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We agreed and have been paying that amount ever since. I also thought that it was against the law for the person in the home or their spouse to pay for the top up, so by him keeping that money it will be mum paying for her own top up. My nana was ‘encouraged’ to go into care over 2 years ago, after being assessed by social whilst in hospital with an infection. They deemed my grandad was no longer capable of providing enough care, and he chose to go into a home with her.
At the moment, our information about paying for care services applies to England only. We are updating our information to make it relevant for people living in Scotland and Wales. In the meantime, please visit Age Scotland or Age Cymru. Independent Age successfully campaigned for the introduction of improved rules on top-up fees to protect the families of the poorest older people. As part of the 2014 Care Act, the rules around top-up fees were strengthened to ensure no one has to pay a top-up fee unless they choose more expensive care home accommodation. We successfully campaigned for a tightening of the rules on care home top-up fees, preventing families of some of our most vulnerable older people paying for care that it is the responsibility of the council to fund.
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My mum has dementia and Parkinson’s and is currently in a residential home on short stay for 4 weeks as she was not deemed able to return home after being discharged from hospital. She has also deteriorated further during this period . Will we get a choice of where the local authority place Nan?
Lately, she has become confused at times and lost her ways inside her property, resulting in the emergency cord being pulled etc. Anyway to cut a long story short, she has carers coming in three times a day as we are at work and cannot visit during the day . She receives help from the government now and the authority has written to her demanding £50 a week. She does not have the means to pay and although we can chip in to cover this, we are thinking should she require full time care in the future, how can we afford to pay. The authority is very aggressive in demanding this money. Another sad story Denise but it comes back for me every time, Care homes are not allowed to charge top ups directly with relatives.
Paying for residential care
If there is any justification for a topup, this must be agreed between the local funding council and a relative, paid by the council to the care home and claimed back by the council from the relative. The care contract is between the council and the care home only. So called ‘top up’ fees cannot be demanded by the care home. The resident’s own funds may not be used to pay towards any agreed topup.
We have an elderly uncle and auntie who are in a care home. From what you write, you don’t seem to have agreed a contract of council funding or have one yet in place. You should have had a letter from the council showing exactly what your mother, the council and any other funding will provide.
Insurance and mental health guide
Hi Joanne – if any of the points from the article apply to you, you may be able to challenge the request for top ups. Also, check out the link to ‘more recent’ findings’ at the end of the article. Plus, if you believe that the outcome of the previous Continuing Healthcare assessment process was incorrect, you may want to appeal this. I’m getting no help or advice from social services other than there’s no alternative.
Within 3 weeks of her moving in this home closed and all residents moved to a brand new facility just a mile or so away – new build , very nice etc . Since moving in we are now faced with a top up fee of £ 300 per week ! We cannot afford this – who has £300 plus per week spare ? After a financial assessment the council are adamant we are liable for the top up and there is no way around that it seems to me. A third party fee is usually applied when the residential care home or nursing home you want to move to costs more than your personal budget. This is the amount the council is prepared to pay together combined with your own contribution.
Do not let the Council carry out a financial assessment of your FiL if he appears to have needs based on illness or even complex or intense so called social care needs and most certainly do not let them know of your own resources. Has the NHS carried out a NHS CHC assessment so that they might be shown to have to pay the entire cost of your dad’s care? If not, and you believe they should have, then make the council cease all financial activity. They are not allowed to consider someone’s finances until the NHS has assessed their potential patient first. In retrospective cases, an effective argument to use is that a person who is found eligible for Continuing Healthcare on one particular date is unlikely to have been ineligible the day before.
If there is a proposal to charge a top-up fee, the local authority have a responsibility to ensure that you are provided with clear and accurate information regarding alternative, affordable care placements. The Local Government & Social Care Ombudsman considered this issue in 2015 and compiled a report providing guidance around top-up fees as families could be paying too much for social care. My father is currently in care with Dementia, he is currently privately funded however he is about to hit the financial threshold. We have had an assessment done by the council and are awaiting a financial assessment. They have told us that we are not allowed to touch my fathers money. If my father has nearly £400 a week coming in in pensions, attendance allowance etc then why are they asking for a top up from myself when my father has the finances to cover it?
If a top up fee is needed, this may be asked of the family instead to make up the difference between the local authority contribution and the fee charged by the home. A top up fee may be asked of the family when the local authority contribution doesn’t quite meet the cost of the care home fees. When this happens, the family could be asked to make up the difference. This is called a ‘third party top up agreement’ and usually requires the approval of the local authority.
You'd prefer to live in a more expensive area to be closer to family or friends, but this wasn't identified in your needs assessment. It is possible for the council to refuse a deferred payment request if an individual’s home isn’t worth much money or the council believe it may be problematic to try and reclaim the debt. In this article we have outlined what top up fees are, how to pay them and what help there is in the event that you can’t. If you choose a home that is more expensive than the amount your council will pay, you can still move there as long as someone, such as another family member agrees to pay the difference or the ‘top-up fee’. Since we first looked into the issue of top-up fees, a greater number of councils are meeting the requirements designed to ensure top-up fees are always voluntary and fair. Looking ahead, while health care isn’t recession-proof, it does have a softer landing in tough economic times than other industries, Hanold said.
