More aggro from the financial services arm of care services

Benefits, finances and funding
1

The local council responsible of adult social care here have a separate arm in-house that deals with all of the financial side of the care services.

Although I was eventually reassessed early last year (already assessed as a vulnerable adult), the total nightmare created by the financial arm was too much for me to be able to cope with. So on the basis of the financial arm being wholly unfit to manage my care finances and secondly refusing to fund my current (at the time) and ongoing care needs.

I am still very upset about the way I was treated but I cannot accept any care from them because of the way their financial side is so grossly incompetent and uncaring. So not only have i lost my essential care funding but I have to pay for them out of little funds we have.

It started early in 2017 when i sent my 6 monthly accounts in with 98% or receipts. But 3 months later I received an invoice for several thousands of pounds to be repaid for invalid reasons. Seeing as the council had already approved those exact same items of expenditure over the previous 3 years of 6 monthly accounts, there was no legal basis to demand i repay a sum of several thousand pounds. The financial arm then ignored several letters of mine sent recorded delivery and several emails and voicemails. They refused to deal with the situation and I was left with a large bill that was not legally valid.
In desperation i made a formal complaint and they did nothing for months with that either.
I was being harassed by private numbers which turned out to be the care team and they didn’t leave me voicemails either.
Only when I senior manager took up my case out of the blue did i get anywhere.

As an ex project manager on large construction jobs up to £600 million in value I know how contracts work or don’t work.
It seems the local council care team have no idea about contract law.
A care contract is a legal contract in English law.
After more months of aggro the senior manager canceled the invoice and apologized to me profusely,.
On the basis that I could carry on spending as before until a new care assessment was done and agreed.

So the Friday before Christmas 2017 the day the council broke up I received another bill for the several thousand pounds plus a few hundred more. Because another 6 months had passed I had submitted my next due accounts.
This is how nasty the financial team can be.

So I cancelled the care contract i had because of the financial arm, who I found to be not fit for purpose to manage my finances in a care package. After almost 18 months of nightmare during which they exacerbated my serious health problems i could not cope with their negligent conduct any more.

The second invalid invoice was cancelled by the same senior manager later in 2018 who apologized again profusely to me.
Then i had to close my separate bank account because they were sending me payments even though I had terminated the contract. Later on last year they sent me a letter saying they owed me £200 with a cheque enclosed which was not owing to me so I did not deposit the cheque i just kept it in a drawer at home (they run out if not presented anyway). Was this more of their dirty tactics? or just the same rank incompetence?

Then last week I had another letter from them saying they had gone through my last accounts dated late 2017 and I owe then £100. Despite the senior manager telling me there was nothing owing and it was all cleared when we finished business last year,

So i have to deal with the total and absolute incompetence of the care services financial arm ,who because of their profound and disturbing ineptitude made me fell very ill and caused me to cancel my care contract. The care contract i had to terminate in early 2018 . I still need care and support in my own right and i need support as a carer, but my local services in local government are not fit to provide mine.

Most of this is history and i don’t think i am alone in being treated this way by my local government.

Who is safeguarding us from the conduct of local government?
The LGO is useless from our past experiences, they are just part of the same system and funded by the government.

2

One for the LA Ombudsman , Colin … assuming no joy from your local LA … or even your immediate ward councillor ?

https://www.lgo.org.uk/

How to complain :

Make a complaint - Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman

Don’t be put off due to the current backlog !

Just how long depends on which source you read … Internet search … LA OMBUDSMAN COMPLAINTS BACKLOG.

3

Thanks Chris.
The local government ombudsman service took 2 years to take up our last case. Because they had a massive backlog they rejected our complaint after ten days without looking at it. Considering the housing ombudsman took 6 months studying our case to judge in favour of our complaint. But as I say the LGO took ten days to say the council did nothing wrong.
In other words they didn’t look at it and just rejected it to help with their backlog.
That was about the council blackmailing us using a totally fake disabled needs in housing assessment.

Nice people in government.

4

This is what having severe disabilities means today. The people who are paid to support you and paid to look after you treat you so grossly unprofessionally.

Using a fake disabled needs in housing report to blackmail us into leaving our home was very nasty. We didn’t even know it had been fabricated. But that’s another story.

5

Yep … hence the friendly warning on the backlog problem.

Others make it sound so easy … refer this to that and Bob’s yer uncle … … not knowing of the real effects of the meltdown nationwide in all LAs and social care … as I pick up daily through trawling.

It just ain’t working out there anymore !

Alternative … local ward councillor … preferably one from the opposition party … and , with an axe to grind ?

I would NOT normally suggest that but … it truly is the Wild West out there !!!

Only recently , cutbacks by Surrey CC , one of the truest blue parts of the country.

If they have problems , just imagine what it is like up here in Worksop , or even in poorer areas ?
( Latest number of people in arrears with Council Tax … November 2018 … 43% … worse than 2 in 5 ! … and we’re mostly Band A in Worksop !!! ).

Increase Council Tax to plug the gap ???

Welcome , indeed , to the canteen !

6

I like your honest view of these things Chris, same as mine. Call a spade a spade.

Dealing with these serial council workers is like trying to catch a well greased pig. When you yourself are feeling very ill and providing care to another very ill person, we don’t need this kind of nightmare from people who get well paid to do it! No need to mention the rich civil service pensions hey?

I think qualified and accredited professionals who work on local government should be much more closely monitored by their accreditation bodies.
It seems as if working for local government negates their basic honesty and integrity.

7

All of the government Ombudsman services including the tribunal services ombudsman are not independent. In the legal sense and using common sense which is the majority of law anyway, there is no way those government ombudsmen are independent because they are full of ex government employees and they are funded by the government.
Not independent!

8

__

Call a spade a spade.

That can be fun … especially when two aces of the same appear on the table at the same time ?

( Lemmy … a true lunatic … as was Motorhead … true head bangers ? )

Yep … that decades old social war … anybody now challenge the validity of that phrase …
ridiculed when first made in … 2007 ?

Even in Surrey amd other true blue areas ???

9

Colin, I couldn’t agree more with you.

I am happy dealing with accounts and Contract Law. Social Services don’t understand either, and won’t let me explain to them, because “I am the parent”.

My worst example was when a care provider sued M for £10,000, when he owed nothing. It was the biggest fiddle ever, none of my payments or Hampshire’s showed on the account!

However, they soon backed down when I told them the ILF Fraud Officer was going to come down to Southampton to fight the case if neccessary!!

10

Thanks Bb, I think most of us here are on a similar wavelength.

Yes the council think the contract is theirs. To be interpreted or ignored at their will.
But that’s why we have to make them behave and make them be professiinal.

My dealings with local government on the past were all to do with planning applications and building regulations.
But I had absolutely now idea of the level of incompetence and rank ignorance of the law from people who really should know better. But because they work for local government they must follow what they have always done even though its not legal or just wrong generally.

I may write them a short letter telling them to take the £100 from the £200 cheque they sent me in error which I didn’t deposit.

Muppets!

11

The scary thought is that a time is coming when I will need much more care and support as my health continues to deteriorate.

Total care and support in their hands? :ohmy:

12

That Green Paper will probably confirm the worst , Colin.

All power to the consumer !

Let them decide on the level of support and care they need.

Why leave that task with Central Government through the funding of the LAs.

The Tory Right’s ultimate dream come true.

The survival of the fittest !!!

Sink or swim … no monies … not out problem !

Projected shortages of care workers ?

Basic economics … restrict the supply with demand increasing and … what happens to the price ?

UNITE will be happy … their members earning more monies !

13

My little lady and I are bikers and rockers.
She worked behind the bar in a HA bar when she was 18 and I grew up with bikers and rock music around Warwickshire.
I am not a 1%er club member and never will be but there is a similar attitude in common.

14

I believe the UN agenda 2030 which supercedes agenda 21 is very much a work in progress. That is the truth.

15

Just a quick update.
In the end I contacted the sociak care team and asked if the Director who helped and supported me with the false claims for repayments by their financial arm.
I decided to email the director and ask for her help which I felt a bit uncomfortable about having to bother her again. It’s not her fault that the councils financial arm is incompetent, arrogant and don’t care.
She has been sympathetic and supportive despite the problems created by her colleagues.
Yesterday I recieved a reply to my email saying the invoice will be cancelled again and I will get a letter from the head of social services to say there is no more money owing as I have requested. Her team and her colleagues let the care services down. I feel embarrassed to have to keep asking a director to sort out the morons in accounts.

But I know she is of her word and I feel much happier now knowing she will sort it out as she has on several occasions.

Comes to something when i have to turn down care and support that I need because their accounts team are a total mess and not fit for purpose to handle my care account. They are still exacerbating my multiple serious health problems and have been for well over 18 months.

As I said, “who is safeguarding vulnerable adults from the ongoing negligent actions of the care services?”