Paying for carers

Covered End

My mother in law had a stroke recently & is now at home recovering slowly. She has reablers (carers) 3 times a day, paid, I believe by Greenwich council.

I'm told that this is for a maximum of 6 weeks. If continued care is required, she will have to fund this herself, if she has savings above £14k/£23k.

I am aware that certain companies, are advertising, that if a person cannot carry out at least one of the daily living activities, such as washing, dressing, eating, then legally the council are obliged to fund continued care (although this is a well kept secret).

Now I'm more than capable of dealing with this, but wondered if anyone else has experience of this ?

Sorry for being boring.

BDL

Not necessarily the local authority but the CCG (Local NHS budget holders) may be obliged to fund continuing care.

Remember that domestic care charges are different to residential/nursing care charges. Each LA has a different criteria and funding arrangements. The Care Act was supposed to bring every authority into line but, as usual, the politicians bottled it when they realised they'd have to stump up more money to pay for it!

Google is your friend.

JiMMy 85

No joke, I read the title as "playing for careers" and figured it was an explanation for how we won yesterday. Sorry, I have nothing useful to add.

Cordoban Addick

Have a look at this http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/pages/nhs-continuing-care.aspx . What you are entitled too will depend on a number of factors.

Covered End

Cordoban Addick said:

Have a look at this http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/social-care-and-support-guide/pages/nhs-continuing-care.aspx . What you are entitled too will depend on a number of factors.

Thanks very much for taking the trouble. I've seen that & it's far from straight forward, which was why I was wondering, if anyone had actually experienced this.

Cordoban Addick

Sorry CE was called for tea. What I would also add is that some areas are now looking to provide or provide already <<i>Personal Budgets which following an assessment will give you (your mother-in-law) a pot of money to spend on care as she wishes. Most people tend to go down the traditional route with this and buy what is recommended or contract a care agency to provide what they say is required.

If a Personal Budget is a possibility for your M-in-L a broker might be a good option rather than explaining everything have a look at this https://www.mysupportbroker.com/ the 'more about' in the top right gives some idea of checks and balances. In short they talk to the person/patient and find out what is important for them and plan their care accordingly, they examine volunteer and family based help. It is not a free service but the company I have listed repays money if the service they have provided has not paid for itself in six months. Evidence suggests that patient/person outcomes (how there health is) are better too.

Cordoban Addick

They also work with Private payers and people who want to top up whatever allowance they receive. I don't work for this company btw.

muzzy

My husband was granted continuing care funding. It is not simple to apply for. The application has to be made by someone who knows your medical history, usually your GP or hospital consultant, and it consists of a point scoring system. It askes about your current state of health, mental state and ability to care for yourself. It has to be supported by medical evidence, i.e. hospital records and any consultants that can give statements regarding your condition and its likely outcome. It is a long process as the application has to go before a panel who decide whether you qualify or not. They only sit once a month I think. We were lucky but I understand that most applications are unsuccessful. Good luck if you decide to go ahead, I hope your Mother in Law gets the help she needs and I wish her a speedy recovery.

floydroadfaithfull

I wish her a speedy recovery
Be aware it's one he'll of a journey ahead
We have had a nightmare 6 months with the system
Starting when my father in law had his leg amputated about 7/8 months ago
Moved to various different hospitals and having all the different assessments for care and funding and the actual wait then for a suitable home
On the morning of the proposed move it was blocked due to insufficient funding but was told he could go to another 30 miles away in gravesend
So there we were in limbo being blackmailed by the system as my mother in law possibly had no way of doing that trip to visit him
That day our stress and troubles were only just beginning

redman

This would be news to me. There is such thing as an attendance allowance which is paid if she is unable to get if she is unable to do certain tasks. My mother wasn't eligible for this when she needed care but I can't remember why.
When she went into a home there was very much the £23k "savings" test. As she was above this she had to pay. The cost was something like £600 a week. The home also did receive some sort of allowance for nursing care - I can't remember what it was actually called but was about £120 a week.
The 6 week rule was also mentioned; however my mother was transferred from hospital to home and eventually we managed to get about 9 months paid for.
We could have missed something along the line but it wasn't obvious if we did.
Good luck

Hornchurch

My Mum had a stroke, last Christmas and was in Lewisham Hospital up until Easter. She was sent home with 6 weeks funded care but had a fall within the 6 weeks and spent another couple of months in Darent. She was then given another 6 weeks, when she came home. She recently received an "invoice", which is unclear as to what period of cover we are being charged for. It mentions 6 weeks, but whether that is the last 6 weeks or the next 6 weeks, we do not know. Her Social Worker is a "chocolate tea-pot". We have applied for attendance allowance, which I believe she is entitled to but no sign of that being paid. It should cover the amount being invoiced, but until we receive one, we won't pay the other. Why can't the council just pay themselves?

It is just another thing you have to deal with, at an already stressful time. I hate to think what happens, where victims don't have relatives to speak up for them

Covered End

Thanks very much everyone. Some useful info there, which I hadn't researched. Attendance Allowance looks a good bet as it's not means tested.