Hi... any advice would be greatly appreciated

New to Carers Connect
1

Hiya,

I’m new to this site, I’m hoping someone will be able to point me in the right direction.

Will give you a little bit of background before I ask the question.

My mum has schizophrenia, she was diagnosed when I was around 6 I’m now 35.
My mum and dad separated several years ago around this time I would have been 18/19.

My question is concerning her care and financial state. She lives in a self contained flat 5 doors from me, she has a morning call from the outreach team in our area and then an evening call each night every day to administer her medication.

Her benefits are paid to social services, they pay all her bills and then the outreach team bring her money once a week for shopping and anything she may need.

As I have got older myself and my younger brother (29) are concerned about how mums finances and care is managed.
We have no idea about any benefits she receives, she has no idea about how much money she has In her pot with social services so to speak.

Several times they have advised the outreach team that her money is getting near to the cap for benefits and they are randomly buying curtains for her for a £1000!

We are concerned about her care. The outreach team seem to be our point of contact with social services but I’ve raised concerns the last 12 months with them that I’d like extra calls her care plan to be reviewed etc but nothing is ever done. ( I appreciate we are in the midst of a pandemic )

As I’ve mentioned at the time of my mum and dad separating I would have been 18/19 I can’t ever remember anyone coming to me and asking if I was happy for social services to take control.

I’ve no idea where to start with all this, we don’t know who we would even contact first.
We both have our own children, we both work full time but are on hand for mum daily.

I don’t want anyone to think we are trying to get hold of her money this is why we’ve not looked into anything before now. Tbh with you it would be stressful trying to manage it, but it just doesn’t sit right with us that we are both capable and the state has taken over without reviewing anything as we’ve got older.

Any advice on where we would go first would be very much appreciated.

Kind Regards

Nic :slightly_smiling_face:

2

The current financial situation is something that sets all my alarm bells ringing, loudly!!

I would start by contacting Social Services and make a Safeguarding Complaint. Mention the curtains!!!

Also contact DWP and talk to them about becoming mum’s Appointee. Mention the curtains!!!
They always prefer relatives to manage the affairs of a disabled person, rather than a “Corporate Appointee”.

There may be circumstances I can’t think of, but by making these two initial enquiries, you may have to go somewhere else.

3

Thank you for your reply.

How would I approach social services if it’s them that manage her finances? Any requests for her money are made to them and it can take more than a week for her to receive her payment.

I guess what I’m asking is could there be something more in place than just social services managing her money?
I’m not clued up on all these things but what is the court of protection?

As she is provided with cash every week, her money is building up. I have concerns about carers in an out twice a day with this money hanging around.

As social services do have involvement, is she able to open a bank account with our help? Or would we need to declare this?

Thank you

4

There are different sections of Social Services.

If you make a formal complaint of Financial Abuse, then they are legally obliged to investigate, and give you an update on the situation.

Your LA should have a website looking at Vulnerable Adults, protection of vulnerable adults, etc.
Usually dealt with by Head Office, not at local level.

5

Thank you again for your reply.

We will contact social services directly rather then going through them via the AOT.

Her care is my main concern, this is failing and then the financial side is an added stress.

6

Contact them online, via the LA website.
Search for Adult Services Complaints, there should be an online form. This way they have to acknowledge your complaint and deal with it within 30 days.

7

I agree. It is imperative that such unreasonable purchases be cited as an argument so that the government authorities decide on custody in your favor.

8

My son lives alone, but is brain damaged, lacks mental capacity to manage his money. I am his DWP Appointee. His benefits go into an account in my name, for his money only. I pay £100 into a housekeeping account which staff use with him for food etc. The rest is available for larger purchases, clothes, holidays etc. Care staff can’t be trusted to manage accounts! I used to manage accounts for a hospital!!!

9

Hello Nicola

Thanks for posting about your situation in the Forum. I’m sorry to hear that you have concerns about the management of your mum’s finances. If you would like one of Carers UK’s helpline advisers to provide you with some advice on this matter, please email advice@carersuk.org with the content of your post and someone will respond to you within a few days.

Wishing you well

Michael