Disabled person gets huge bill for live in care

[bazaar]

Hi all,

Ive been asked to help in this, so I'll be as brief as poss.

 

Friend has a daughter who has full benefits and ILF, she has severe eating disorder ( PWS) amongst other things so has to be supervised at all times she is living in accomodation with other service users.

Local authority have been handling all of this, but now the care providers have produced a bill of 1500 for 'care costs'

i havent seen the full contract yet, so bear with me.

 

Originally our friend had asked that her daughter go to specialist care home outside the bourough, The council refused this and stated they could provide the necessary care.

It is my understanding that this is illegal, however, our friend gave the council a chance to see if they could indeed provide the care required.

Needless to say, the girls' weight has ballooned under this 'care' and her health is at serious risk, ( diabetese, heart, etc).

 

Now, about this bill, our friend has often had to remove her daughter from the home because of arguments at the home due to her condition, High blood sugar causes her to be very agressive.

so our friend has her over the weekends, so she is querying this bill.

Also, she found out that the carers, ( if you can call them that) have been taking the daughter to restuarants etc, during target support times.

So she has been over eating, hense the weight gain.

To top that off, the carers have been getting their meals paid for by the daughter out of her allowances. Also, the carers take the receipts, which made me a little suspicious.

now forgive me here, but that to me is a complete no no. A care provider, demanding that a vunerable person pays for dinners out?

 

i have suggested that our friend demand sight of the expense reports for the carers, to see if they are double dipping, then she would have a plan of attack against the 1500 bill.

 

I'm sure i could add more,

but I'll see what response we get to this first,

Thanks for looking in

[bazaar]

OK a little update, Ive got them to file a complaint to the SS, then a freedom of information request to the council concerning finances to the care provider, plus any complaints about the care provider. AND a SAR to the care providers for all the personal data.

In the mean time, the mother is going to turn up on the doorstep to retrieve personal belongings, ( I think this may fail unless they phone the police to be present).

[understanding]

Carersuk dot org is an organisation that can help with your friend in this situation by offering advice and suggesting which legal avenue to explore. If her daughter is under the age of 18, I suspect your friend is considered her legal guardian as a parent. If the daughter is over the age of 18, as far as I am aware, if your friend has power of attorney she has every right to withdraw her daughter as long as it does not put her daughter’s life at risk. If she doesn’t hold power of attorney then it may well be her daughter refuses and all your friend may be able to do is seek the help from her G.P. a social worker or someone like that.

 

I think if you take a look at the carers uk website and see what advice it can offer your friend, at the very least it should point to the right direction of what steps to take.

 

Good luck.

[bazaar]

Well, a little update, its amazing what a freedom of information request backed up bt SAR and 2 complaints can make,

They had a meeting last friday with SS, and guess what, theyve magically been able to provide funding for out of borough placement.

 

it s a shame that it had to come to it, but I guess you have to complain in the correct manner,

 

But thats not the end of the story, because as the daughter has been withdrawn from services and lost her ILF to fund carers to take her out, it would appear that this act is a criminal act. So, a complaint to police for abuse and neglect springs to mind against the boss wjo made the decision to take away services.