Social services asking for money..what rights do I have ?

[onestepat]

I was my grans appointee with DWP
She has moved into care home.
They've taken control of finances as it will be government funded
I have gave them bank account details as she has a few thousand in.
She has a tin which has two thousand in.
After speaking with aunt we decided that money (tin money )would be kept with her insurance books and use that when she passes away (hopefully not for years ) to give her a lovely funeral.
Now social services have asked for that tin.
Do I have to hand it over?

How do they know about the tin?

Er, I'd say no, not at all...how do they know?

I told them about it.
When they asked about her finances.

Xpost, sorry!

I really want to stick to my guns with this.
That money never gets touched and it just seems like a massive intrusion of privacy.

You can't keep money that doesn't belong to you based on what you think should happen to it.

If they have control of her finances, I’m afraid you’re going to hand it over, it’s a pity a POA hadn’t been set up.

It shouldn't have been included in her finance details if it's in her private possession, but you've told them now so I suppose it does count- I'd certainly not be handing over a tin of cash though!

Solicitor advice?

It doesn't belong to them either.
When they said they could take control of her finances we thought it just meant in regards to paying for the home.
If we knew that they meant they took control of all her money we would have done it ourselves

Do Social Services have the right to spend every last penny of someone's money?

It’s unfortunate that honesty, such as you showed when you told social services about the tin, doesn’t pay off, if you hadn’t been honest amd told them, you’d not have to hand it over.

Social services can use a persons assets to pay for care, this included savings (in a tin or otherwise) house sale proceeds and state pension. Once assets go below a certain level savings are disregarded but state pension is used bar a small allowance.

Isn’t the limit £16-18K savings that your DG can keep?

Now that we know what this entails could we say we don't want them to take control
Nothing was explained
I didn't know the first 6 weeks was free in care home.
And my aunt or someone else can do it instead ?

Can you say you got it wrong and there is no tin?! Seems a bit ridiculous to hand over a tin of money that isn't documented anywhere

You have to.
It is her money, which they are now in charge of managing and it must go into the pot.

The rules on the amount of money you can have before you have to start paying for your care are clear.

She will be left with thousands to pay for her funeral. They don't take you down to your last penny.

Money held in cash isn't some weird exception. It all must be counted in.

I would say there is no tin you got it wrong or you can't find it 🤷‍♀️

Looked at from their point of view then if they know this money exists and is part of her savings then they do have to account for it because it's hers, even if you are intending to spend it on the funeral. You wouldn't have expected them to let you take £2k out of her bank account to keep in your possession on the promise you'll use it for a funeral later, would you?

They'll add it to her bank account, yes you must allow this.
You can't just decide to keep x amount of money back, what if there was 10k in the tin?
She will be "allowed" to keep about 16k, so that's her funeral covered.

Do Social Services have the right to spend every last penny of someone's money?

No. Not only do they not have the right, they also don't do it.

Spend it on her or put a deposit on a funeral? Can you still do that.

We thought they were just taking control of her pension to pay the home.
Can we say we've changed our mind ?
Or is it too late ?

My gran is such a private person
She would hate this

Why are social services managing her money , we managed my mother in laws money and her place was government funded . If social services took over it cost money . We were never encouraged to either .We made sure she had her pocket money and in the early days took her out and let her spend her own money , we bought her new clothes and anything else she wanted .

Her pension probably doesn't cover the cost of the home. So social services have to show all her finances to show she is not liable for full cost