Do You Pay For Adult Social Care Provided By Your Council?

[barry1010]

My neighbour has just been talking to my wife and is very upset because he pays £31 a week for three 15 minute visits a week and has received a letter stating that admin fees for this service has increased from £250 a year to £480.  That does not seem right and I wondered if you have had similar increases in admin fees. 

 

[bednobs]

It depends on your assets. £31 for three 15 minute visits sounds cheap to me.

[barry1010]

He is very happy with the £31, it's the huge hike in the admin fee that has come as a shock

[barry1010]

I'm bumping this in the hope it will be seen.

[jourdain2]

It's a shocking increase!  Apart from that comment, I can't help - but it is frightening as we age.

[barry1010]

Thanks, Jourdain, I am thinking of telling him to get our MP involved.

He has to have his dressings changed three times a week, this is a long standing condition and will not improve.  Up until two years ago the district nurses did it at no cost but that service has been withdrawn.  He doesn't mind paying, it's the increase that seems extreme.

He could pay privately but cannot get 15 minutes appointments so it would work out quite costly.  

[jourdain2]

Barry - could your neighbour somehow get to the GP's practice for the nurses to do the dressings there?  OH has to have leg dressings done twice a week (and on one leg I can't see it ever changing).  We get to the surgery and the nurses do it there - we're pretty good friends with them by now (9 years and counting).

[barry1010]

He's housebound and really quite immobile.  He has other problems which makes it difficult for him to travel. The GP visits him at home when necessary and he has his blood tests taken at home, too.  

I've told him to spend his savings on home improvements then he would qualify for pension credit and get this sort of thing free.  I doubt very much that he will.   Thankfully he can afford to pay it, but he feels the increase in admin fee is unjustified and I can see his point.

[Smowball]

Barry, does he have to pay this admin fee himself on top of the £31 per week?

[barry1010]

Yes, that is what he is objecting to - the huge increase. He is receiving nothing extra, they are doing nothing different, it is just for organising his care.

[barry1010]

It is costing him £2092 a year to get his dressing changed.

[Smowball]

I guess he could ask them to provide a breakdown as to why these costs have rocketed so much?? 

[barry1010]

I'll write a letter for him to sign asking the council to do just that, Smow, I'll copy in the councillor and MP, too. This is a flat fee applicable to every who self funds their care