Edith became a client of Money Carer after a meeting with her lifelong friend and the local Department of Work and Pensions (DWP), who had initially referred the case to the local council.
The council operated a discretionary appointeeship service but were unable to offer assistance to Edith as they had already allocated all their resources to manage the finances of their existing clients and so were not accepting any new clients.
The DWP contacted Money Carer and outlined Edith's circumstances. We arranged to meet with Edith, her close friend Mrs Matthews and Edith's personal assistant Lisa.
Edith is 89 years old, a widow and has vascular dementia. She lived independently for a number of years but unfortunately Edith suffered a bad fall at home and was admitted to hospital. Whilst Edith was recovering in hospital, her social worker and Community Psychiatric Nurse (CPN) carried out a care assessment that identified her care needs and the requirements of the care package once Edith was well enough to leave hospital. Edith was transferred from the general hospital ward to a specialist mental health unit whilst a place at suitable local residential care home was secured as it was agreed that Edith was unable to continue to live at home as her condition had deteriorated.
Part of the care assessment showed that Edith could not manage her finances and indeed her lifelong friend Mrs Matthews had been trying to help on an informal basis but she herself was suffering ill health and could no longer continue with this arrangement. Mrs Matthews was an authorised signatory on Edith's bank account and had been ensuring that care home fees were paid and that Lisa was allocated a set amount per month to pay for Edith's shopping. However there was no power of attorney so the situation was not ideal and both Mrs Matthews and Lisa were anxious to ensure that a better solution was implemented.
Mrs Matthews contacted the DWP to ask them for assistance and when the local Council refused to help Edith, the DWP contacted Money Carer.
Money Carer met with Edith, Mrs Matthews and Lisa and explained how the service would help Edith as her corporate appointee. Money Carer liaised with the DWP and were approved as the corporate appointee for Edith and began to receive her benefits and be responsible for paying her care home fees and shopping bills from these funds.
We also asked the DWP to review her circumstances and we undertook a benefits entitlement check for Edith. As part of the financial review we liaised with the local Council and completed a revised personal financial statement for Edith to ensure that her contributions to her care home fees were correct.
The outcome of the review identified a significant credit for overpayment of care home fees and additional Pension Credit for Edith.
Edith's personal assistant Lisa is a self employed professional carer and helps Edith by shopping for clothes and personal items and visits Edith once a week in the care home to make sure she has all the toiletries and essential things she needs on a regular basis. Mrs Matthews now lives abroad so Lisa is Edith's only regular contact and provides an invaluable service in terms of emotional support for Edith as well as taking care of her shopping each week.
Lisa has known Edith for a number of years and understands Edith's likes and dislikes and as Edith has no other family or friends, Lisa's visits are very important.
Money Carer provided Lisa with a Carer's Expense Card to use when shopping for Edith and this ensures that all transactions are recorded. This has given Lisa more confidence as a formal procedure is now in place that has removed the need for Lisa to collect receipts and record purchases and the associated liability.
Mrs Matthews was an authorised signatory on Edith's bank account and Money Carer informed the bank that Edith was no longer able to manage her own finances and that Mrs Matthews had moved abroad. The bank automatically froze the current account in accordance with their standard procedure as there was no power of attorney in place and this meant that any funds in the account were not accessible.
Money Carer applied to the Court of Protection to become the Deputy for Edith so that the savings held in her bank account could be managed alongside the appointeeship already in place. Subsequently all Edith's personal financial affairs are managed by Money Carer and Mrs Matthews and Lisa can concentrate on delivering the care and friendship that is so vital to Edith's wellbeing.
