Top up fees

[Losingthewill2live]

My mum needs residential care.

SW was out today and recommends respite as a way of ‘testing the water’ for her as she’s quite reluctant.

She is a pensioner on benefits.

Our local trust has £748 pw as its rate.

Local residential care home charges £867 pw.

It will be up to us (adult children) to pay the £119 weekly shortfall. Am I right?

I’m on a very steep learning curve here so please bear with me as a lot of this is still a mystery to me.

this might be useful
https://www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/care/paying-for-care/paying-for-a-care-home/top-up-fees/

My stepfather is in a home. They charge £850, he pays £200 from his income a week towards the cost, the LA pay the rest (£650).

Care home will charge LA a lot less than the publicised rate.

In the UK, Adult children cannot be forced to pay for their elderly parents’ care.

If the elderly person has no assets, wealth, savings, then it is the local authority’s responsibility to find a home within budget. They cannot legally say ‘there’s nothing so the adult children will have to pay a top up’.

Bear in mind that the LA within-budget option might not be close to you for visiting and might not be uber fancy.

If you agree to top up, then you will likely be liable for all increases in fees.

No they can’t say adult DC have to pay.

Has your mother had a financial assessment done?

If the LA are agreeing to pay for the care home fees, they are only obliged to fund up to the cost of the cheapest option - which may not be the home that you want her to go to.

If you / she wants to go somewhere else which has higher fees, someone has to pay the extra costs involved: it’s usually a third party, often family. Basically, being willing / able to pay top up fees gives you more choice over where she goes.

There should also have been a care needs assessment - this will tell you whether the fully-funded /cheapest care home option is suitable for your mums needs.

'Top up' is, fir example, if tbe person chooses to have a larger room, which attracts, say £80 pw top up.

Remember she can claim attendance allowance and they can use that and take her pension also.

If an older person is being funded by the local authority to be in a care home, they can no longer claim attendance allowance.
The person will need to have a financial assessment to determine how much their assessed contribution will be.