Elderly care - To be shocked to hear that some councils require children to top up the cost of care

[cymruoddicatref]

Reading the reviews in the paper today about adult social care, I was shocked to read that there are local authorities who require children and/or partners to make regular contributions to top up the cost of residential care for their elderly parents. One 66 year old retired head mistress was reported in today's Guardian as having been forced to find more than £20,000 out of her own pension income over the last five years to top up her 99 year old mother's nursing home fees because the council (Waltham on Thames I think) was not prepared to fund them. I don't have a problem with the sale of my mother's home to fund her care, but I always thought the council would step in once her own personal assets ran out. The whole thing is so worrying.

My children are 24 and 18 they have already said there is no way that they would ever allow me to go into a home and that if necessary I would live with one of them. Gotta love my kids.

I don't have a problem with the sale of the elderly people's houses to fund their care either, but really baulk at the idea that adult children should have to dip into their own savings / future retirement provision to top up their parents cost of care!!!!!

I'm hoping the funds don't run out once we've sold my mum's house (her savings are nearly gone and we're hoping to stave off the sale by renting it out for a while).

I certainly haven't got any cash or assets to top her care up. My sister and bil do have a house but I can't see then being too happy to have to take out a loan against it.

Maybe these people have not yet sold their parents'property; a friend of mine is waiting more prices to (hopefully) rise before selling, in the hope of raising more funds for a potential long spell of care for a parent with dementia. She and her siblings are paying for care at present.

It's a bit like housing benefit. The council will have a maximum that it will be willing to pay to a home. You can, if you really want to stay in that home, top that up yourself (or more likely your family since you will likely have mostly run out of money if the council is paying at all).

When my mum was looking at care homes for my gran the more expensive ones usually asked for a guarantee of a certain number of years funding from the person - usually from the sale of a house or other assets. It was on average 2 years but they did look at homes which asked for a guarantee of 3 or 4 years self-funding.

After the guarantee period was up and your funds had fallen to the qualifying threshhold (I think about 16k) then the council would start paying, but at a much lower rate. However you were protected by a guarantee that the home would never ask you to top this up.

I really feel for people with DPs who are relatively young going into care; my DM has just gone into residential care but she is nearly 95 and has a house to sell to pay for it.

It may be that that family are topping up so their mum can go in a 'better' home. My untie has been offered a place at a horrid nursing home, but her daughter is paying extra so she can go to one she had chosen. The council will only pay a certain, means tested, amount.

They also may not have the medical needs yet to be eligible for full funding, it depends on a few factors wether the fees have to be topped up. I think in the case you quoted the daughter is living in the mothers property, still.

Social care is means tested but based on the persons means that need the care, unless the person has recently given a large cash gift to family members, which some do, thinking that they can escape having to pay for care, or inheritance tax.

to be held responsible for the fees you have to agree and sign to say that you will be, as some have said, similar to going guarantor.