Fed up of reading threads asking how they can get out of paying care home fees.

Why should nursing care be different?

No people going on holiday or eating out are not greedy.

People expecting not to pay for a holiday or meals out would be.

I think you’ll find @PizzaPowder is referring to those who haven’t worked.
Or haven’t worked much
So have paid very little National insurance and income tax

Can we apply this to Council Tax then pls and all pay the same for our bins, street lighting and police?

And what happens if those assets are long gone?

They won't fund care until they are satisfied you aren't able to self fund and haven't deprived yourself of assets going back years.

I do realise that, I'm not an idiot.

I'm sympathetic but I don't see it as any different from paying for any other service. Nursing care is different.

For those who have no assets I can see this may be the thinking ( no suggestion re yourself of course)

However
You conveniently forget
The council technically steal money every month from the self funders to pay for those they fund.
That’s why the fees are so huge.
People are paying for random strangers in the room next to them, just because they’ve saved enough to look after themselves.

That’s the disgrace here.

Of note In terms of your phrase greedy
is everyone that goes on holiday or has a car or eats out considered greedy. Just because they have more money and others don’t.
Should we all pay for everyone to have everything so we are all equal in every way. That’s communism.

@Mearse Im so sorry your dad went through that. I worked in a care home many years ago (30+) - beautiful grounds, beautiful premises, cost a bomb. Hell on earth for the residents: staff finishing their coffee before answering a bell, condescending, gently mocking. The owners - driving around in their Mercs, never to be seen unless prospective residents were looking about - lived in the grounds. They used to phone on sunny days to ask why there wasn’t washing on the line and insist that the one or two assistants who were busy feeding the numerous residents left that (knowing that that would mean those residents when hungry) to take the washing out of the dryer and hang it out. Profits before people at every turn. I will buy a one way ticket to Switzerland for myself or my husband before I allow either of us to go into one of those places - and not so that I can hand my house on to my kids! To be honest, a lot of people with assets will need to sell to fund their old age before then anyway, now that decent pensions seem to be a thing of the past, so not sure who will pay care home deed then.

The trouble is, all those saying about self-funding possibly don't realise how much money is involved. My parents have certainly put money aside. They own a modest bungalow in the North East and have investments, etc. The reality is, if they had to go into care, despite both having worked for decades to save for a relatively comfortable old age, that money including the sale of the bungalow is going to last about 4 years max. At which point, they'll be entitled to the social care, which apparently equates to them having sat on their arses all their lives and taking money from people who worked hard to provide for themselves.

My parents HAVE done all that. It still may not be enough. It's likely that unless your parents have a house worth over £500,000 and very high savings, they will end up being in a home for 'free' if they develop dementia, which people can live with for many years. My parents, like most people of their age were middle income earners, both working. It simply won't be enough for years of care, but that really isn't because they haven't worked and saved.

So you think having to pay for residential care is ‘money down the drain’? How weird.
Most people of my generation who bought their first homes in the 80s have benefitted massively from inflation - me included. No ‘blood, sweat and tears’ involved.
Why should the ‘state’, ie everyone else, pay for your care in later life just so that your children get a hand out which they have done absolutely nothing to deserve apart from being your offspring?

Of course it’s hard. You don’t tick a box on a form saying you’re not going to pay.

I think the whole system is incredibly unfair and the government should be looking at a fairer system.

My mum was paying a fortune for carers (in her own home) whereas my kids other granny got everything for free. My mum, like other granny, only had her pension as her income but she was frugal so had savings. It just seemed so unfair.

Thousands of current pensioners are the generation who scrimped to buy their council house, many of them where I live are worth less than £90k.

It's an asset that would make a huge difference to the next generation but be blown in care fees in less than a year.

Good luck to my incompetent local authority trying to go through my bank account and work out what was spent and when and where.
I look at things over the last month and think what was that and was me spending it

It's impossible to live in the UK and pay no tax at all. Everybody pays VAT because we all buy things that VAT is charged on. Most of us pay council tax, either directly or through our rental payments.

I would certainly be happy to see some of my taxes going to fund HMRC so they can tackle the problem of tax evasion from higher earners. It's cloud cuckoo land but I'd like people to be openly praised for paying all their taxes (like J. K. Rowling) and shamed for not paying them.

That is what happens, in many care home in my area you have local authority funded clients living alongside self-funders.

The problem is, we simply cannot afford to pay for everyone.

My advice would be to downsize near retirement age, treat your kids/grandkids and enjoy your life!!

That is my plan.

Any service. A plumber coming to fix a leaky tap, the MOT at the garage.

Pay for what you use.

It's worse than benefit fraud as the amounts are far higher individually plus some people on benefits do it out of desperation to feed themselves. People trying to evade care home fees with such large assets are simply greedy.

Agree
Nursing care is very different from a standard care home.

Yes they can
Although if money has been siphoned off it’s harder to prove than selling a property.

However. The onus is on Social services to prove intent to deprive.

what you describe is not what I was comparing in an individual situation.

Absolute agree

Indeed this

I hope so!

I do know there's a bit of a myth about 7 years when in reality Council's can go back much further.

It is different to the hairdressers. I don’t want to pay them either so my dd cuts my hair. She’s not a hairdresser. But needing care, it gets to the stage where it isn’t optional.

Also, we receive services from doctors and dentists (well if you’re lucky) and we don’t pay for that.

It’s not like benefit fraud at all.

It’s actually incredibly hard not to pay if you have assets, it’s not just a question of refusing.