Why is the cost of care so high?

My grandfather was cared for at home until he died. However he had four daughters living nearby and none of them worked ft.Smaller families, people moving away for work and women working ft means it’s hard to provide this now. Note it was the daughters, not the three sons. In cultures where it’s prevalent, it is generally the women who provide care.

I’m a carer and paid £18.53 an hour. Many clients require at least two carers per visit as is law for manual handling. Some clients need help with every aspect of their life from feeding to toileting so the hours mount up very quickly. Then there’s housekeeping and cleaning, food to be bought and prepared and heat, electric and insurance is astronomical, specialist equipment, training for staff etc etc. many need 24 hr care and care homes need to employ managers, medical staff, book keepers etc etc. yes it’s expensive but maybe we should all be doing more to look after each other writhing in our families like we used to and many cultures still do.

If someone needs 24/7 care that is the cost of themselves and another person. So you could take that 30k and multiply it by 2. That is what it is going to take to care for someone because the person doing the caring needs to pay for their own life. In reality that is split between the shifts of multiple carers, but you get the idea. So there you have 60k/12 =5k a month.

Now perhaps they don’t have one to one care every minute, but someone in care typically has additional expenses.

caregivers need to earn a living wage. Far too often as it is, their wages are topped up by benefits which just shows they are being underpaid. No business should be considered viable if it depends on the government to supplement salaries that way

This is what gets me the most. Why is my relative, who saved to allow themself a comfortable old age, subsidising those who didn’t? It’s an absolute scandal and I don’t know why it hasn’t been the subject of a national outrage.

Because care homes are private businesses that have to make a profit after all their high overheads. Without a profit it is unviable. Therefore there isn’t any comparison between households income and care home fees. Also your care home fees are probably not typical amounts up North.

Do you mean The Orders of St John Care Trust?

We couldn't get our Dad into the one in his town as he didn't have enough in the bank!

My grandmother in law had 24/7 1:1 care for her safety and that of others, at £20 per hour that’s over £2k per week. Add the cost of essentially a basic hotel room, say £150 a day including 3 meals you can see why a high needs place will be many thousands per week. (There’s laundry, equipment, some tasks need two members of staff…)

MIL is in a St John's home. It is a not for profit organisation. Still £1600 a week.

It’s related to the cost of provision just like all services not to household income. A more typical cost for non nursing care would be around £4000 a month or £143 a day. Try finding a hotel providing three meals a day and care 24/7 to all of the residents for that. The problem isn’t it’s too expensive it’s that it’s too cheap with prices driven downwards by the biggest purchaser, local authorities.

This

Most people never need a care home, it’s a last resort for people who can not be cared for at home. Costs are high due to the sheer cost of staff, training, equipment ect before any household bills are even considered.

Because the residents that are self funding are subsidising those that have no assets to sell.

£5000 a week doesn’t seem that bad if you that into consideration it’s rent, bills, food and 24/7 care. Plus the cost of life in general at the moment.

Average monthly rent for a 1 bed in the U.K. is £1000, average council tax is £140, energy bills £105. Average 5 day nursery place is £1350 and that for 10 hours a day for 5 days a week.

Life in general isn’t proportional to the average income at the moment.

Because care homes are profit making businesses, allowing rich people to get richer at the expense of the elderly and infirm.

It’s the same in the private chain nurseries.

It’s not families that have to afford it it’s the individual -usually funds it by selling their previous property which obviously can’t live in independently any more. Am puzzled why you keep talking about average wages and average families?

The average family are not expected to afford this.

not everyone goes into care. Some people die through accidents or at home or in hospital without ever having been in care.

if someone does need to go into care they pay for it until they run out of money and then the local council has to pay.

this is partly why local councils have no money any more.

Four shifts of staff (three shifts of 8 hours in every 24 hours, plus a shift on holiday/sickness/training.

Minimum wage of £12/hr plus pension payments, NI, insurance. Say £20 an hour total, so that's £640 to provide one member of staff on duty around the clock, per day

Multiplied by 30 days is £19,200 to have one member of staff on duty around the clock, per month.

Then add the cost of accommodation with all the necessary adaptations to meet regulations. Basic hotels that don't need any adaptations charge £100 a room per night, including cleaning, utilities, wear and tear, so maybe £150 a night x 30 nights in a month = £4,500 a month per room.

It makes £1,500 a week look less unreasonable.

😥Indeed. The super-rich have bought up all the worlds resources and are selling them back to us for twice what we were paying 5 years ago.

Because people are making money out of it. This country is being hollowed out by privatisation and profit-seeking.

Owned for profit, care homes or chains are taken over by say private equity investors, who use debt to purchase it. The care home(s) owned its own property. The new owners transfer the property to an off shore company, in a tax haven, which charges rent on the property to the care home in the UK. The rent in the offshore company will be tax free.

The care home is now having to pay rent and interest on the debt, out of profits, which it may well not have had to do before, if the mortgage on the property had been paid off long ago.

Imo, it’s always best to look for not for profit care homes, such as charities, where you only pay for the utility bills, staff, equipment, etc. You are not paying for the profit, rent and debt interest.

Staff most likely only get NMW, but the care home has to pay on top of their wages, NI employers, auto enrolment pension contributions, training, sick leave and holidays. Agencies, to cover sick leave at short notice, will charge considerably more to cover all this, plus their own admin and profit.

Gas and electric bills are likely to be higher than the average house, because vulnerable people feel the cold more. DD needs a fan/air conditioning on her all summer, because she gets too hot, affecting her medical condition. People with incontinence or who drop food all over their clothes, need far more laundry doing. Our dual fuel bill doubles, when DD comes home for a visit.

There may be lifts, where the average house holder uses stairs - they are expensive.

A lot goes towards subsidising other residents who don’t pay. I think it works out on average someone who can pay, pays for themselves and roughly another 1.5 persons residence on top. It needs to be this way to function.

One third as profit
ans most of the rest as mortgage on building ( future profit)

Overheads plus dividends:

https://www.theguardian.com/society/2022/jul/24/uk-private-care-providers-profit-rise-covid-report