[Anonymous]

Received a call from my local Social Services finance department yesterday afternoon requesting immediate payment for care that i received from October right the way through to last week. I explained to the lady that i fired the agency many weeks ago (i can’t remember exactly when i fired them though)  so why am i still liable for ongoing care costs up to and including last week. The reply was that ‘neither you nor the agency informed us that you were no longer receiving care’

I’m almost certain that i DID let Social Services know that i’d fired the agency and i am 100% certain that i also let the agency know that i no longer wanted them to come back.

Long story short lady from Social Services insisted that i am liable for £1423.33p

I am NOT trying to avoid paying legitimate charges. My contention is that these charges are not legit because i received no care during the period in question.

Topic

[kezo]

Can you rember if you rang or emailed either Social services or the care providers at the time of cancellation. Try to rack your brain when and how you cancelled and then seek advice from your MP, getting them to right a letter to social on your behalf.

 

[Jojoe]

Ask to see the records / time sheets that show the carer visited you. This is the councils problem not yours, they’re getting shafted by the care company and are trying to pass the shafting onto you! Contact your local councillor, they know all the heads of departments and unlike a lot of MP’s, they are there because they want to help the local community. You’ll find your ward councillor on the councils website.

[Phaedra]

Gee, it sounds like the agency were still billing the council for your care, they are responsible for the repayment as they were not providing the service they billed for.

Please excuse spelling/typos. Apart from being a clot it turns out I had one on my cerebellum that's now causing various problems!

[Callmejohn]

I think that you should be pointing out to the Social Services that if they have been billed by the care company for care that you did not receive, then that is potential fraud and it is the care company that Social Services should be looking into, who must have been supplying them with time costs when they attended you.

Also that seems a heck of a charge by Social Services of roughly £158 pound per week towards your care package. I think I would be checking that one out as well.

[Anonymous]

Thank you @kezo @jojoe @Phaedra @Callmejohn

Reading the above replies i quickly went from being beside myself with worry about this very unexpected bill to cool calm and collected about the whole thing.

As @Callmejohn has pointed out £158pw cannot be correct. If it is correct then i’ll be heading to Debtors Jail because there’s zero chance of me being able to pay that debt.

@jojoe & @Phaedra pointing out that the Care Agency may have continued to bill SSD for care that they were no longer providing allowed me to sigh a gigantic sigh of relief because if correct that hopefully puts me in the clear

@kezo Unfortunately my memory isn’t what it used to be which means i cannot recall when i terminated the agency or even when i informed SSD that i’d fired said agency. You comment has though served to highlight that keeping records of stuff like that can save a world of worry further on down the line, so thank you.

[Author]

Replies