Warwickshire County Council charged dementia care home resident £18K illegal top up fee

WARWICKSHIRE county council has had its knuckles rapped after it illegally charged top-up fees to the family of a man with dementia living in care.

Contrary to current legislation, the county council charged the Osgathorp family, from Leamington, a total of £18,000 for the care of father, Richard, who has subsequently died.

Under the Care Act of 2015, if you or a family member qualify for a council-funded place in a care home, that place should be fully funded by the council and you should not be asked to pay top-up fees. Additional, fees can only be paid voluntarily, with the consent of the family, for genuine extras, such as a bigger than standard room. However, many county councils are flouting those rules and charging top-up fees.

In Mr Osgathorp’s case he became eligible for funded care as behavioural problems associated with his dementia became so severe he had to be sectioned and moved to a specialist care home.

His son Simon told BBC Radio 4 about his father: “My dad Richard was a very gentle character. He became ill in 2016 and was diagnosed with vascular dementia.

“The change in his behaviour was quite rapid. He was looked after at home by mum for a couple of years, but it got to the point where he would try and escape from the house in the middle of the night and it became unmanageable and he had to move into a home.”

At this point the county council proposed a number of homes, but most of them were not suitable for Mr Osgathorp’s needs – for example, because they did not take dementia residents. The council had set a personal budget of £452 for Mr Osgathorp (the amount it was willing to spend on his care).

However, under the Care Act if only one home is suitable then the council can’t ask for a top-up. In this case they asked the Osgathorps for £407 a week to top up the £899 weekly cost of the care home.

With the help of the Citizens Advice Bureau, the family began to realise their rights and complained to the council. However, the council refused to accept they were in the wrong and by the time Mr Osgathorp passed away they had paid out £18,000.

Ultimately the family had to get the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman involved, who found in the family’s favour, and ruled they were owed an apology as well as a refund. In addition, they recommended the council conduct procedural reviews and better training of its staff.

Asked what his advice would be to other families, Simon said: “Don’t accept what you are told and stay strong, keeping passing it up to the next level. Where necessary get help from CAB and the ombudsman.”

The county council confirmed it had apologised. It told the Herald: “The council accepts the Local Government and Social Care Ombudsman findings and we regret that our usual high standard of support was found lacking in this instance. On the basis of the findings we have formally apologised to the customer and their family."

More complaints

In recent years the Social Care Ombudsman upheld 75 per cent of complaints about WCC that it investigated, nine per cent more than similar authorities.

However when the Herald put these statistics to the council it defended its track record.

A spokesperson told us: “The figures are slightly skewed in Warwickshire as we have such a low number of complaints. This relates to eight complaints against the council of which six were upheld.

“The six upheld complaints were across all council services including parking, school admissions, children’s services and adult social care. There were only two upheld complaints against adult social care in the whole year.”

They added: “The Ombudsman also focuses on how well councils respond to upheld complaints and measure compliance with their recommendations. Warwickshire has shown good performance with a compliance rate of 100 per cent.”