Does anyone have a relative who lives in supported living and who has an independent appointee who deals with their finances? How do people get their money to do their food shopping. Are they able to shop online for household items or holidays etc and if so how do they pay? Are there any limits to how much can be spent and what are the safeguards that need to taken into account. Thank you. Tillypop
Hi Many of your queries can be answered by your local voluntary support groups. Many run carers support groups e.g Local MENCap MIND etc.
Hello Murree. Thank you for your response, however, I do belong to a carers support group and none of us know the answer to the questions I raised and the Carers Centre tell us that different Care Providers have different policies and procedures for handling personal finances for the people they support especially when someone is deemed to lack capacity. I was hoping to hear first hand experiences from parents/relatives or even care providers who’s sons/daughters/relatives are already living in a supported living setting where finances are managed by an independent appointee. I know some parents who have retained appointeeship and can spontaneously manage their loved ones finances but we know other parents who have handed over appointeeship and it seems their loved ones have to go through a lengthy procedure especially to gain access to their personal money if they want to purchase something like furniture or a holiday and can’t order things online because they don’t have a credit or debit card. Those parents trying to plan for the future living arrangements of their loved ones would like to know what the options are but seem to have hit a brick wall.
An organisation that might be able to help is DOSH.
To quote them
“Dosh supports people with a learning disability to be able to manage their money. We provide financial advocacy, appointeeship for benefits and account management for self-directed support budgets. We believe that everyone should have personalised support to use their money in the way they want and for the things they enjoy.”
Their website can be found at: https://www.dosh.org
Hi Tillypop,
I am not sure about the most up to date procedure in relation to applying for a financial appointee as I think this varies between different councils, however when I worked in a nursing service in the past, many of the people in our care had a financial appointee nominated from the local council, there is more information available in relation to Bristol here Become an appointee for someone claiming benefits - GOV.UK so hopefully similar can be found for where you live.
The appointee would set a weekly allowance to cover the usual living expenses, and If the individual wanted to make a particular purchase over a certain threshold we would apply on behalf of the person to have these funds made available. All of this was documented, recorded and made available for internal and external audit (CQC and local authority).
I think this is particularly pertinent, especially as there are many negative experiences of people with a learning disabilities being financially abused and made to give people money.
Perhaps Citizens advice can offer further guidance in relation to this as well?
Good luck, Jarek
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Thank you all for your responses and valuable information which we will follow up.
Best regards Tillypop
One other thought, recently I have come across the CarerCard, a prepaid MasterCard, which is aimed at people using care/support services. They charge £7 per month to use their prepaid debit card after a 3-month free trial.
I haven’t yet worked out if there are any advantages in using their pre-paid MasterCard versus other ones where you don’t get charged or those with a low annual cost.
You can find out more on their website which can be found at: https://carercard.com/prepaid-card-learningdisabilities/
I don’t have any experience of the card, nor do I know anyone who is using the card so I can’t make any comment on its usefulness.
Thanks Neil, this is something worth following up. Regards, Tillypop
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