Sister claims brothers planned to falsify mother’s ‘Fair Deal’ application

A SISTER has claimed one of her brothers planned to falsify an application on behalf of their elderly mother for the Government’s “Fair Deal” scheme for nursing home costs.

The sister wants the High Court to refuse to allow two of her younger brothers a power of attorney over the financial affairs of their mother, aged in her early 80s with dementia, who is in a nursing home part-funded by the scheme.

The two brothers deny any attempt to falsify the application and argue everything was done in their mother’s best interests.

Mr Justice Seamus Noonan has reserved his decision.

The sister claims she prevented one of the brothers putting in a false Fair Deal application declaring their mother’s savings at €28,000 when they were €100,000. This would have increased the subsidy available under the Fair Deal scheme.

The sister alleges it was intended to put most of the savings in a foreign account of one of the brothers whereby they did not reach a €36,000 threshold for considering savings under Fair Deal. She notified the HSE of the alleged plan and got her own application in before they could, she claims.

The mother is subsidised under Fair Deal as she is paying €1,160 per week for the nursing home instead of €1,500. Her annual income is €40,000 from pensions of her late husband, the State and widow’s pension.

She owns the former family home, valued at €400,000, where one of the two brothers lives rent free while renting his own apartment for €900 per month.

That brother says his mother always refused to take rent from him but he was prepared to pay €900 monthly to stay there. An estate agent assessed the property’s rental value at €1,700 monthly, the court heard.

The sister is concerned, because her mother’s nursing home fees are some €60,000 per year and her income €40,000, she will be unable to pay the difference when her €75,000 savings run out within a few years. She says her mother wants to be made a ward of court, with the effect a court-appointed committee would look after her affairs.

The brothers say the proposal to reduce their mother’s savings for the Fair Deal application was done on advice of a HSE employee. There was “not a shred of evidence” to support the sister’s claims of anything illegal about this, one said.

The court also heard of a dispute between the sister and brothers concerning loans given by their mother to the children.

The sister said her mother gave her a gift of €11,000 in 2002 whch sum was included in the Fair Deal application because she always regarded it as a loan she still intended to pay back.

One of the brothers said he sought a €15,000 loan from his mother in 2014 to help refinance a €400,000 mortgage on his business.

He accepted his mother had then been diagnosed with “borderline” dementia but said she knew what she was doing, he did not put pressure on her and told his siblings he was looking for the loan.

The brother who moved back into the family home after the mother went into the nursing home said he wanted to do everything possible to ensure, as his mother wished, the house was not occupied by strangers.

The mother’s GP told the court she scored quite high in a cognitive test — 23 out of 30 — but had short-term memory problems and could not manage her financial affairs.

Before the GP certified last April the two brothers should be granted power of attorney, the mother was “quite adamant” they would have that role, the GP said.