Nursing home fees

There are two sets of care home charges. One is the amount the council says it will pay for those in care that it has to pay for. This is usually ludicrously low. The last time I looked it was under £500 a week, then there is what the Care Home charges for self funding residents. This can be immensely variable from £500-600 to well over £1,000 and can be dependent on the amount of care required.

If lots of Care Homes in Durham are closing then it is probably because the council have set the weekly amount they are prepared to pay so low that the homes taking in council paid residents simply cannot provide the care required at the money they are offered and choose to go out of business before they go bankrupt.

If I ever go into care I would avoid going into any Care Home that took council paid residents. Not out of snobbishness or anything like that but because the private residents in homes like this end up paying higher fees to subsidise the council paid residents. If I am in home with self-funding residents only I know I will be only paying for my own care, not subsidising somebody else as well.

Having been socialist all my life, I can hardly object to having council paid residents in any care home I went into. In fact I could be one of the ones subsidised soon when my money runs out. At least you know you will not be in a home with me, Flickety.

Flickety I think you'll find that most private homes, including BUPA ones, take council-paid residents - they like to keep full-occupancy.

As I said ^ mum is in a BUPA home and was paying nearly £900 per week with a nursing contribution on top of that. When she is entitled to full LA funding, £375 pw last time I took any notice, we will have to pay a top up of £35pw , so flickety has a valid point. The problem would be finding a home that didn't take LA funded residents and what if the money ran out before one died- should one be forced to move to a LA funded home to avoid upsetting those residents paying full price?

As I said ^ mum is in a BUPA home and was paying nearly £900 per week with a nursing contribution on top of that. When she is entitled to full LA funding, £375 pw last time I took any notice, we will have to pay a top up of £35pw , so flickety has a valid point. The problem would be finding a home that didn't take LA funded residents and what if the money ran out before one died- should one be forced to move to a LA funded home to avoid upsetting those residents paying full price?

Ok, I've booked a place!!

I'm horrified how expensive it is now. My Mum went into a very good carehome in1997 when she was partially disabled following a stroke. She had capital in the bank due to Dad's careful planning (he had died by then) and paid about £250 per week until she died in 2002.
I was living nearby and looked after her financial affairs - the Soc. Services had access to her bank accounts etc.
Why have the fees increased so much?
The Home that she was in had to close down, I think because of stricter regulations about provision, but as far as I could see, she was well looked after at the time.

The LA contribution is topped up by benefits that the resident is entitled to.

The real iniquity is asking for contributions from relatives, most of whom will be struggling to save for their own retirement.

They cannot make a relative pay a top-up fee, although some relatives decide to in order to stop the la moving their relative from the home they are comfortable and familiar with to another cheaper one.

My dad was LA funded, but they never mentioned a top up charge, they just took most of his pension and left him with spends.

I know they can't make anyone pay a 'top up fee' , but in what circumstances would they ask for one?

Wasn't that one of Hunter Franks constant moans?

But he was a mine of information on the subject!

LAs will ask for top up fees in almost any circumstances where they think they can get away with it. It won't be pitched like that but If there is a member of the family who seems to have a bit more money than the rock bottom they will see what they can squeeze out.

Husbands with occupational pensions will be made to feel they are failing their wife by not contributing some of their pension to her care, I mean she benefitted from it when she was home. What is the difference, ditto with children, or siblings, even friends if they think they have spare cash and will succumb to moral blackmail.

That's a bit of a sweeping statement, Flickety. The problem with local authorities is that they are having money taken away from them by central government, but they still have to fund the care. There are rules for them to abide by, but the boundaries between nursing and other care are slightly flexible, depending on how you read them.
It's not just in care homes either.
In January 2012 when my husband was dying of cancer at home we were told by the Macmillan and the district nurses that we would not have to worry because everything would be paid for by the NHS. When he started eating bananas in the second week, I had to fill in a very long form, over 50 pages if I remember correctly, to find out who would pay. He died on the 22nd January, and I never heard again. They knew that he did not have long to live when we filled in the forms. I recall when a friend's mother died of cancer and was given less than 6 months to live, my friend was given an allowance to look after her mother. The mother was 90 years old. So that has obviously changed, too.

I understand the problems facing LAs and the problems they face. But they always seem to weasel these things and never explain honestly to a client what the problems are and ask if any member of the family can contribute to costs.

My experience in my own family and when I was home visitor for the elderly was that both SS and the NHS will use moral blackmail and/or withhold information whenever it is to their advantage.

Perhaps I'm always harping on about France (where we live) but here families have to contribute towards the costs of elderly care, unless they're within a very low income limit. So there seems to be many more old people staying at home with their family. And they seem to go on forever here!
I've heard of cases of british elderlies living in France having to go into a care home here, and their relatives in the UK being chased up for the fees.
As opposed to Scotland, where , I believe, the govt. starts to pay the costs much earlier.
Personally, I agree with the french system - even if we've worked hard and saved/ invested all our lives, why should our money go to our children, rather than fund our care in old age? Leaving it to others to pay.

Jen the mother was probably getting high rate attendance allowance under the special rules! this would have entitled the daughter to carers allowance. Nothing to do with the LA.

That allowance is still extant