Financial assessment for care for someone who has no idea how much money they have

[arejcenencehche3uh9f3]

What do council/social services do when trying to carry out a financial assessment on someone who has no idea how much money they have (and nor does their family)?

MIL has recently been discharged to a nursing home following a very long stay in hospital. Partner has been going round in circles for weeks now with social services calling him to try and find out whether his mum is over the 23250 threshold for paying for her own care and him telling them that he doesn't have POA and has no idea of her finances, even a rough one. The calls stopped for a bit and we assumed they had finally got an answer from her but it's all started up again.

She deflects /evades/changes the subject or claims not to know whenever anyone asks her whether she's got roughly that much money or not, which is probably why SS are hassling him.

We live a very long way from her house so it's not easy for us to pop round and look for bank statements, assuming that there are any. But is there any other way to solve this? And what happens if we can't find anything?

[CurlsnSunshinetime4tea]

i would contact the public guardian and trustee's office.
Office of the Public Guardian - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

i'm not in the uk but the same group does the same job in the country i'm in. they can access and review all accounts.

[MereDintofPandiculation]

If you were in the same situation as executor for a will, you would write round all the banks and building societies to see if they held accounts in her name. There are companies that will do this for you for I think about £200. But of course without PoA you have no right to this info. All you can do is bat it back to Social Services.

And if it’s not too late, I’d be inclined to “get rid” of that key to her house.

[AllEars112232]

If you don’t have a LPA and the office of the public guardian have to get involved it will be VERY costly.
Is your MiL of sound mind and just being obstructive? Or is she unable to look after her own affairs?

if she is being obstructive then it might be best for you
/your DH to take time off and go in person to speak to her. If she has the funds SS will not give up, so she’d be best advised to be honest and share the information they need. It will be cheaper in the long run than getting the OPG involved.

[GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER]

If anyone with mental capacity is refusing to give the info, I don’t know, but I’d imagine that SS would refuse to pay, on the grounds that they’ve seen it all before - i.e. people who’ll try anything to get out of paying.

[Icedlatteplease]

I should imagine she'll lose the access to care if it is deemed she still has capacity.

[lazarusb]

Social services need to assess her capacity for finances. If she doesn't have capacity, a deputy will need to be appointed. Or at least an appointed to deal with her benefits and state pension etc. Does she own a property?

[Octavia64]

This suggests that if she does not co-operate she will be deemed to have enough money and will have to pay.

https://www.proceduresonline.com/sutton/adults/pfinn_assess.html#:~:text=By%20refusing%20to%20engage%20in,through%20the%20courts%20if%20necessary).

Section 14

[Smokeysgirl]

I recently had to do a social care financial assessment on behalf of my husband, as he is mentally ill and needs care via local council. I openly told them all our financial details, but when I was reading through all the information before the financial assessment, it stated that if someone refused to comply with the financial assessment, ie refuse to disclose their financial position, it would be assumed they had more than the £23,500 figure and they would not get any financial help to pay for care.

[EmmaGrundyForPM]

OP Social Worker here.

Assuming you're in England, if your mother has capacity but refuses to disclose her finances, then the LA will not fund her care.

If she hasn't got capacity but there's no LPA in place then it's a nightmare.

[arejcenencehche3uh9f3]

Thanks all.

Partner thinks she genuinely doesn't know or can't remember. I think she's also in denial and doesn't want to talk about any of it.

She was cognitively fine before she went into hospital but she seems to have mild cognitive issues now. Mainly short term memory issues. but the odd instance of delusion.

DP visited her recently and asked about money but she dodged the question and changed the subject. She has form for constantly interrupting and talking over the top of people and it has always been very difficult to have a conversation with her. He doesn't seem able to get her to shut up and listen. 

I think he realises he's going to have to go to her house ASAP to try to resolve this which is a pain as her house is not only quite far from us but also difficult to get to from the nursing home so he will probably have to stay over. 

She passed the CHC checklist and is having the full assessment in a couple of weeks so the money may become a non issue if she passes. DP will attend the assessment in the hope of finding out anything useful. We don't have her prognosis (another thing she says she doesn't know anything about) but I think she's likely only got a few months left.