Just out of interest, what are your elderly parents care home fees?

£1,400 per week in Somerset, so about £6k per month or £72,800 per year plus extras like hair, nails, newspapers etc

Bloody Hell

Ok, that makes sense. Sorry, I've never had to even think about this yet, so I'm really clueless.

But if the elderly person has a house worth £500k that's 5 years covered - and as a pp says above the average stay is circa 2.5 years.

I must be stupid but I really don't understand how this works. £93k pa is more than mine and my DH's salaries combined pre tax, there's no way in the world or pensions will ever cover that much individually, so I really don't understand who pays for this.

They work on the principle that an average stay in a care home is about 2.5 years, and the value of a house covers that.

My MIL died in January - just after we’d received notice of a rise to £93K per annum.

Actually though, it wouldn’t have affected us, as my husband and BILs/SILs had taken out an annuity…. and my MIL lived long enough for her fees to have cost more than the annuity cost! As long as she died before 102, we didn’t have to worry about her fees.

It is worth at least looking at annuities. They are bloody expensive, but mean that you’re not worried about rising fees.

CabbageWater My father-in-law had a good income (state pension, very generous armed forces pension, Attendance Allowance), but was still using up his capital at a rate of 4k a month (3k care fees not covered by income, plus 1k holding/maintenance costs for his house). The house was cleared & on the market when he died. The proceeds from his house sale would have had to cover the rest until he reached the funding threshold.

Sorry for being clueless as I don't have elderly parents on care homes, but HOW THE FUCK can anyone afford those prices? Who's paying?! These prices are insane!

My mums fees were £1500 per week in south London four years ago. It was a huge amount of money but the care she received in her final months was really outstanding and all the staff were so overwhelmingly and genuinely kind, rather than just doing their job.

Whyever not?

Edited. - Sorry I misunderstood.
You're right.

My father-in-law was in an OSJCT nursing home (so not-for-profit) in Gloucestershire for 18 months up to his death in November. Fees increased by 8% last April so were just under £1800 a week.

Oh the ones at the top do make a shameful amount of money through shares!

My DM was in a nursing home in a fairly nice/posh part of Birmingham, until December last year when she died. The fees were just shy of £8k per month and a 10% increase per year was the norm. It was for nursing care and there were registered nurses on duty 24/7. I can’t grumble about the care she received, the staff were kind and caring and genuinely in tears when she died as she had been a bit of a favourite - she had incurable cancer, so was mentally pretty much on the ball until the last few months.

But the place needed more staff - the carers were run ragged and residents had to wait their turn to be seen after pressing their buzzers, sometimes for quite long periods depending on how busy it was. But more staff costs more
money which pushes the fees up. It does seem incredibly expensive per month, but when you break down the costs of medical care on site, three good meals a day, activities, housekeeping etc it works out less than a basic hotel. And DM being safe, cared for and having a peaceful, calm death is worth more than anything to me. But I agree that the system is crazy.

I’m not sure how much my DF care home fees are as he is CHC funded but I know my mother parted with 60k in the first five months before his assessment because he required a 24 hr 1:1 and that was charged @4k per week!
Then double for Sundays and Bank holidays.
The staff weren’t specialist or even that well paid so somebody is making a mint.
This is in the South West.
Government needs to look at these fees just like vet charges.

A friend is paying £8,000 per month for her husband, with Alzheimer's, in a specialist London care home. She's very happy with the way he is being cared for - which you would hope for at that price

Fees quoted here are £1200 to triple that.
Even accounting for nursing care v lower care level it’s a big difference. My experience of care homes (I used to have to go into them due to my work) was that a lot were also understaffed.

£2600 a week for 1.5 to 1 care (averaging it over 24 hours) is good value! That's £10.30 per carer an hour - and including food, laundry, cleaning, heating etc. It would be at least 4 times that to provide the same at home.

Yes that’s correct, two to one care during the day and one to one at night.

My mother died last year but she was in a dementia care home for 7 years. Her weekly fees in the last year of her life were £1200 (south east). It was an independently owned care home, the owner had just the one care home and she was often on site. She didn't have an expensive car.

The fees seemed reasonable to me. The biggest cost is staff, but the heating is a huge cost too as the home has to be kept very warm. And of course food, laundry, equipment, insurance, other utilities.

£2160 per week.

It works out at about £15 per hour for 24/7 which has to cover care, food, maintenance, laundry, council tax, utility bills, all the other stuff the home deals with like organising prescriptions and medical appointments.

Yes, it is a huge amount of money but in comparison with carers at home and still having to maintain a house there’s often not a lot in it.

I think the high fees are subsidising the council places as far as I know.

I agree, someone is making money. Exactly the same with Nurseries!

The government really should be investigating here. Had two parents in nursing homes for dementia previously. Lovely home and staff. Nothing flash but clean and safe. Basic food. Doesn’t add up to figures quoted

I am really struggling to know what you get for that amount of money. 24 hour 1-1 care? From someone on low wage plus food, costs etc