Please help - financial support options for lone, vulnerable, elderly man?

Poppy this thread is from November.

Is he a veteran...i.e. served in the Forces? If so military charities can offer help too. Contact SSAFA in his area regardless of which arm of the services he might have belonged to. They are so helpful and get things moving quickly.

I had a similar situation with a frind. Social Services sorted out everything she needed, including attendance allowance and a care package.
Contact Adult Social Services in the area they will be able to get the relevant forms completed for any money he can claim and set up a care package.

win

He needs to phone social services to have a care assessment this should ideally be done when you reach £30.000 as it takes a long time to get one. Once you get down to £ 23500 they start to chip in and once you reach £17500 you usually become totally funded. It does depend on both income and savings. The house is disregarded, as he lives in it, when he has his financial assessment. The company who provides the live in care should know all this and I am surprised they have as yet not advised him. Age UK are indeed good as is the Citizens Advice but they will only tell him the same. The first step is a care assessment followed by a financial assessment. So many other questions has he done his will? has he done his LPA? has anyone got POA.? Has he got capacity? So much depends on all this.

Social services round here took about 6months to go from 1st visit to the carer arriving on door step. He made need support with documentation.

I agree with all the above advice. Age UK were very helpful with helping my parents claim for support. An Adult Social Care Assessment is a good way to go, especially if he is vulnerable. It can usually be requested online but a phone call to the local council to speak to Adult Social Care services might be easier and potentially quicker. Allocation of a social worker can be hugely beneficial as they have access to appropriate resources & information. Hope it all goes well for him.

Contact social.services ( adult services) and ask for an assessment of needs, they need Social Services involvement

He needs to phone social services to have a care assessment this should ideally be done when you reach £30.000 as it takes a long time to get one. Once you get down to £ 23500 they start to chip in and once you reach £17500 you usually become totally funded. It does depend on both income and savings. The house is disregarded, as he lives in it, when he has his financial assessment. The company who provides the live in care should know all this and I am surprised they have as yet not advised him. Age UK are indeed good as is the Citizens Advice but they will only tell him the same. The first step is a care assessment followed by a financial assessment. So many other questions has he done his will? has he done his LPA? has anyone got POA.? Has he got capacity? So much depends on all this.

Speak to social services and request a financial assessment

Age UK should be able to point him in the right direction.

If he is on a low income, he may be entitled to Pension Credit, which is a gateway to many other financial concessions. He will need to supply a lot of financial information in order to claim.

As he needs care, he may be entitled to Attendance Allowance. The claim form is long and is best completed by someone with experience, eg Age UK, Citizens Advice or another charity, or welfare service.
If Social Services ( Elderly Care) are contacted for help, they will do both a care and a financial assessment.

All of these will involve the man revealing a lot of personal and financial information, though AA is not means-tested. Would he be open to this?
Is it possible he doesn’t actually need personal care as such ( ie help with bathing, dressing?) , but help with cooking, housework? He will probably have to pay for those.
But once awarded AA, nobody wants to know how it is spent.

I would recommend talking to Age UK. Every county has an Information and Advice section, contactable by phone or emeail.

They also have a very good range of Fact sheets on all sorts of topics. pascal30 mentioned equity release. This could indeed be a help for him. Here are 2 links to Age UK Factsheets
www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/income-tax/equity-release-download-page/
www.ageuk.org.uk/information-advice/money-legal/income-tax/equity-release/

As he doesn't have any family I wonder if he has considered equity release?

You're very welcome.
There are some very knowledgeable members here, who may be able to discuss things with you, too.

Thank you very much

benefits-calculator.turn2us.org.uk/

This has almost all of the info you need.

If you can, phone age UK or your closest citizens advice bureau, as they are very good at knowing the benefits system.

There is an easy calculator online you can use, as a reasonably accurate guide.

I'll find it and post it here.