LET ME
2 weeks ago
About Me
Sunday 17 April 2011
seething!
I had a meeting with a representative of the Office of the Public Guardian at mum's care home last week to make sure I was doing a good job of discharging my duties as deputy for her financial affairs and property. It was a positive meeting but I was dismayed to discover that I could have been claiming Attendance Allowance for mum for years, even after she went into the care home. Her GP did suggest it some years ago but at the time mum said she didn't want to bother and in my ignorance I confused it with carer's allowance and thought no more about it, especially when I was no longer involved in her day to day care. Now I find that she is entitled to the higher allowance of £73.60 a week which means that since going into the care home, she could have had £5667.20 towards the fees!!!!! I am so annoyed, why doesn't anyone tell you these things, ie the care staff when mum first became a resident or the Office of the Public Guardian when I was granted the deputyship order? And the most annoying thing of all is I can't get it back dated so that's money lost/gifted to the government. Grrrrr. I have made a start applying for AA online but have to get some info from the care home tomorrow to complete it. Wish me luck!
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2 comments:
Oh Lily, I'm so sorry you didn't know about this from my experience, but I've checked my blog and I only made a passing reference to it in post about something else. Yes, we got our Attendance Allowance from the point where Mum moved into Care. It came up as something I could apply for in my meeting with their Finance Director in Mum's first few days there. I applied and it was very straight-forward. I hope it goes equally smoothly for you. You've had some rotten luck with this and with not getting a Power of Attorney in advance - I was fortunate to be advised to pursue the latter by my Mother's Solicitor a few years before it was finally necessary to invoke. I don't envy you all this business over Guardianship.
Ah well, shit happens lol. At least I know about it now. The chap from the OPG advised me to sort out Lasting Power of Attorney now, to save my children going through the same traumas when I finally go gaga, sounds like a good idea although I don't think I'll use the solicitor I went to for the Deputyship application - wasn't impressed by him.
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