I recently gave up work as a self-employed PA and started caring for my seriously ill father 5 days a week full-time. He lives 200 miles away so I need to stay over and travel home at weekends, but the carer’s allowance payments did not even cover my mortgage payments never mind transport and living costs. Social services have agreed I am the best person to care for my Dad and have allowed me to start to receive the Direct Payments they have awarded (exceptional circumstances), but this is only 2 hours a day. I am also invoicing my Dad £110/week for additional care identified as ‘eligible needs’ on the Needs Assessment and was hoping this Disability Related Expenditure (DRE) would be offset against my Dad’s assessed care contribution to his DP care package. The local authority has insisted that this would be DRE if my Dad was receiving this care from an agency, but as he is paying his daughter it does not count as DRE. Anyone able to advise me how to challenge this decision? If I don’t charge for this additional care I would need to abandon my Dad and go back to work back home, or lose my house with nowhere to store all of my belongings. Surely this is a human rights issue??? Please help.
Hi Mabel.
DPs agreed for a family member UNDER EXCEPTION CIRCUMSTANCES ???
Alarm bells start to ring … there are problems … as set out in reply to your previous post :
DEFINATELY ONE FOR THE EXPERTS … CAB / CUK ADVICE TEAM … links as per the previus thread.
ESPECIALLY IF CLAIMING ANY BENEFITS … recent case outlined in the main DIRECT PAYMENTS thread.
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The local authority has insisted that this would be DRE if my Dad was receiving this care from an agency, but as he is paying his daughter it does not count as DRE.
( Would be really useful to know what the LA mean by that … what’s their precedent ??? )
DRE ?
From another , previous , thread :
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When starting out on a Direct Payment, your Local Authority will give you a financial assessment to see how much they will ask you to pay towards your care. This is called the Client Contribution.
In order to reduce the amount you have to pay for your care, your Local Authority should take into account any Disability Related Expenses (DRE) you have, which they should disregard as available income, reducing the amount of your client contribution.
Disability Related Expenses are any extra costs linked to any disability you have.
You should make sure that when you have your financial assessment, you have a detailed list of all the DRE you have, so your contribution is as cost saving as possible.
It can be tough to think about Disability Related Expenditure. I know from personal experience that your life is simply what you experience every day, and you are probably not used to considering what costs you incur each month that arise from your disability and which do not.
If you can’t think which costs relate to your disability, try and think about your day-to-day life and what items and services you use.
Ask yourself, what is different between what you have to spend compared to a relative, friend or neighbour who does not have your disability or health condition.
But don’t just think about the short term; think about a week, month or year in your life. You may use some items and services more at different times than others.
It may help to look through records you have about your disability and any invoices/bills/receipts to see what you spend in a week/month/year and which costs arise from your disability.
AGAIN … ONE FOR THE EXPERTS OUT THERE.
Please can you tell us more about dad’s illness.
If he is very seriously ill, are you are of NHS Continuing Healthcare?
Do you feel it is realistic for him to remain at home much longer?
CHC / NHS Continuing Healthcare ?
Main thread :
Follow the colour !
Pointon ???
Sorry it’s been a while - too busy challenging the council!
My Dad has Parkinson’s/MSA.
Main problem is extremely low blood pressure (postural hypotension) causing numerous falls/collapses.
We are much better at managing this now but constant prompting/supervision still required.
Tried for CHC funding as Dad doesn’t recognise risk / remember to be careful, but they judged this to be ‘unwise decisions’!
The assessment was miles off the threshold for NHS funding.
All advice welcome!
Mabel.