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You will not usually be asked to pay top up fees directly to the care provider. You’re only legally obliged to pay your parent’s care home fees if you’ve signed a contract saying you’ll do so. If this is the first time you’re dealing with care home fees and finances, we do suggest seeking legal advice to start you off.
It is not about your ability to pay for your dad’s care, it is about his, unless of course, you can get the NHS to pay for it. The first thing that should be happening is an assessment for Continuing Healthcare. This should happen before anyone asks about money or top ups. I’d like her to remain where she is but I can’t do 200 per week top up as she’s medically in good health and could survive many more years. It was interested to read your experience with a home demanding top-up fees. I’m really looking for some insight here – anything you can think of would be so appreciated.
Care Home Top Up Fees: Do You Have to Pay & Are They Legal?
The social worker was adamant that I be able to afford the top up, so obviously Council, NHS and Home all collude in this. However I have refused to pay top ups for 6 years for two relatives on the grounds that I cannot afford it. If you have a contract stating the original fee, it would be unreasonable for the care home to now demand more – regardless of whether or not they made a mistake.
We don’t want him having to sell his house until he’s at least had a trial – and he doesn’t have any other savings. My Father has just been moved into a care home and my Mother has had an Assessment today carried out by the LA and she is in a real panic now. She can’t manage him at home he is unable to walk, is fully incontinent and has Parkinson’s. Since moving into the home the LA have contacted me to say that because he is in an expensive home that they may need to move him once he drops below the 23,000 limit. My Sister and I have found a lovely care home which is 325 pounds a week cheaper. Basically if he goes below the 14,000 bottom threshold can he insist on paying this care home until he has nothing at all left.
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I can understand perhaps that we should pay it from the end of May because this was when we informed of its existence, but have been waiting for a vacancy to become available at a local home. I told the SW that I was looking to move her to this new home and they didn’t seem to keen, despite me saying that my nanna will be self funding anyway due to her owning her own home (worth about £130k). They told me that during the 12 week property disregard the council/Local authority? Would pay a max of £411 (which my nanna must pay £135 – flat rate towards, so basically they pay £411 less £135). However, they wouldn’t allow it until a meeting of best interest had taken place with a social worker, community care officer and myself present. I had to wait 3 weeks for this meeting, only for them to cancel the day before.
I would write to the council and copy in the care home refering to the invoices stating that you are not aware of any top up agreement in the council contract and therefore reject these invoices. Top-up fees are required only when the person needing care or their family have specifically requested more expensive accommodation. They should not be charged just because a care home costs more than the local authority/council is willing to pay. The local authority may then attempt to negotiate with the care home to allow your relative to remain there. It could be they are moved to a smaller room, for instance. In the event this isn’t possible, it could be another less expensive care home is suggested .
Questions about funding care?
If they were not, the I would be inclined to ask them why not. A resident in a care home is entitled to financial assistance once their savings and assets reach that approximate figure….. In fact action should have been taken when the sum reached about £23,000 when only a certain sum could be taken each week, in addition to his pension and half of any private pension.
This means that you could find yourself paying more each year to cover the difference in fees. If you or a close relative are looking at the prospect of going into a care home or nursing home in the coming months, or even years, then it makes sense to work out right now just how you are going to pay for your care. You may also be wondering just how much financial help you can also expect from your local authority in terms of care home top up fees. This is Money spoke to the daughter of another elderly care home resident facing financial problems. Her mother will soon be 90 and though her care is being paid for by money from the sale of her home in the North East of England, the family are talking to the local authority about what might happen when it runs out. They are aware of at least one case where a resident was moved from her mother's home because of funding difficulties.
We’re at our wit’s end as a family and it’s impossible to see any way out. My 94 year old mother paid full fees in a care home for 4 years. When her funds reached 23k in June 2016 I applied to the council on her behalf . Even though they agreed that she qualified for funding from that date, it took 9 months and countless chasing by me for the council to make a contract with the care home, during which time my mother continued to pay the full fee. The council finally paid the backlog in December 2016 to the care home, I having wrongly assumed that they would re-imburse my mother.
Instead, you can set up what is called a Deferred Payment Agreement with your local authority. Alternatively, if you are going to be receiving home care and support, or you’re applying for short-term care, you won’t have to sell your own house. If your council is contributing towards your care home fees, they must tell you how much they think your care should cost. They will work out how much you will have to pay in afinancial assessment.
Though some people try to give their home to their children or put it in a trust to avoid care home fees, this is a very risky and often expensive strategy. Hopefully you now have all you need to know about next of kin and paying for care home fees. We understand that working out finances can be incredibly stressful, but the important thing is to try not to worry.
But councils only have to offer ‘affordable’ care home places. Any family that wants a better and more expensive care home for their relatives must pay a weekly top-up fee. If a care home resident is funded by their local authority, then families are allowed to contribute top-up fees to give them more choice in where they live. There are growing claims that local authorities are demanding top-up fees to cover part of the basic care for which the authority is responsible. We take a look at the rules, the claims, and what’s happening now.
Spiers says families should seek financial advice when a relative needs residential care. Investing the proceeds of a house sale rather than leaving cash on deposit may generate more income and enable individuals to avoid the threat of a move. It may also be possible to agree in advance future fee rises tied to the performance of payment plans such as an immediate-needs annuity. If you can’t afford to pay a top-up fee, you will need to contact your local authority for a new care needs assessment before making a decision about whether you will move to a more affordable care home.
Without this action top-up fee malpractice will continue and may get worse, leaving families saddled with crippling bills they may struggle to pay, fearing the impact on their relative if they don't. There are large variations between councils – and even within councils – in their approach to top-up fees, with some minimising their use and others appearing to regard them as normal and routine. What would happen if my father for example, passed away and left his entire estate to charity? The contract to top up his wife’s care would be unenforceable upon his death.
For example, they will need to determine how the elderly individual would cope with the disruption before simply moving them to a less expensive care facility. An elderly individual would be eligible for this if they had enough capital to be responsible for paying for their own care, but all capital is tied up in their home. They can choose to take advantage of the 12 week property disregard, which is when this property capital will be disregarded for 12 weeks.
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