I have an elderly relative who has been in and out of hospital & is currently in respite care. She lives about an hour away from us.
It has been decided that she would like to move to care home - self funded as she has a shared ownership property - the care needs assessment supports this.
As it is a shared property, there are certain procedures to adhere to, involving certain costs, and we are also applying for a DPA.
We have applied for both health & financial power of attorney, which are pending ( as of 10th October).
My relative, earlier on this year, was suffering from steroid induced psychosis - resulting from her treatment for multiple myeloma. This was in part why she ended up in hospital & then respite care as she was unsafe in her home. Her psychosis is now resolved, but she remains frail.
During this time her bank account was restricted / frozen - they were aware she was suffering psychosis. To gain access to her funds, we were advised by the bank to first supply confirmation that she had capacity from either a dr, nurse or social worker
& then she would have to complete security checks to verify her identity.
We got the social worker to email that she had capacity & then phoned the bank to establish her identity with the security checks. This had to be done by RelayUk ( text / speak) as my relative has become profoundly deaf. She unfortunately couldn’t remember her password - she has not been home by this point since June & is very frail, mainly bedbound & tires easily - so her account remains frozen.
At this point the bank also said they did not accept the information given by the social worker, as although it said that her psychosis was resolved & that she had capacity to decide that she wanted to go to a care home & the impact of that, it also said she hadn’t had a formal assessment regarding her capacity in regard to her property & finance.
So that is where we are at - my elderly relative wants to move to a home, her shared ownership property takes her over the threshold of £23,250, which means she needs to self fund. She has about £7k in her bank account at present. To do this she must sell her property within the 12 week disregard but she must also apply for a DPA in case this is not possible. To start the process of selling the house she has to get it valued by a chartered surveyor & get a solicitor but she can’t access her bank account to do so (we don’t have the funds to help at this time). Without the valuation she can’t apply for a DPA. Without confirmation of finances, she can’t get a care home place.
As we don’t have POA yet, the bank have said that they will pay certain bills on her behalf if we send in copies - I.e., care home fees - but she doesn’t have the available funds to finance this until she sells her house. However fees pertaining to the selling of her house will not be considered until she satisfies their check that she has financial capacity & the social workers email does not say she has.
It’s a viscous circle & I don’t know what to do next? I can’t chase the POA until 20 weeks have passed apparently? I have a document from my relative to say she is happy for us to act on our behalf in lieu of POA but it wasn’t witnessed & is therefore unofficial. The bank won’t budge - we need to get a dr to write that she has capacity which we are trying to get - they will need to visit the care home to do that as she was discharged from her own surgery when she was moved to the respite home. Then we need to get her into a branch (phone was no good, despite using RelayUK) to pass her security checks but she is very frail & tires easily. We are obviously trying to do this, but we are up against her social worker who wants her moved from respite care asap.
We worry that she will be discharged home with no access to funds…….