care homes and money

[mrshess]

Hi looking for advice for my gran. She is looking at going into a care home as she can no longer manage at home even with family going every day but she is worried she is going to lose her money.
She has about £20,000 in savings and she does realise she will have to pay but do they use all of her savings or is there a limit of what they will take? thanks

Does she own her own home? If so she may have to sell it and use the proceeds to pay for the home. The state only pay for care homes if you have no money or if you have a terminal illness such as cancer. And she will also have to use her own savings. I think they let you keep £12,000.

I know this as my gran had to sell her house to pay for her care home even though she is totally disabled and unable to live by herself, needing 24hr care.

No she rents her house so all she has is this £20000. My gran also is very disabled and i have read that the local authority should pay for nursing care despite any savings but social services have already admitted to the family that cuts are affecting what they can offer my gran before they even knew she had money

On the advice of her social worker, when my grandmother went into a care home she didn't declare her modest savings (similar level to your gran's). Because she had never claimed allowances or benefits in her life, her financial situation was not already known to social services, her family didn't offer the information, and the social worker's advice was that the care home would be reluctant to badger such an elderly lady (97), at the end of her life, about how much money she had. This turned out to be true. Not a morally or legally correct solution, I'm sure, but there have not been any repercussions.

I work in care and hope this is accurate information for you. If you have savings of over £14250 you pay something towards your care. If you have over £23250 you pay the full amount. ( until the figures are reduced to below those levels ) If you have income other than state pension that is also taken into account. If you have a state pension you are allowed to keep £22.30 per week for personal expenditure and the rest goes towards your fees.

If your mother is not getting any professional support at home Social Services would look to see if Home Care would be an option which would help your grandmother retain independence and be less expensive for her ( and the state) Most people prefer to live at home if they can so I suggest you contact your Council "Adult Help Desk" for an assessment of all the options.