My great aunt was threatened with eviction from her care home. Here’s how I fought for her rights

I never had a loving grandparent. But I was blessed with my Aunty Jo. My mother’s aunt, she is a free-spirited peaceful woman and benevolent enigma. Without fail she sent birthday and Christmas gifts with money she didn’t have, and when I was very young, she showed up for my mum when she needed help the most. She means a lot to me.

Aunty Jo is a gentle, creative, sensitive woman and quite the adventurer. She spent many years in ashrams in India, lived in Greece and America, and for the last 40 years or so has lived a modest and conscious life on the English coast.

Cut to 2025, and after a scramble of paperwork, a quick education on local authority care homes, a tooth comb through the 2014 Care Act and support from a remarkable social worker, I became her lasting power of attorney and have worked to solidify her care placement.

As the case with many vulnerable elderly people, my aunt had a bad fall which lead to a bout in hospital, and an eventual placement in an NHS-contracted room in a care home.

After a struggle to find a suitable placement, the home she landed in happened to be exceptional. She ached for her independence and home comforts as she adjusted, but she was safe, healing physically, and being cared for by compassionate and trustworthy nurses.

If a person has less than £23,250.00 in savings and assets, they qualify for local authority funding. If you are in this position, as we were, it is so important to ensure you are receiving all the financial support to which you are entitled – and you can continue to claim this support while living in a home.

This includes basic state pension, pension credit, disability living allowance (DLA), personal independence payment (PIP) and attendance allowance.

You may also qualify for NHS-funded nursing care, which can be applied to your monthly payments.

Being thrust into the position of securing a local authority placement can feel incredibly overwhelming, and it did for us. It is vital to know that under the Care Act, local authorities have a legal duty to meet the eligible needs of adults who live in the local area.

You do not have to accept a placement that could lead to physical or mental deterioration. We were presented with options that were completely inappropriate, including dementia-specific homes which I believe would have caused a severe decline in her wellbeing by limiting her freedoms.

Read more:

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• I’m a social worker – don’t judge me for it

As a result of contesting the unsuitable options presented, and due to the fact that moving her would cause deterioration, my aunt was given a permanent placement in the home she had been placed in after her hospital admission.

A few months later, when she was settled, surrounded by her belongings as we’d cleared her house and made her room a home, I received a call from a social worker at her local council. She stated that the council would be moving my aunt imminently and she could not provide any form of reasoning for the move.

I was beside myself. I lodged a complaint on the council website and followed a gut feeling to call back and request to be present if any meetings were to take place. Luckily I acted upon this instinct, as the social worker had planned on visiting my aunt and I had not been told.

On the day of that meeting, I was told that a list of local authority residents in the area whose placements had already been agreed and funded were put on a list to be moved to save the council money. I was disgusted.

They were being treated like inanimate objects. Moving vulnerable elderly people in their last chapter of life to a new environment with likely sub-standard nursing in my opinion could result in premature deaths – and it probably has done.

Such disruption could cause a severe decline in mental health, sense of identity and wellbeing which violates not only the Care Act 2014 but Article 8 of the Human Rights Act 1998, which gives people the right to a home, private and family life.

I continually requested the acknowledgment of the Care Act, and demanded no decision be made before my complaints process had completed. I also made it clear I would contact media publications. Miraculously, after I spoke to the Big Issue about my situation, the council U-turned.

My aunt is now safe in her placement, surrounded by her books, peaceful and protected. I appreciate that I have access to resources many do not, such as my friends and contacts at the Big Issue.

My heart breaks for the elderly people who do not manage to fight their council’s unlawful evictions. Our oldest members of society deserve respect, dignity and require fierce protection. I encourage friends and family members to fight when councils threaten to revoke permanent care placements of loved ones.

And I implore councils to abide by the Care Act and consider the morbid consequences and Dickensian cruelty of ripping our most vulnerable members of society from their homes for the sake of saving a few pounds a month. What is the price of an elderly person’s life?

Find support at Age UK. If you want to learn more about the financial support available, contact Turn2Us.

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