Spending money ina care home

[littleigloo]

My Aunt is in a residential care home. she pays all her pension towards her accommodation fees less �20.45p she is allowed to keep for pocket money. She is only allowed about �10 or �12k in savings before they take more from her. She uses her savings to buy extras as she does like new clothes and nice things we take her out and she often has a good splurge Bless Her! Now the council are saying they want receipts to see what she is spending her money on, surely this is none of their business what she choses to spend it on. if she decided to send it all to a dog's home that would be nothing to do with them?

[Ethel]

It is called 'wasting assets' and is considered a way of getting rid of money so the tax payer has to pay to support her.

Very nasty, but she should comply.

[bednobs]

is she getting any funding at all from the government?
is the pension "pensiongaruntee tax credit" or is it just a normal old age pension? If she is getting any assisstance because she has low savings etc then they are perfectly entitled to check she is not disposing of assests in order to hide savings etc

[theonlyone]

Why should she be penalised ...when child
benefit is sent abroad and the child is not
even a resident here ...an old lady should be
able to spend her last years doing what she
wants with her money ..not supporting
druggies ..alchies ..and the world ...

[littleigloo]

She is allowed capital of �10k, this is inclusive of all savings,stocks, shares, bonds etc. The local Authority then asses her income which is all her private pensions, state pension and pension credit. The amount she pays to the home is all of this less �20.45p per week. She can't hide anything as she had to show them her bank book, plus they know by getting in touch with the DWP. Anyone else claiming pension credit can have savings of �6k before they stop paying it but in a care home it is �10k. �20.45p per week is not enough for most elderly residents this hardly pays for their hair to be done nails toiletries, cigs if they smoke (yes they are allowed to smoke in care homes it is their home after all)

[Ethel]

It is because the council is still paying towards her care home fees - her weekly pensions are not enough to pay them.

If she was paying all the fees herself, they wouldn't be interested in her spending habits.

Don't forget - a minority of pensioners have hardly �20 a week left after paying rent and bills to buy food, let alone clothes and cigarettes.

[littleigloo]

Oh I Know how little money there is left to manage on, being a pensioner myself. Surely then the care home should help curb their spending.Instead they have the hairdressing done weekly, the chiropodist on a monthly basis, there is someone to do their manicures, and a lady who comes and does hand and arm massage, and very regular dress parties where they are all encouraged to buy stuff. How can they afford this without using their savings?

[littleigloo]

She was originally self funding as she had to sell her house to pay her fees until they got down to the �10k then the Council topped them up.

[factor-fiction]

The savings are her money. If she is happy to spend it on manicures, arm massages and dress parties then surely that�s a good thing if she is enjoying spending it on these things- why would you want the care home to try to curb her spending?

The council will be paying the care home much more than the value of your mother's pension- fees are often in the region of �600 a week. The �20 she has for spending money is better than most pensioners will have after paying energy costs and food etc. If she has more than �10,000 savings then even if she has to dig into this to the tune of another �20 pw, her savings will last her 10 years.

If she does want to dispose of the money in an acceptable way then I would suggest she buys a funeral bond- a funeral prepayment plan. It may give her peace of mind and will keep down her savings figure.