Elderly Dad with dementia has been in hospital with an infection and looks like will need a care home when he comes out. he's in Scotland so not sure if the funding is a bit different there. He is still waiting on a needs assessment from the local council which has taken, months if not years.
I just thought I would run through his situation here to see if this sounds right, as others might have been through the same.
He was recently in a care home for respite care and when I spoke with the posh care home manager recently when he was in for the respite care we discussed how people afford the fees, he said people top up the funding with state pension / other savings / attendance allowance.
When dad's savings go down to approx 23K it seems he would be eligible for help with funding from the council, so to start with he would be using his savings to pay it all anyway until it reached that level. Which would be a few months I suppose. Would need to calculate that.
Then, he could use the 23K plus any state pension he receives (which should continue, need to check if he gets that or not) along with the attendance allowance and council funding to cover the costs. All non means tested benefits continue but pension credit and housing benefit would stop when he left sheltered housing and went into a home permanently.
So as well as waiting on this assessment from social services it would be a question of calculating all if this and seeing if it will cover the costs
Then also looking at a cheaper care home than the respite one used recently as well
He is I think at present on the lower rate of attendance allowance, but he should be eligible for a higher rate if he needs care at night (which he would do with risk of falls at night etc, along with incontinence, I expect).
There is a welfare person who could help sort that change out, I understand attendance allowance sent out a form for change of circumstances, maybe she could do that for us as it does take a few weeks for them to process it.
I guess if dad went into a care home now paid for solely with his savings (as would be expected to happen anyway assessment of not, until he reached 23K) it would be a question of bothering the council for the assessment before it got to that level as that is when the funding would be needed
Then the combination of the 23K, the increased attendance allowance (think it is around £100 a week) and any state pension Dad receives all of which would continue) would hopefully cover the costs.
I still have the name of the welfare advisor who did dad's attendance allowance forms so I could contact them to get that sorted out.
Somewhere like the Age UK Scotland charity might also be helpful with arranging all of this for example.
I guess the other option would be he goes back to his flat with an enhanced care package and more support perhaps from the Home instead carers, they would not be there e.g overnight though.