Elderly Client Care

Table of Contents

Ansham White Solicitors are proud to be a leading London Law firm in assisting elderly clients. We regularly make hospital and home visits where necessary. In addition, we often advise our clients on long-term residential and nursing care needs and how best to plan this important aspect of their lives. We work closely alongside several nursing homes and are happy to meet with you at your home, residential care home or at our office.

We are well known for our personalised service in preparing Lasting Power of Attorney and Court of Protection applications.

In addition, our firm prides itself for going beyond the call of duty when dealing with all of our clients. We have genuine care for each of them and ensure that their desired outcome is always at the centre of our work.

As a result of our personalised service, we often have long term returning clients. In this regard we can act as your appointed Professional Executor and Trustee in your Will. This will provide you with peace of mind knowing that your loved ones will be at ease with no added stress of dealing with the winding down of your estate once you are gone.

Advice on Residential Care Homes

If you are worried about your care being organised by the local authority, then the main steps of the process are:

Your local authority will firstly do a care needs assessment to see what help you need.

Recommendations about your needs will be made and whether or not you need residential care – this is called a Care Plan.

A budget will be set out to ensure you get what you need – this is called a Personal Budget.

The most important part will be a means test, also called a financial assessment, to work out how much you should pay towards your care home fees and how much your local authority will cover.

If your care is arranged by the NHS or social services, you may not have to pay for some or all of the care.

If you have concerns over what a means test looks like please call us for a free no obligation chat.

The means test will look at your capital and income, such as your savings and your property. Certain types of income, such as money from certain benefits and pensions, may not be counted. If you and someone else jointly hold capital, such as a savings account, it’ll be treated as divided equally between the two of you.

In some circumstances, your home will be excluded from the means test, for example, if your partner still lives there.

You may be thinking about giving away some of your savings, income or property to avoid higher care costs, and to give something to your relatives or charity. If your local authority believes that you have done this to avoid paying care fees they may still assess you as if you still had the money or property that you have given away. This is referred to as deprivation of assets, our expert team of solicitors will be able to advise you fully as to what constitutes deprivation of assets.

We can also assist in calculating what amount of capital will make you eligible to pay for your own care. You could also choose a care home in another area to be closer to family or friends. Generally the local authority will pay the full amount to the home and collect from you the amount that you need to pay.

If you are paying fees yourself (called self-funding) and your capital goes down to under £23,250, the local authority may assist with funding. You should request an assessment a few months before that happens. They should arrange one as soon as possible so you don’t have to use up your capital below that amount.

For more detail on paying for permanent residential care, please call us for a free consultation.

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