Challenging a Local Authority Financial Assessment

When all the talk is currently about Brexit, the plight of the so-called ‘self-funder’ – anyone who has saved more than £23,250 in their lifetime – doesn’t tend to grab news headlines and it’s not high on the political agenda – and yet it should do, because it affects so many of us.

Social care is not free. If you have more than £23,250 and you go into residential care you have to pay the “inflated” cost yourself and if you have between £14,250 and £23,250 you still have to contribute.

Even if a person has less than £14,250, social care is still not free. If a person goes into residential accommodation, the Local Authority will take away all pensions and benefits, leaving the person in care with what is known as a personal expense allowance of £24.90 per week – something which we consider grandma’s pocket money. It really is a disgrace.

Most people believe that a lifetime of taxes will pay for care in their old age and, upon doing some digging, will come across something called Continuing (or continuous) Health Care (CHC). This is where the NHS pays for care.

You will soon discover that it is extraordinarily difficult to get CHC and thus the majority of interactions are with the Local Authority who are obliged to carry out a means test via a financial assessment questionnaire.

We receive many calls from people whose parents have been well and have slipped and are then in hospital and suddenly are no longer capable of looking after themselves or who have had strokes and are now reliant upon others or whose dementia has progressed so that they cannot manage their own affairs.

A financial assessment form carries a criminal penalty for failure to answer the questions truthfully. How can an adult child be expected to know what bank or savings accounts their parents have when this is a generation that does not like speaking about money?

If you are being pressed to complete and sign a financial assessment, we suggest that you complete it to the best of your ability, but ensure that when you complete the form, rather than saying “no” you say, “I don’t know”.

If you have a Lasting Power of Attorney for Property and Finance or an Enduring Power of Attorney (EPA) that has been registered (assuming in the case of an EPA that the Donor has lost mental capacity) you can then write to your parent’s banks, National Savings or anyone else you may find correspondence from in the house, however old the correspondence might be.

Check out our practical tips for dealing with local authority financial assessments here:

Practical Tip 1 – Local Authorities are not obliged to deliver certain services if an individual has above £23, 250 and is thus a self-funder.Social Workers are often overwhelmed with work. If you do not know how much money your parents have, but they need Social Services’ support e.g. help with getting in and out of bed, personal care, getting dressed, help with eating etc., then you should tell Social Services “that you do not know how much money your parents have but they should assume less than £23,250.”This answer can obviously only be given if you do not know this to be incorrect.

Practical Tip 2 – If there is a joint bank account, you can, as a matter of rule, divide it by two and if the share of the person who needs care is less than £23,250 then you can say so.

Practical Tip 3. One question you will be asked is what is the value of your parent’s home.

Our clients often answer, £100,000, £200,000 etc, however when we see the legal title to the property we may be able to demonstrate that there is law to show that the value is zero!

This is called the nil valuation argument and if you are asked to fill in a Financial Assessment and the value of a property is required to be put on the form – stop and call us free for advice!

Practical Tip 4. It is a common mistake to think that the all joint savings have to be used to care for the person who requires social care.

When faced for the first time with any social service forms that require signing, there is a criminal sanction for getting it wrong and the government agency has the right to make enquiries of other government agencies without your knowledge or consent.

Call Steene Law for a free conversation. Our solicitors may be able to offer you some ideas and help to ease your mind in this confusing, world of means tested social care.

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