self funding do social services have a right to assets info

[gizmo]

my grandmother will be self funding once solicitor has dealt with court of protection and sorted paper work for us to sell house
but social services gave us a form to declare her assets do we have to declare or not
arre there any pros and cons either way

[charles47]

Hi gizmo.

Basically, if you don't declare her assets, you are breaking the law. It's really that simple, I'm afraid.

[gizmo]

even if she is funding her own care?
then why would social services need to know as already declared every thing to solicitor

[Guest]

I'm sure you're right, Charles, but I too can't understand why social services have the right to know about a person's assets if they're self-funding. I can understand why, if the money runs out at a later date and they are going to fund care, they would need to do a financial assessment and might want to know where the assets have gone but before that point I can't understand why it's of relevance to them . If social services have already determined that individual is ineligible for LA funding surely they will have already carried out a financial assessment? Just goes to show that if you have assets and you're going to have to pay for care you should avoid social services at all costs .

[Scally]

Hi gizmo.

Basically, if you don't declare her assets, you are breaking the law. It's really that simple, I'm afraid.

Hold on there Charles - surely that only applies if you are actually receiving or requesting a service? If you are self funding then they can go sing. Scotland is even better: My f-in-l never received a financial assessment, even though he spent four years as a resident in a nursing home, because personal care is free.

[Guest]

We bought care for over a year without the involvement of social services, they wouldn't assist us when we asked so a couple of years later we ended up paying for it ourselves. My husband goes to a club, again we self-fund, it's not connected to social services so we don't need them to agree that it's necessary or subject us to a financial assessment. My attitude is very much that if you're having to pay you choose what best meets your needs, not someone who makes a brief visit and and knows nothing about you.

[charles47]

If you're going through social services for support - whether you will be self-funding or not - they must carry out the financial assessment. For that, they need the information. After all, when they first got involved, there was no residential care on the horizon and there was no need to think about finances.

If you've arranged everything privately, without the "help" of social services, there is no financial assessment.

That's pretty much the basis of the situation. As social services were involved, they have to carry out the financial assessment - by law - and you have to provide the necessary information.

[Guest]

It may be the law, Charles, but there's something morally wrong with refusing to assist financially yet demanding to know every detail of someone's financial affairs.

[Cheril The Peril]

.
Would it also depend on who involved social services?

Years ago an aunt of my husbands was taken into hospital, the hospital involved social services because they were not satisfied that the aunt could look after herself. Even though family stepped in and invited the aunt to live with them and to care for her social services still carried on their involvement. Sometimes it seems that once social services are involved they just won't go away?
.

[charles47]

Once involved, social services have a duty to ensure the welfare of the person they are called in to support. It doesn't matter who involved them, the duty remains the same.

Let's say for arguments' sake that the hospital calls in social services because they don't believe that a patient is capable of looking after themselves. Does this patient have the mental capacity to choose to live with their family? What was the family doing beforehand - have they always supported this patient or are they only interested now there's the possibility of selling the house? In other words, is there the possibility of abuse (financial or otherwise)? There have been a few cases in my area where the possibility of neglect, financial abuse and physical abuse has been investigated. In most cases, it's down to misunderstandings. But, occasionally, it isn't.

If social services did not stay involved, and something went wrong, we would all criticise the social worker for ignoring the signs. If they stay involved, then they are being busybodies. They cannot win. Lord knows I have little time for some social workers, but they do have a responsibility and it's good that sometimes they do carry it out.