Hello,
I have a question about payments of personal expenses allowance to care home residents.
The organisation that I work for operates a few care homes, and senior management are also personal appointees for some clients with profound learning disabilities.
One such client was receiving SDA and PC Guarantee credit (combined) paid to us as his care home provider and the £20.45 PEA paid to his personal bank a/c separately.
On 23 July (a date of no significance that I can work out) the PC computer woke up and decided that PC and SDA could not be paid together. Of course our local BDC didn't start paying the SDA. This is now sorted out, but both PC and SDA insist that the benefit cannot be split and partly paid to the client as his PEA.
They also insist that it has never been possible to split the payments, despite the fact that other clients in a similar situation still receive split payments as a matter or course.
No-one seems to be able to point out which legislation change this relates to (I still remember the order books for the PEA only 5 years ago, at a previous job in a care home).
If anyone has had a similar problem that they have resolved, or knows which piece of legislation the DWP are relying on here (as they don't seem to) I'd be grateful to hear from you.
Ultimately, as the appointee, we will be able to set up a payment for the fees, but this passes the responsibility for uprating the PEA on to us, which seems wrong.
Thanks for taking the time to read this leviathan post.
Jon Shaw
Welfare Rights worker
The Action Group

I have come across many similar problems when trying to unravel what benefits people in a care homes are getting.

For example Pension service often stop paying disability living allowance (mobility) to someone in a care home when they reached 65 despite the fact that it has been paid as a combined payment by the pension service before then.
Also severe disablement allowance payments suddenly disapearing.

PEA - who should be paid what? - I think this may be wrapped up in the legisation that came in April 2003. About allowing people to choose to have money to pay for their own social care and be eligible for direct payments.( getting their benefits paid to them and not the care home)

Uprating PEA - Each year the local authority should work out how much they are prepared to pay for the cost of the care home fees. So this then indirectly tells the care home how much the PEA is.

When push comes to shove I always ask "so what regulation says you can or can't do this." As I expect you have already.

Paragraph 4 of Schedule 9 of the 1987 Claim and Payment regs sets out when the IS/JSA/PC (less PEA) can be paid direct to the person or body to whom the charges in respect of that accommodation are payable.

Hope this helps

Thank you, that was just what I was after. The Pension Credit frontline staff have been saying that payments cannot be split, but it looks like (legally at least) they can.
Jon

could anyone help with the calculations involved re additional pensions part of state pension should this qualify for 50 per cent off in care home calculations.. should this be used as similiar private pensions..thanks