Care home payment - who is responsible
Jun 26th 2006, 11:25 pm
#1
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Care home payment - who is responsible
Hi everyone, my first post so please be gentle!
I don't know if this is in the right place so excuse me if not.
My husband is French and has just learnt that his Grandma is about to go into a care home. She has hardly any funds of her own and rates for care seem to be at least as extortionate if not worse, than in the UK. Her daughter (my M.I.L) has today informed us that payment in these cases falls largely to offspring (her, since she is an only child) which seems to be backed up on this forum but also (and here is our concern) to grandchildren. We are due to be sent a mountain of French paperwork (
) to complete regarding our earnings etc. Does anyone know if this is the case or where I can find out any info on the net as I am starting to panic. (As if its not bad enough trying to save for our own old age now we have to do parents and grandparents????)
Any advice much appreciated.
I don't know if this is in the right place so excuse me if not.
My husband is French and has just learnt that his Grandma is about to go into a care home. She has hardly any funds of her own and rates for care seem to be at least as extortionate if not worse, than in the UK. Her daughter (my M.I.L) has today informed us that payment in these cases falls largely to offspring (her, since she is an only child) which seems to be backed up on this forum but also (and here is our concern) to grandchildren. We are due to be sent a mountain of French paperwork (
) to complete regarding our earnings etc. Does anyone know if this is the case or where I can find out any info on the net as I am starting to panic. (As if its not bad enough trying to save for our own old age now we have to do parents and grandparents????)Any advice much appreciated.
Jun 27th 2006, 6:37 am
#2
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Joined: Apr 2006
Location: Herault
Posts: 214
Re: Care home payment - who is responsible
Debs, I cannot offer any practical advice or words of wisdom, yet wanted to respond as I very much understand your concerns.
And by the way, yes this is very much the place where you can post such questions!
I hope someone more enlightened than I am will be able to point you in the right direction.
But as far as I understand, it is true that care home payments fall onto children and then grandchildren. It is such an anachronism, and yet it is still operational. I cannot imagine that there would be no ways out of this, though, especially if you and your husband are English residents: no English court of law would enforce this French law surely, and the other glimmer of hope is that if you fill in all the French forms you cannot be held responsible if living in a different country (sounds perhaps far-fetched and only demonstrates my ignorance - sorry).
In any case, good luck. I would love to know the outcome, and what you can do for it. Good luck to Grandma too!
And by the way, yes this is very much the place where you can post such questions!
I hope someone more enlightened than I am will be able to point you in the right direction.
But as far as I understand, it is true that care home payments fall onto children and then grandchildren. It is such an anachronism, and yet it is still operational. I cannot imagine that there would be no ways out of this, though, especially if you and your husband are English residents: no English court of law would enforce this French law surely, and the other glimmer of hope is that if you fill in all the French forms you cannot be held responsible if living in a different country (sounds perhaps far-fetched and only demonstrates my ignorance - sorry).
In any case, good luck. I would love to know the outcome, and what you can do for it. Good luck to Grandma too!
Jun 27th 2006, 9:15 am
#3
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Joined: Oct 2005
Location: arundel, gold coast, australia
Posts: 136
Re: Care home payment - who is responsible
Well, all I can do is tell you how it works while you are in France, I don't know as says Karunia if you'll still be involved in this not living in France yourselves.
We are in this situation with my grandmother for the last 13 years!! When she went into care and her pension was not enough to cover the payments, the government froze all her assets (not much, but maybe you'd want to know that) and they also take 90% of everything she earns leaving her with a little pocket money for clothes and whatever she might need. The home also qualifies as her home so they fill in whatever paperwork to get her rent allowance. After that, everyone of her children and grandchildren has to fill in like you say a mountain of paperwork where you have to show every penny that you earn and how much your bills are. Then all that goes in front of a panel of people who will decide from that information how much money you can afford to pay every month. I have never had to pay because our financial situation with young kids and a mortgage to pay is not good enough but my aunt for example who has finished to pay for her house and has no more children at home has to give 300 euros every month.
The thing is it doesn't really matter I think that your mother in law is an only child because they will only ask her to pay what they think she can afford to pay even if in total it doesn't cover the grandmother's care bills, the government will then pay the difference but they will also take whatever she owns towards her bills.
I hope I have clarified a few things for you, it's a horrible scheme that the government has in place I think and it's not a fair one at all.
I hope you can let me know how it will work for you living in england as we are soon emigrating and I wonder how it will work for me in the future.
We are in this situation with my grandmother for the last 13 years!! When she went into care and her pension was not enough to cover the payments, the government froze all her assets (not much, but maybe you'd want to know that) and they also take 90% of everything she earns leaving her with a little pocket money for clothes and whatever she might need. The home also qualifies as her home so they fill in whatever paperwork to get her rent allowance. After that, everyone of her children and grandchildren has to fill in like you say a mountain of paperwork where you have to show every penny that you earn and how much your bills are. Then all that goes in front of a panel of people who will decide from that information how much money you can afford to pay every month. I have never had to pay because our financial situation with young kids and a mortgage to pay is not good enough but my aunt for example who has finished to pay for her house and has no more children at home has to give 300 euros every month.
The thing is it doesn't really matter I think that your mother in law is an only child because they will only ask her to pay what they think she can afford to pay even if in total it doesn't cover the grandmother's care bills, the government will then pay the difference but they will also take whatever she owns towards her bills.
I hope I have clarified a few things for you, it's a horrible scheme that the government has in place I think and it's not a fair one at all.
I hope you can let me know how it will work for you living in england as we are soon emigrating and I wonder how it will work for me in the future.
Jun 27th 2006, 11:57 am
#4
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Joined: Jun 2006
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Re: Care home payment - who is responsible
Thank you both for your advice and encouragement. My parents in law like to have a go about the British system being a shambles whenever they can but it seems on this point the Brits are definitely fairer (though don't get me started on people with no savings being looked after but people with savings having to cover their own costs in this country!). I wondered if they (p.i.l) were involving us unnecessarily (harsh, but I'm afraid that is their nature, they resent their son living in the UK) but it seems from what you say that grandchildren can definitely be held accountable. What a system! It's no wonder people get exasperated. Will await the reinforced truck delivering the paperwork and then will give you an update. I'll probably be on here asking for help in filling it in anyway! Husband has his own business (nothing great and he has worked 6/7 days a week for the last 9 years to establish it) so incomings and outgoings are not straightforward when completing British paperwork nevermind French. I'm hoping if we are a bit vague and leave most things in English it may put them off chasing us 
