you’ll need to speak with the Social worker re who is going to manage that.

You just want to be his sister? What a sad situation and I'm guessing there is more background to this. Did your Mum keep him at home and just expect you to do the same ie look after him? Did she not think about what would happen?

@ThisIsMeToooo that's exactly what the situation was. Mum kept him at home all his life and tried to coerce me into looking after him when she died. Social services were excellent at trying to get her to engage but she was having none of it. He's happier than I've ever seen him in his life now. He has friends for the first time.

That's lovely!

You don't have to pay for anything

if he doesn't have any savings/capital and his only income is from his benefits then this can be managed via DWP appointeeship. The care home can manage the remaining £24-30 a week he gets left after that and he shouldn't be paying for his glasses anyway.

No need to hassle the social worker for deputyship if he doesn't have any other savings or assets or income other than his benefits and no reason to believe that will change at any time.

Will the sw or carehome need to apply for deputyship for him to be in the carehome, DOLS, medication, personal care etc to make best interest decisions.

Did your mum have deputyship? Social services can take this over and manage his finances or there's people who will do it for you that you can appoint. It's not overly arduous though - once a year dp submits an excel spreadsheet of costs sent by the care home plus her bank statement and benefits letters (each year there's one stating the rate for the year, that's enough, plus this year the extra cost of living bonus payments.)

No one needs to apply for deputyship if the only income is from benefits and - it can be managed by DWP appointeeship and everything except the personal allowance goes to the care home.

DoLs is entirely disconnected from anything to do with finances. It's just a safeguard to ensure that someone is being lawfully deprived of their liberty in a care home.

deputyship is only about making financial decisions for someone, it doesn't give the deputy any greater powers to decide things around medications or personal care.

Hatgirl, thanks. Is a welfare deputy that needs to be appointed then for someone who lacks capacity and needs to live in a carehome, its quite confusing.

People who are 'welfare deputies' have usually been given lasting power of attorney for health and welfare decisions by someone before they lost capacity to make those decisions (or going back even further the old style enduring power of attorney).

Its different to financial deputyship because it's much more personal so the courts don't tend to award it if the person themselves hasn't asked for it via Lasting Power of Attorney arrangements.

however, financial deputyship is often required if the person has property or savings which are needed to be used to pay care home fees, the courts award financial deputyship because it's basically impossible to manage someone's finances without it if it's more complicated than just arranging for the appropriate benefits to be paid.

it's not IMPOSSIBLE to be awarded deputyship for welfare decisions but it's very rare because the vast majority of the time welfare decisions can appropriately made using the mental capacity act via best interests processes and disputes about welfare decisions are referred to the court of protection anyway.

In answer to your actual question though, there is no requirement for anyone to have a welfare deputy and it's not needed for anyone to go into a care home.

if the person hasn't appointed a Lasting Power of Attorney for health and welfare decisions who can make that decision for them then the State will make a best interests decision using the mental capacity act (and this should involve the views of any relatives).

Thanks again, I just remember the carehome having to apply to the Court of Protection for every aspect of someones care but cannot remember if anyone had to pay for it.

I have never paid for my mothers glasses, whenever she has a sight test the optician always tries it on to get me to pay for a fancier pair but I always tell them to stick to the free ones.
They always get lost so I'm not paying for something I'll have to replace in a few weeks or months.

Thank you everyone. I do appreciate the input on this. It's all very new to me. I want to do my best by him, but not become too involved as I'm getting older too

if the person hasn't appointed a Lasting Power of Attorney for health and welfare decisions who can make that decision for them then the State will make a best interests decision using the mental capacity act (and this should involve the views of any relatives).

What happens if the care home, doctors, whoever don’t hold a best interests meeting, and don’t ask the views of the relatives? They just go ahead and carry out their own decisions, and the relatives aren’t consulted and don’t agree? What remedy is there for the relatives?

It would depend on the situation but the mental capacity act allows for e.g carers and medical professionals to make day to day decisions in a person's best interests without having a best interests meeting each and every time because as I'm sure you would agree, that would be ridiculous.

Best interests meetings are (in simple terms) for when the decisions will cause the status quo to be changed, for examples changes to accommodation.

The guidance is for relatives to be consulted on things like care plans etc DNARs etc as best practice.

It doesn't override/replace a clinical decision that has been made, such as for example the DNAR situation.

If family dispute a decision that has been made then they can ask for a best interests interests meeting to be held about it, and if they still don't agree with it after that then it could be referred to the court of protection.

Hi
My daughter is in a nursing home is 33 in a wheelchair full time.
Has got bad and hoarding disorder and self harm.
My issue is she is left I'm her room by herself all day as feels unsafe by herself .
She is really lonely as know carers ever bother with her. So says she wants to be dead.
I don't drive and have health issues and go to see her as often as I can.
Is there any way I could get someone to go and sit and play games with her for awhile.
It breaks my heart she feels like that . Don't know were to start for support or advice.

Do you/does she have funds to hire someone to come in and do that? Otherwise look for a voluntary scheme in the area. The nursing home should have an activities coordinator, and they need to find some way of including her.