Care sevices and costs in the home ....

Top of the week to all !

I have a cl who’s caring for their terminally ill partner at home.  They have capital above £23.250.00.
They are paying a lot of money for an overnight carer and other care costs and I am wondering what help financially, if any, they can receive with the costs of this and other care needed.
Having looked at my info. resources it would appear that because they have capital above £23.250.00 they cannot receive any, but that they can have an assessment carried out by social services to put a care plan in place.
They are looking at direct payments and mu understanding of these is that you receive financial help directly to the cost of the care a person needs ad then you can choose the care provider.
Any help on this very greatly appreciated ...

The threshold for a community care assessment is very low and where it appears to the LA that a person may be in need of services the LA has a duty to assess.  However, a person with more than the capital limit is known as a “full cost” case and will have to pay the LA’s charge for the service and will not, therefore, qualify for direct payments.

However, it is not the capital of the carer/partner that is taken into account but that of the disabled person.  So, if the disabled person has more than £23,250 in their own right; or if their own capital and their share of jointly held capital is more than £23,250 then he will not qualify.  The rules on treatment of capital in the Fairer Charging guidance mirror those in the CRAG guidance (residential care).  However, I have reason to believe that not all local authorities are operating in the same way so contact your LA’s fairer charging team for more info’ on your LA’s policy on the treatment of capital.  For example, some LA’s used to include the partner’s capital but applied the individual capital limit x2, which simply achieved the same result by a different mechanism.

You might want to have a look at DRUK’s fact sheet on Charging for community care as well.

Agree with all the above - basically there is a duty on the Local Authority to assess and to arrange necessary care to an individual…but not necessarily to pay for it (subject to fairer charging as Nevip rightly says)...in this case it would seem the subject is over the capital limits (subject to checking as Nevip also rightly says) -  but there is then also the possibility of NHS Continuing Health Care (CHC) funding if the care provided falls into the eligibility criteria (ie it falls to be regarded as primarily a healthcare or nursing care need/as opposed to social care need)...in which case the care may be fully funded by the NHS Trust. The downside is that they will not (in fact can’t yet) offer a direct payment and the NHS would basically use their own preferred care suppliers…but it will be free

Each NHS Trust will have a Continuing Healthcare Team and if they wish to go down this path they should ask to be assessed by the local authority for a needs assessment and care planning, and by the NHS urgently for an assessment aganst the CHC eligibility criteria.

thank you as ever, always helpful ...