Pensioner was wrongly charged for personal care

SOCIAL workers have been criticised for using £10,000 of a pensioner’s savings to pay for personal care the local authority should have funded.

An internal investigation by Edinburgh City Council found against its own social workers, who left the woman with just £4500 in the bank.

The department also refused to pay back the sum, but was ordered to do so by a council complaints committee.

The internal inquiry found social workers failed to tell the pensioner to stop paying for her own care when her savings reached the low threshold of £14,500.

A family friend who had power of attorney for the woman, taken into care in 2005 after breaking her hip, has had to fight to have her money paid back and the council’s Social Work Complaints Review Committee has now recommended the pensioner, named only as Mrs X, is paid back the money.

Rod Alexander, who chaired the committee hearing, said: “The complainant indicated that he was acting on behalf of a family friend for whom he had been appointed power of attorney.

“He was dissatisfied with the decision of the council not to refund £10,000 which had been paid out of Mrs X’s savings to fund her care home costs and this had taken her savings below the lower capital threshold limit by that amount.

“The complainant believed the council should have taken over the funding of the care earlier, at the point at which the department no longer expected people to contribute towards their care home costs from their capital assets.”

Free personal care was the flagship policy of Henry McLeish’s Labour/LibDem-led Scottish Government and the current Health Secretary Nicola Sturgeon said only last month that it would continue.

She said: “Free support will remain in place in Scotland,” adding, “where capital falls between £14,500 and £23,500 a resident will be expected to contribute a proportion of his or her assets towards the cost of care.”

The initial complaint in the case of Mrs X challenged the council’s process that allowed officers to continue using the woman’s funds for her care below the threshold and called for a refund.

Complaints committee convener Mr Alexander recommended the council “agree that the complaint about lack of proper records and the difficulty in obtaining information be upheld”.

He said: “Mrs X should have been entitled to more information about charging costs and the committee were concerned that the council had no records of the discussions or assessment of Mrs X’s financial situation when she was taken into care in 2006.

“It was also of concern that there was no review of her situation until the complainant became her right of attorney in 2010.

“The committee considered that there was a need for a system which ensured care home residents were better informed of charges and the capital thresholds which applied for self-funding.”

A hearing in June was chaired by Mr Alexander and committee members including Val Lobban and Gail Mainland. The complainant and department representatives were there.

Mr Alexander said the money should be paid back and policy changed.

He added: “They felt that information should be circulated on a regular basis, perhaps annually, to care homes and residents in a form which was clear and user-friendly.

“It should make it clear to residents that it was important that they review their personal financial situation regularly and that they should seek advice if necessary.”

He urged the council to “agree that the complaint regarding the depletion of Mrs X’s capital below the charging threshold and for repayment of the overpaid charges be upheld”.

“The committee considered that a failure by the council to provide a proper duty of care to Mrs X was material to the depletion of her funds below the charging threshold.

“Consequently, the committee recommends that Mrs X should be reimbursed the sum involved, amounting to £10,000,” said Mr Alexander.

The council’s health, social care and housing committee is expected to accept the committee’s recommendations against the Health and Social Care Department tomorrow.