Financial Assessment (council wanting mum’s money)

[redvelvet9]

Long story short, the council have waited for a few years for me to complete an assessment for my mum as she suffered a severe stroke and needed to be placed into a state care home. Her money has been accruing, so has gained a fair bit of interest now. My question is…are the council entitled to this interest? Are they entitled to view all bank statements to this date?
If I’d completed the assessment a few months into her stay, they would’ve taken her money sooner and no interest would’ve accrued?! Aren’t they only entitled to see the bank statements 3 months prior and maybe a few months in? They’re asking for 4 years worth of statements!

The council are entitled to review all financial information from the moment they assumed responsibility for her care. In fact, they will often request information going back several years to determine whether there has been deprivation of assets.

As your mum’s care fees are a debt to the council, they are entitled to charge interest, and the % interest would be published on their website, and would generally be noted somewhere on the instructions for form filling.

Hopefully your mum’s capital has also been earning interest while you dithered over the forms.

I don’t see any relevance for the question. Why does that have any relevance? I posted for advice on the question I asked, it doesn’t matter why it’s taken so long. Perhaps I don’t even have to do an assessment but I am choosing to help? It’s irrelevant.

Hi @redvelvet9, I think some of these responses are a bit harsh. This can be difficult stuff to navigate, at a time when you are most likely worried & dealing with lots of other stuff relating to your mum’s care.

I found Age UK https://www.ageuk.org.uk helpful when in a similar situation.

Also, re CHC funding, it may be worth requesting another assessment for your mum if she has not had one recently, as things may have changed since this was last done. The CHC checklist can be done by social services, but can also be done by medical professionals caring for your mum - if she is in a nursing home this could be one of the nurses looking after her there, if she is in a care home and receiving visits from district nurses / other healthcare professionals including her GP they could also complete the checklist \ assessment (from my experience I would choose a medical professsional who knows your mum to do this if possible).

I hope your mum is doing as well as possible and is settled in her home.

@redvelvet9 Forgot to mention, there are also lots of knowledge people on the elderly parents group here on mumsnet.

Thank you so much for the info!!!
Oh it doesn’t phase me, lots of judgy folk on their keyboards that haven’t luckily experienced such horrible circumstances with their loved ones. No one said the council weren’t going to get paid, it was just a query as to whether they are entitled to the interest accrued and all the statements etc.