My dad is about to have his financial assessment for his care package. He is slightly over the £23,000 limit. If he went on a spending spree to get himself under the limit, is he breaking the rules?
TIA, Drew.
2 minutes after writing this, my dads social worker rang, she said he could, for example, have his bathroom converted to a wet room, (something I’ve been trying to get him to do for years), and show the invoice with no problem.
The relevant phrase here is “deprivation of capital”.
So for example if dad gave you £5,000 for a cruise, deliberately to reduce the amount in his bank, that would count as deprivation of capital, but if he is spending his money wisely on things he needs to make life better at home, that’s fine.
My mum bought a new carpet as the old one was getting threadbare and a trip hazard, that was fine too.
One thing I discovered by chance was that as mum had a joint account with me (she kept losing her Halifax book - I discovered one under the lino at the bottom of her wardrobe!) then only half the money counted as mum’s. It was all her Disability Living Allowance money but as I was allowed to spend whatever I needed to, rather than mum only making withdrawals, it was regarded differently. It also meant that when she died it all automatically became mine.
Do you have Power of Attorney sorted out?
Thanks, that’s good to know.
Yes, power of attorney is set up as far as I know. I’ve got the documents with his will. I’ve been thinking a lot about power of attorney. When my Dad was in hospital a couple of weeks ago, one of the nurses warned me that he had asked her to help him log into his banking ap which really got me worried. My Dad is strangely obsessed with his bank account and checks it sometimes 8 - 10 times a day. I’ve not been able to find out why, and have just put it down to him coming from quite a poor background.
EDIT; worth knowing that he worked for a Building Society from age 14 until he retired…and is as tight as a dockers wallet 
It’s difficult to know how long it will be before the assessment, I’ve been trying to get him to convert the bathroom or at least get it refitted for years. It hasn’t been touched since the early '80s and it’s dangerous for anyone in his condition. If we get someone in, they probably won’t get it done before the FA. The roof on his place needs looking at, most of his carpets are from the '80s and are falling apart.
This is interesting because when my dad had his stroke he set up a joint account with me for emergencies. Are there solicitors than can advise about all this financial stuff?
The Carers UK would be able to give you some good free advice, and so should Help the Aged/Age Concern.
I would want to make sure that dad wasn’t making any unwise decisions about his money if he keeps looking up to 10 times a day.
Are the bank aware that he could be classed as a vulnerable adult? In the good old days when we all had a local bank that we could just pop into, I’d say go and see the bank manager, sadly those days are gone. The branch I’ve been with sine 1976 closed last week.
With the POA I had for mum I had free access to everything since the day it was granted, I’m not sure how the later type work. Maybe start by establishing which one you have for dad?
Find out if a lot of money in a current account, or in a savings account that doesn’t have immediate access?
In total I’ve had POA for mum, mum in law, son, and brother, so although no formal training on this, I’ve learned a fair bit. I also studied accountancy at degree level and done other things related to finance. After dad died, mum struggled with managing her finances. I asked if she’d just like me to deal with it all, and she immediately said Yes. All she wanted to know was that she had enough in her account to keep ordering stuff (that she didn’t need) from her catalogue! Feel free to send me a PM if you need.
Thanks for the kind offer, it’s much appreciated. I really should have come to this forum or one like it a long time back. I’ve just been talking with my Dad how completely unprepared we are. We’ve just been going through the motions the last few years and should have seen this moment coming.
How old is dad?
Use the forthcoming assessment as a good excuse for sorting out all his important paperwork.
When my brother was diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer while living with his wife in Uruguay, that left me to sort out his home near me. Until dad died, he used to manage my brother’s house and paperwork for him, he was meticulous with his filing.
After dad died, apparently brother’s idea of filing was to put the whole pile in a drawer, so whilst he was dying and I was trying to sell the house so he had some money, I had to tackle 10 years of filing!!
What a nightamare! Your brother sounds like he was a bit like me. I’ve never had to handle things like this before. Luckily, my Dad was quite organised with his paperwork, he’s just kept too much of it!
My Dad is 92, born 1930 in Leeds, now living in Sutton Coldfield. Considering how he’s lived his life, he’s a walking miracle! I don’t remember him jogging or eating healthily etc. His mom was similar and she lived until she was 92.
Keeping everything must be a generation thing - when we tidied out my father in law’s cottage we found all his milk bills going right back to when he moved into the cottage in 1947!!!
As my son has severe learning difficulties I have a lot of papers related to him, I’d love to get rid of them all but know it would be utter folly. Although he was disabled at birth, and therefore you’d think Social Services would know about his disability, recently a new social worker decided he had moderate, not severe LD, and I had to provided evidence of his disability! Fortunately I had a letter from the Secretary of State for Education, no less, stating that he had severe LD because when he was 9 I had to appeal all the way to the top to get funding for his new school!
These days, almost everything is on a computer, firms have to keep financial records for about 7 years, so try to think what you and dad will never need ever again. I try to throw away as much as possible immediately. My Mum used to have mountains of magazines she was going to read “one day” and father in law had a stack of local newspapers 2 feet high!!!
For things I need to keep, I have some Bisley 10 drawer office units, cheap second hand from ebay, they cleaned up really well with some Fairy and some T cut car polish. Each drawer is labelled. In my house, anything to be filed goes in a tray, then every so often I’ll sort it into the drawers. Then depending on what it is it’s either put in a project file or ring binder, or binned. (It’s a manic house at times, especially in the summer as we have a steam roller and traction engine, and my 10 year old grandson is here at times too).
It is. My dad has many copies of really old Reader Digests from the late eighties to recent times. He stores them all in his bedroom. My mom keeps wanting to throw them out but he will not allow her to do so yet. I occasionally pick up a copy in order to reread the interesting articles myself.
Onto my next official point, colour code everything. All my old boring medical paperwork is currently kept in a big plastic reference folder with my name on the front. You can buy cheap ones easily from Amazon etc these days. I got mine from my local WHSmith shop however quite a few years back.