In a significant local government case, Exchange Chambers attorney Louis Browne KC represented Wrexham Borough Council in an effort to recover unpaid care facility costs under the Social Services and Well-Being (Wales) Act 2014.
The defendant in the case served as her father’s durable power of attorney (LPA) for property and funds. As his LPA, the Defendant had a responsibility to act in his best interests, which included seeing to it that the costs associated with placing him in a care facility were covered.
Due to her involvement with social services both while her father resided in Milton Keynes and later in London, the defendant would have been familiar with the necessity to pay for her father’s care, assistance, and housing.
.But after relocating to Wrexham, the Defendant neglected to pay her father’s care facility fees. As a consequence, the Council covered the related expenses to prevent her father’s placement from being jeopardized while those expenses were being recovered from his daughter as LPA.
In accordance with Chapter 8 and Annex F of Parts 4 and 5 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Code of Practice, an Asset Depletion Panel was established to consider the matter. The panel came to the unanimous conclusion that asset depletion had occurred because the defendant had used her father’s income and the profits from the sale of his property for her own expenses, treating his account as her own.
Louis Browne KC then represented Wrexham Borough Council to collect non-payment of care facility costs from the Defendant under Annex F, paragraphs 15.1–15.3 of Part 4 and 5 of the Social Services and Well-being (Wales) Act 2014 Code of Practice.
Julie Ray, a member of the Wrexham Borough Council, gave Louis some advice
