- Location
- The TerrorVortex
Oddly enough, it's not quite that easy...
Want better social care? Stop voting Tory!
Cost for staying in care homes for the elderly.....scary
- Thread starter Dave7
- Start date
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Want better social care? Stop voting Tory!
Chislenko
Veteran
Feel the pain.
My mum, brought up five of us kids on her own, my dad passed when I was five.
She held down three jobs, no going to social, bought her own house, worked and paid tax and NI all her life.
Now at just shy of 101 she has to pay for everything because she commited the crime of trying to better herself and buy her own house.
Live in a council house, spend all your handouts on drugs, drink or down the betting shop and you will be sorted.
Whilst I realise this post will be unpopular with the looney left it just happens to be the way it works .
F-------- disgrace.
My mum, brought up five of us kids on her own, my dad passed when I was five.
She held down three jobs, no going to social, bought her own house, worked and paid tax and NI all her life.
Now at just shy of 101 she has to pay for everything because she commited the crime of trying to better herself and buy her own house.
Live in a council house, spend all your handouts on drugs, drink or down the betting shop and you will be sorted.
Whilst I realise this post will be unpopular with the looney left it just happens to be the way it works .
F-------- disgrace.
ClichéGuevara
Legendary Member
- Location
- Kingston upon the River Hull
My simple plan for when that time comes is to commit a crime that either gets me discretely wealthy, or gets me banged up in prison or a mental health unit, I care not which, then the state has a duty of care to make sure I get looked after properly, at no cost to my estate. 
Deleted User
Guest
- Location
- Wolverhampton
Were all care homes free when Tony was in charge then? I doubt it.
Deleted User
Guest
- Location
- Wolverhampton
It is, set up a trust and put your home and any other assets you have, including cash, into it.
You are the main beneficiary with sole power but when you lose your marbles your son/daughter or whoever then takes over.
Look into it, I know 2 people who have done it and their parent ended up in a home and all the state had was their weekly pension.
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steverob
Guru
- Location
- Buckinghamshire
In November last year, my Mum (mid 70's, previously in reasonable health) had a mini-stroke and had to spend a week in hospital. She was my Dad's full-time carer (early 80's, mild dementia but slowly getting worse, other health issues as well) so for that week, between myself, my sister and her daughter, and a neighbour, we managed to care for my Dad, but clearly that could not be a long-term solution. And with my Mum needing recovery time of her own when she got home, we thought it best to place him in a home temporarily - luckily there was one he had gone to in the past when my Mum wanted a short break of a week or so, and they were happy to take him as they knew him and he was happy there.
It was a nursing home rather than a care home (a higher level of care that he probably didn't need) and it now had a four week minimum stay because for the first two weeks he'd be in the Covid isolation wing, but it seemed to be the easiest option and it meant we didn't have to ring round hunting for a place. We did try the local council but they warned us it would take probably at least two months before they'd even get round to making an assessment as there was such a backlog and we knew that my parent's savings would be over the limit for any contribution anyway.
Anyway, due to complications with my Mum's condition and recovery, my Dad's dementia taking a turn for the worse and a few other things happening beyond our control, he was still in said nursing home come this February when the council finally came to call. During this short time, we'd spent over £20,000 on his care - most coming out of my parent's savings, which ironically had brought that amount down to just below the council's threshold.
Turns out in our area they have a couple of different thresholds which determine how much the council are willing to contribute, from covering everything, to only paying part of the fees, to a level where there would be no financial contribution from them but they would help you find a home at a rate they find acceptable (because when the savings eventually run out, if the person is already in a place where the council are okay with the fees, it saves yet another move). We were now at the level where they would assist with the fees and they eventually managed to get him in at a care home in early April that is almost half of the cost of the nursing home, plus we are only paying about 60% of that, most of which is covered by my Dad's private pension and benefits, meaning my Mum doesn't have to completely decimate her savings.
The end result though is that it has been decided that this is now going to be a full-time stay for him. Originally (e.g. last year) we were assuming that he'd come home once my Mum felt up to it, but that's not an option any more - my Mum isn't well enough to care for my Dad as well as herself and his condition has also worsened over the past few months.
It was a nursing home rather than a care home (a higher level of care that he probably didn't need) and it now had a four week minimum stay because for the first two weeks he'd be in the Covid isolation wing, but it seemed to be the easiest option and it meant we didn't have to ring round hunting for a place. We did try the local council but they warned us it would take probably at least two months before they'd even get round to making an assessment as there was such a backlog and we knew that my parent's savings would be over the limit for any contribution anyway.
Anyway, due to complications with my Mum's condition and recovery, my Dad's dementia taking a turn for the worse and a few other things happening beyond our control, he was still in said nursing home come this February when the council finally came to call. During this short time, we'd spent over £20,000 on his care - most coming out of my parent's savings, which ironically had brought that amount down to just below the council's threshold.
Turns out in our area they have a couple of different thresholds which determine how much the council are willing to contribute, from covering everything, to only paying part of the fees, to a level where there would be no financial contribution from them but they would help you find a home at a rate they find acceptable (because when the savings eventually run out, if the person is already in a place where the council are okay with the fees, it saves yet another move). We were now at the level where they would assist with the fees and they eventually managed to get him in at a care home in early April that is almost half of the cost of the nursing home, plus we are only paying about 60% of that, most of which is covered by my Dad's private pension and benefits, meaning my Mum doesn't have to completely decimate her savings.
The end result though is that it has been decided that this is now going to be a full-time stay for him. Originally (e.g. last year) we were assuming that he'd come home once my Mum felt up to it, but that's not an option any more - my Mum isn't well enough to care for my Dad as well as herself and his condition has also worsened over the past few months.
Mr Celine
Discordian
- Location
- Waxing my moustache
It could be decided that you deliberately deprived yourself of your capital in order to avoid care home fees. In which case you would be treated as still possessing it.
craigwend
Grimpeur des terrains plats
As noted above when I worked (admittedly 20 year's ago) in the sector you could put it into a trust as insinuated, though at that time it had tk be 7 years in advance of any care needs, the trust fund was signed over to others, so technically you lived in 'their' home etc, Top tip was to do this with a number of 'trustees', as if you only had one and they died you were stuffed, or if they decided to chuck you out of the home... Often useful to have a 'trustee' as part of a legal firm rep. Did see it happen in very rarer cases, usually with people with a fair bit of money. Also got hinted that if most people did this the loophole would be closed. Sounds like nothing has changed.
midlife
Guru
Just re done our wills at the solicitors, part of the chat was a legit way of reducing care home fees. Yep, totally legal I was told and nothing as crude as selling your house to an offspring for a pittance.
At 61 decided on a cheaper set of wills that was only £300.....
Juan Kog
permanently grumpy
I am taking your cheap lazy generalisations personally , not all people who spend there lives in council or housing association property , are feckless drink and drug addled layabouts .
My own parents were honest hardworking chapel going people. They just spent there working lives in low paid jobs , my father was variously a farm worker ,a lorry driver and just before he retired a hospital van driver / Porter. My Mother worked as a cleaner and later an assistant in a school Kitchen. Non of this fits in with your Daily Mail reader view of social housing tenants.
midlife
Guru
Taking a slightly different slant and not Daily Mail, my mum had a variety of jobs including cleaner and dinner lady. When she retired the small pension from the dinner lady job meant she had to pay for glasses, dental treatment etc. In retrospect in retirement she would have been better off not getting a job. Mind you it paid for my TV 21 comic
I was actually saying exactly that last night.
When i got the 1st quote I thought WoW, that is *@#* expensive but I have stayed in far more expensive hotels.
I think the problem(s) is/are
A. Realing how quickly the hard earned savings will go and
B. Knowing that others get the same care foc.
Trusts are a dark side of financial planning. Also google ‘deprivation of assets’.
One ‘simple’ option is to have house set up as Tenants In Common (versus the more usual Joint Tenants) in order to facilitate some inheritance, I believe. A task I will more actively investigate later.
On the bright side, relatively few people end up in care: 4% of the total population aged 65 years and over, rising to 15% of those aged 85 or more, see here. Of them, the average time spent is under 2 years.
Naturally there will be outliers who break the average - I am sure dementia care is up there - but is is still the minority overall.
Deleted User
Guest
- Location
- Wolverhampton
Its perfectly legal, 2 lads at work did it for their Parents. Its different to 'signing your house over ' its a fund with you as the Principal Benificiary and Trustees who will take over if things go t*ts up.
Google it.
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