The Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman (LGSCO) has issued guidance to local councils to help identify those who have avoided paying residential care home fees by deliberately depriving themselves of assets.
Local authorities are left responsible to assess for people who are intentionally depriving themselves of assets in order to receive higher levels of benefits to contribute towards their care fees.
Those who go into care homes are means-tested to assess what level of support they receive for their care fees. The test attempts to ensure people are not depriving themselves of assets in order to entitle themselves to these benefits.
However, the LGSCO states these decisions made by councils are “very nuanced” and can be incorrectly applied. The LGSCO has stated proper records have not been kept for how their decisions are made and not all incidences of people depriving themselves of assets, such as by placing assets into a trust, or when gifts are given to family or friends.
These have led to numerous complaints from families that their elderly relatives have been left without benefits they may have been entitled to. As such, the ombudsman has advised councils to fully assess the reasons why a person has deprived themselves of assets, and that when the asset was given away is a powerful indicator for whether the action was done in order to gain the benefit.
Local authorities are under pressure to ease the number of care home placements due to rising applications, and as council budgets are ever tightening, they are responsible for identifying those who are deliberately paying less than they should. David Fothergill, chairman of the Local Government Association’s Community Wellbeing Board, commented:
“Councils rightly expect that all those who can afford to contribute financially to their own care actually do so in accordance with national and local charging policies.
If people try to avoid paying for their care, this ultimately puts further pressure on the system and the taxpayer, and it is unfair to those who do make the expected financial contribution.”
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