To ask what we do to help with the cost of social care?

[AdultsSocialCare]

Adult and childrens social care takes up the majority of all council tax spend. This leaves a small amount for everything else that councils do.

What is the solution?

I feel like ultimately the central government need to give more money to councils but the chance of that has to be next to nil.

So, what else?

stripy - not sure i agree with your north/south view. just because you live in the north and have been lucky enough to have cheap housing why should you pay less than someone in the south who has had to pay a massive mortgage the whole of their working life to live in a shoe box? everyone should pay the same - public sector wages are the same nationally......you cant have it one way when it suits you.

I thought of that but alot of people needing care now won't have paid vast sums for housing - its value will be from house price rises.

No way is ideal - and some people will never need care and can pass on the lot - but I think that an initial sum of assets being ineligible being the same for everyone is fairer.

It's 86k and it's not a proposal anymore, it's happening in Oct 23.

Paying relatives to care for their own family would help for one!

I gave up my job to care for my severely disabled (now adult) son. £69 a week is what I was expected to live on!

So now I’m back at work and he goes to daycare funded by adult social care at a cost of £2000 a week! How does that make any sense?

I would happily care for him myself but I also need to pay my bills. A quarter of what he is currently costing the LA would mean I could afford to care for him and they would save a small fortune.

It's unpopular but we need to plan ahead to fund our own care needs. I have parents who are older but currently fit and well, they have made financial provision for care costs

This.

So many incredibly expensive places are required because carers are paid less than pretty much anyone else in society.

When you are told your value is less than £70 for a full time role, why would you think you should pay more for someone else to do the same job?

The govt values carers at peanuts, meaning so does everyone else.

My son did his work experience in a school for children with very serious disabilities. He loved it, they loved him. If it wasn't for the fact that his school hours were the same as their school hours he would have loved to volunteer at the school.

Sounds amazing, well done him. I am assuming he did more than prep their meals and do office administration? That's what the pp was suggesting.

"the mental health crisis starting with youngsters then into middle age is your sinkhole. Not only do they not contribute to the pot throughout their lifetime they drain it dry and beyond"

This has to be one of the most shocking, disgusting things I have ever read on this site. Do you realise how ageist your post it? So what should we do, bump them off?? Are you aware how much investment goes into childrens mental health in this country? In our area, I can safely say none. There is no mental health service for young people, it's just not deemed worthy of the expense. So if these young people end up contributing "nothing" , may I politely suggest that maybe if the adults in society had demanded better for them, the outcome might be different.

One could argue that those born with disabilities contribute nothing. One individual upthread costs the council 2k a week. Or how about the diabetics, costing the NHS God only knows how much a week. Draining the pot dry are they? Or is it just mental health that triggers your venom.

You are one sick individual.

Did you ask for a direct payment?

@Miffee Direct payments are used to pay other people to care for your child. They cannot be paid to a relative of the person receiving the care. So yet again it costs the LA far far more to pay someone else to do a job I could do if I was given the financial support to do it.

Onlyfools - i agree. And they should remove the loophole that allows people to pass on their estates so they dont have to pay this - currently i think its seven years before you pass. I know two people who have used this loophole recently

plus it completely entrenches inequality, I know someone who just inherited 1m.

In the last year of the Labour government in 2010 Andy Burnham wrote a white paper proposing a National Care Scheme. It would be funded by taking 10% of a person’s estate when they die. It would be pooling risk like NHS. Personally I thought it sounded like it had merit. A Tory government would never go for it.

Under austerity councils had their budgets slashed by at least 30% yet still expected to fund adult care. People with savings over I think around £21,000 get nothing but even those who have it part funded have found their contribution has risen massively.

@CHIRIBAYA ignore the trolling

@Friars23 That proposal completely ignored the fact that 70% of adult social care is spent on disabled adults, not the elderly.

Like my son who I have already mentioned costs the government £2000 a week. He is currently 19. He will never function independently. How much will he cost over his lifetime? How many other parents are in the same position with disabled children that are being supported by the government as the system for paying family carers in this country is abysmal?

Many of these disabled adults have relatives more than willing to care for them. But when it comes to a choice between feeding your other children and keeping a roof over their head vs letting social care take responsibility you’re not left with much choice.

There are too few year 11s with the emotional maturity to manage the job of care worker. I wouldn’t want the majority anywhere near me if on a care home. This persistent push that the job is unskilled and any old idiot can do it is disturbing. You want your loved one, who cries for her mum every morning and is confused as to where she is, have John from Year 11 who last week was out doing some kind of legal high in the ginnel behind school, to wipe her bum and feed her her food?

Well apparently the staff were almost all women with one or two older men. Apparently the little boys loved doing stuff with him, particularly physical stuff and water therapy. Amazingly it completely changed his career path and he still works with children with some problems and it is a career he loves so he owes quite alot to that school.

I have to say I am proud of him.

The Care Act 2014 legislated for the introduction of a cap, but its introduction was deferred in July 2015 (and subsequently indefinitely postponed) by the incoming Conservative Government led by David Cameron. Johnson’s government then announced last year they would bring in a cap of £86,000 in October 2023. (The cap is only for care, not for lodgings and food in a care home). I am wondering could with the looming recession the government postpone it again?

I think it seems very unfair that the money people have already spent on care is being disregarded.

I am actually disabled and receive direct payments. I agree that it’s ridiculous that relatives cannot be paid using direct payments. I have never understood it.

I believe the proposed National Care Service would have been used to fund all care, disabled and elderly. Link here www.ukpol.co.uk/andy-burnham-2010-speech-on-the-national-care-service/

Absolutely untrue. You need to challenge them on this if this is what they have said.

You should be proud of him he sounds like a lovely young man and would be a credit to the profession.

They will legalise euthanasia and assisted dying not because they want to give people the freedom but to free up social care. I bet you within 10 years it will be legalised.

I doubt it, last time nothing was actually done. Everybody knew it wasn't going to happen. Now a lot of money has already been spent gearing up for it this time and ita already being trialed in 6(?) LAs.

I think the hotel costs are coming in at 200 a week atm and care homes are up to a grand a week (self funder) in my very non affluent area. There is also a concurrent piece of work being done to close the gap between private and LA funded placements which will likely make the cap harder to reach but will also increase the costs of care homes for LAs. Plus the thresholds are both being raised.

It's a shit show.

There are a number of reasons for this, the first and most important one (to government) is money. The most compelling one is the local authorities may not agree that the person required the level of care they were getting.

Wealthy people may decide to pay for a live in carer for example but the LA may have met their needs with a 2 call a day care package.