Carers billing

Benefits, finances and funding
1

Hi,

Has anyone had issues with their billing for care at home?

My father had a stroke a few years ago and-a care plan put in place for home visits four times a day. We are going through the council brokerage scheme and my father is paying for all care at present as he has some savings put by. We have had previous issues with the carers and timing and after having to almost forensically audit the bills, I managed to get a £6000 rebate where they had overcharged us. Since this time the carers have switched to the OpenPasssystem where they scan in and out with their phones, and we were told this was totally accurate and foolproof. I began noticing that the carers were rushing in and out, but when i raised the matter, i was told that the phones system is indisputable and that if the carers were not staying the full time it was due to the conditions in our house. However they were still billing us for the full time allocated and when I raised this issue was told the phones are gospel and there was no error. I began timing some of the visits and found large discrepancies in the time spent here on many occasions and the ‘official’ phone log. I tried raising this on several occasions with the council billing department, resulting in a promise that they would investigate and they rang me back after two weeks promising me they were still investigating. Then however the following Saturday I received the First of several letters from the Credit Protection Agency demanding immediate payment, and when I rang the council, was told that they had no record of the supposedly ongoing investigation and they had just passed the case to the debt collection department.

My issue is as follows - I just want them to bill us for the correct amount. If they can get my dad up and dressed in 10 minutes (which they regularly do) then that’s fine but why are they then billing us for the half hour they insisted at the beginning was required. I am steadfastly refusing to pay until they can explain but am running out of options as the council don’t want to know. One of the carers said to me the money is irrelevant but £2000 a month is pretty relevant to us…

Any advice or suggestions would be gratefully received.

Thanks

2

You need a CCTV camera!
How do you know that they are logging in when they arrive at your place, not before?
How do you know that they are logging out from your place?

Make a Subject Access Request and ask for copies of all the council’s records, (you can do this online) and do the same for the care agency.
They have a month or so to comply.
That will set the cat amongst the pigeons all round.

Also ask for an explanation about their comment “due to the conditions of your house”. What do they mean? Do they tidy up after helping dad dress and undress, prepare everything for the next visit? Generally tidy his room, wash up his cup, clean the bathroom after use? These should be THEIR jobs, not yours.
Are you aware of NHS Continuing Healthcare. Has dad had an assessment recently?