Coping with care home fees

If A husband goes into a nursing home. Do a wife's separate savings have to be taken into consideration and used towards the fees?

If the spouse is still living in the house the house doesn’t get sold ALANaV.

disgusting that a house has to be sold to pay care home fees...what about if a spouse is still living in it ! in my case my late husband had to go into care when we lived in France///contrary to belief, the fees were then E4,000 a month ///so cheaper than the UK (5 years ago, may have gone up by now ! I was only able to pay due to receiving an inheritance from a relative who died. I now live in the UK and dread needing care..where I live, houses are relatively cheap compared to some places in the UK ..BUT local care homes charge between £6,000 and £8,000 a month ...which would only keep me there a short time !!!! My solicitor said 'the LA would pay when the money runs out ...I DONT THINK SO !!! they would probably throw me out to cheaper home !! such a shame the government (previous and so far, new) have not included social care in their discussions ! I would sooner go to Dignitas, but the government in the UK reuses to allow it

Hello win
My husband and I had this arrangement that he paid for gas and electricity and it was decided by him and it goes back to the start of our married life so that’s 45 years ago
Of course he’s not using either gas or electricity now but that doesn’t mean that I can afford to pay for these bills

Notjustaprettyface

I imagine a lot of you out there have a loved one in a care home and you either pay for it directly or it is affecting you indirectly
Care home fees are exorbitant in this country and I have read about the various thresholds and what you pay etc but I am still not clear
My husband is in a care home And he’s going to have to start paying for his care because chc funding has just been removed and he has assets above £23500 or whatever the first threshold is
So I am assuming it is going to affect me as I will have to pay for things he used to pay like gas and electricity for example
The system affecting the elderly who have contributed all their lives to the nhs is totally unfair of course but it is also unfair on the spouse
Why should I have to be worse off because my husband is in a care home ?
Am I right or have I misunderstood the situation ?
I would be interested to hear anybody’s views about how their partners care costs is affecting them and how they are coping

Why did your husband used to pay for gas and electricity if he was in a care home and you knew funding was likely to be needed?
Unfortunately that is not how it works, and they will unfortunately pick up on that.
Contact Social Services and request a financial assessment sooner than later, they will calculate all your bills and give you allowances on some of them, Electricity and gas are your bills and have been all the time. He does not use either.

HattieTopper

In 1973 my late husbands grandma had to go into a nursing home as she had developed Dementia, she was 85 years of age. Her daughter my husband's mum was caring for her at home and had POA but she developed cancer and could no longer take care of her mum. She had to sell her mum's house to pay for her care.

When we used to visit her in the nursing home, she was always wearing someone else's clothes and the problems we had with the staff were terrible. Because my husband's mum was now dying of cancer my husband took over POA and reported the nursing home. The person that ran the home and some of the staff were sacked and another person took over the running of it. Everything was then perfect, because the new manager knew that my husband and I were keeping checks on everything, they looked after his grandma and she was happy. She lived three years after being admitted to the nursing home.

After all these years, things have not improved and unless you are watching out for your loved ones, then the people without relatives have to fend for themselves in many cases (not all I may add). That is why some relatives are hiding secret cameras so they can keep a check on their loved ones.

As long as I am able to look after myself I am happy but if the time ever comes that I need extra help, I will pay for at home care. But I dread going into a nursing home. I am in my mid 80's now.

This is an awful post and not accurate at all, this is how scaremongering starts.
People do not hide secret cameras, they put cameras in with permission as it is law to notify anyone who is being monitored on a camera.
Like with everything there are really good and bad care homes. They are all understaffed and underpaid, also often undertrained. However, they mostly do their very best.
If you live alone and own a property of course the property has to be sold to pay for care. You can of course let it out to find the money that way. That means you are lucky enough to have a choice where you want to be. If you are funded, sadly the choice is not always there, due to all the reasons mentioned above.
I wish people would write facts and not what a distant families told them, particularly in sensitive posts like this.
Caring for someone is a minefield and a rollercoaster too, I hope the ones of you who have not been there never will be, and I really emphasise with all the GNs who are in this position at the moment.

PilgrimQuill

We found out years ago that care home fees are so high because most of the money goes out to various insurance companies. And you have to pay high salaries to the medical professionals in charge at all times - so at least three. Economies are then made on unqualified care staff and cheap food.
I can't help wondering if there is a case for several families to run a private venture between them, looking after the residents themselves and making sure that their loved ones needs are catered for. After all, if you are looking after someone in your own home you don't need all the insurances and medical qualifications, so why not combine and do it together?
The premises could be bought jointly, then the share sold on to someone else when the time came and the capital realised perhaps with a small profit. Duties could be shared rather than bought in. Food could be cooked by those who know how rather than by those who can open packets.
Am I looking at utopia or do I just need another cup of tea?

I remember reading some years ago about some single civil servants who planned to live together when they retired, if necessary hiring people in to help. There are loads of really nice ready meals available, better in many cases than the poor catering in care homes, if nobody fancies cooking.
A friend's husband had a severe stroke and they employed a lovely qualified person who lived with them and provided care. He did much of the cooking and when he left he found somebody else to take over. It was better and less expensive than my friend's husband living in a care home.

I now see that there’s another thread about KS and social care which is where my comments belong.
I’m sorry for your situation, OP, must be very frightening. Hope you get answers soon.

The conservatives have never really been interested in public welfare. Over the last 40 odd years much has been sold off to Private companies which are interested only if they know they can make a decent profit for their already well paid executives and shareholders.
Private companies can then do as they wish and due to lack of investment or interest many public services are now on their knees, probation, prison, much of the more profitable parts of the nhs already been sold off to private companies. Our local hospital is run by virgin. Perhaps yours is too. It was news to me. Care homes, domicillary care, children’s homes, elderly day centres, I could go on. All gone.
In my ever so ‘umble, conservatives/private finance companies interest is purely in finance and profit, not for improving public services which drain the pot, which after all, could be going to the already wealthy.
The owner and his family of my now deceased mother’s nursing home all had very expensive cars, huge homes and frequent exotic holidays, they certainly lived the high life.
Cynical? Moi?

I don’t know of anyone who ever saw BJ’s plan, and if it existed in costed detail others must have helped with it.
Do agree that the omission of social care from the king’s speech was a huge disappointment.

Absolute rubbish .boris woukd have sorted out the care crisis,had the plan and then along came covid and he was forced to dwell on that instead but let’s see how your marvellous starmer deals with it shall we !No doubt everyone else will pay for it tho .

We found out years ago that care home fees are so high because most of the money goes out to various insurance companies. And you have to pay high salaries to the medical professionals in charge at all times - so at least three. Economies are then made on unqualified care staff and cheap food.
I can't help wondering if there is a case for several families to run a private venture between them, looking after the residents themselves and making sure that their loved ones needs are catered for. After all, if you are looking after someone in your own home you don't need all the insurances and medical qualifications, so why not combine and do it together?
The premises could be bought jointly, then the share sold on to someone else when the time came and the capital realised perhaps with a small profit. Duties could be shared rather than bought in. Food could be cooked by those who know how rather than by those who can open packets.
Am I looking at utopia or do I just need another cup of tea?

Notjustaprettyface

That’s not an excuse winterwhite or at least shouldn’t be
There is money , we saw this with covid when suddenly the government found the money to pay people for not working essentially
So if something isn’t right , it isn’t right and millions of people feel that way about social care
I don’t mind having to pay but not to that extent
It’s immoral , it’s wrong , it should be non profit making
Thatcher is long dead and buried so let’s reverse all this and start being fair

The government can find plenty of spare money to fund immigration, especially illegal immigration.. we are like a third world country when it comes to social care.

Sago

You can claim attendance allowance for your husband which will help a little.
You need to speak to a social worker from Adult Services, they will tell you what your rights are

Good luck with that, took weeks to answer their phone to us

kittylester

silverlining48

If someone lives alone or with someone who has dementia I believe they can get a 25% reduction in council tax .
If you havnt done already, claim for AA. Any claim will be backdated to the date you first apply so if it takes a while you do not lose out.
Yes social care in this country is very expensive and the staff who do the work are paid a pittance and not valued enough for the important work they do.
Because we are living longer there is a need to look at this again but most if not all the care homes ( and children’s homes ) were sold off to private companies courtesy of the Thatcher government years ago so not straightforward to change now but something shoukd be done.
Suggest you contact Age UK or citizens Advice or even talk to social services to get answers.

To qualify for the council tax reduction you need to be eligible for AA.

A single person will get complete exemption, someone sharing a home with one other person will get 25%.

The form is from the Council to whom you pay Council Tax. It is called the Severe Mental Impairment form and the diagnosis has to be confirmed by the person's GP. The gp cannot charge for this.

The AA form has to be returned within 6 weeks of the date stamped for being issued and then you will get 6 weeks back pay. As far as I am aware, the maximum back pay for AA is 6 weeks. The Council Tax discount 'backpay' seems to be different in different areas.

I don't know if this is something that is different depending where you live but when my mother applied for the Council Tax Exemption because she had Dementia, she and her partner didn't have to pay anything. As someone who needed someone to care for her, she could have as many as 3 people living with her. This was backdated to the date of her diagnosis. She did not get AA, she was already on the highest rate of DLA which was acceptable.
Obviously the day she went into a care home, this stopped and her partner had to start paying 75% of the council tax.

I’m wondering why CHC has been withdrawn? Definitely find out why this is. We had to fight quite hard for NHS CHC ( the rules are complex)for my Mum. Here’s a link to the checklist

www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-continuing-healthcare-checklist

Worth asking Age UK to help you navigate this.

Milest0ne

My mother looked after 3 of my grandparents but that counted for nothing when she needed care. Her savings from the sale of her home were less than 10K in a bank account. To add insult to injury ,the bank wanted us to apply for probate to release the last of her money. The bank did relent , eventually. Am I alone in thinking that "old people" are considered as cash cows ?

It's not just old people. It's called patient acquisition

silverlining48

If someone lives alone or with someone who has dementia I believe they can get a 25% reduction in council tax .
If you havnt done already, claim for AA. Any claim will be backdated to the date you first apply so if it takes a while you do not lose out.
Yes social care in this country is very expensive and the staff who do the work are paid a pittance and not valued enough for the important work they do.
Because we are living longer there is a need to look at this again but most if not all the care homes ( and children’s homes ) were sold off to private companies courtesy of the Thatcher government years ago so not straightforward to change now but something shoukd be done.
Suggest you contact Age UK or citizens Advice or even talk to social services to get answers.

To qualify for the council tax reduction you need to be eligible for AA.

A single person will get complete exemption, someone sharing a home with one other person will get 25%.

The form is from the Council to whom you pay Council Tax. It is called the Severe Mental Impairment form and the diagnosis has to be confirmed by the person's GP. The gp cannot charge for this.

The AA form has to be returned within 6 weeks of the date stamped for being issued and then you will get 6 weeks back pay. As far as I am aware, the maximum back pay for AA is 6 weeks. The Council Tax discount 'backpay' seems to be different in different areas.

You should receive a financial assessment for your husbabd to work out what his contribution will be, it's unlikely you would pay the whole amount, there will be a social services contribution. Keep chasing his social worker to organise his financial assessment

My mother was in her care home for 8 years, from just before her 89th birthday until she died at 97 (Alzheimer’s).

Although she came from a large and generally long lived family, none of them had made it past 90 so TBH I really hadn’t expected her to last more than 2-3 years, but my elder sister who had P of A with my brother, very prudently took out an annuity to cover the fees (not the whole lot, since she had a reasonable pension to part-cover them) until she died.

It was a gamble, since the sum initially paid out was quite a lot and we might have lost the bet, so to speak, but in the event my sister worked out that we had broken even at around the 4 year mark.

Without the annuity her money would certainly have run out before she died.

The annuity co. did take quite a while to come up with an offer - they first needed to see her medical records, etc. in order to work out their ‘odds’.
For us it was well worth it, but I should add that interest rates were more favourable then.

My mother looked after 3 of my grandparents but that counted for nothing when she needed care. Her savings from the sale of her home were less than 10K in a bank account. To add insult to injury ,the bank wanted us to apply for probate to release the last of her money. The bank did relent , eventually. Am I alone in thinking that "old people" are considered as cash cows ?

The quote feature didn't work - my post above was a response to maddyone.

On 24 July 2019, Johnson on the steps of 10 Downing Street promised he had a plan for social care: “I am announcing […] that we will fix the crisis in social care once and for all, with a clear plan we have prepared.' Whether he said 'over ready' or not is a quibble. He clearly made a Johnson promise and we now know what his promises were worth.

Notjustaprettyface

It’s not a rant
I have been thinking exactly the same
Why does nobody do something about it ?
What is the matter with this country ?

Thats the trouble. People are waiting for someone else to do it, same as most things

If you want to double check all that's happening I'd recommend you talk to an independent social worker . I used to refer cases to a company called Nellie forgets. Their head office us in Grantham but they gave people all over the uk.
I'd recommend you do get some support on this one, I'd be particularly concerned about the withdrawal of chc funding.
Are you claiming maximum Age allowance?

Good luck!