Nursing / care homes cost - should they take all savings?

[paul1506uk]

Hi, my step daughters' father passed away last September, having spent the previous 3 years in a home suffering from early onset dementia. I know that at some point his caring went from just a care home to becoming a nursing home where he had most things done for him, but when he went in he had around £70K in savings. Once he died, the local authority sent their final invoice for him, and once that was paid, he had less than £10K left. I thought that patients were supposed to have means test checks done to make sure they were financially secure, and that there was a scale of how much they pay based on their savings, so that no one is left with no savings whatsoever. Is this not the case? Any advice would be very welcome

[Pezza54]

When the father went into the care home he would have self funded until his savings reduced to £23,250
Just before this point his carer should have contacted the LA for a financial and needs assessment. This assessment calculated how much the father had to contribute towards his care.
If the father's condition deteriorated further assessments would have been necessary to recalculate the LA's and his contribution
When his savings reduced to £14250 he should have stopped contributing from his capital provided:
the care provided by the nursing home did not exceed his needs (and therefore the cost exceeded the LA calculation)
If this was the case top-up fees had to be paid unless the LA failed to show that there was at least one nursing home in the locality that could have met his needs at the reduced cost.
Is it possible that his carer or the person with access to his bank account withdrew money for his personal expenses (over the LA allowance from income)?
I am sure the executor to his estate will want to check LA calculations, especially the final bill