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

[Tolkienista]

My mother moved into a care home in August 2024, the cost per week (as a self funder £945) Last April the fees went up to (£1,010) per week. In the last week the fees have gone up to (£1,050) per week. It's an excellent place, her room is lovely and well furnished, great carers too who look after her so well.
It genuinely feels like our second home.

In all honesty , never thought we'd make it to this latest fees increase. She's been on end of life care for the last 6/7 weeks , but has remained stable, although she's really frail and weak.
And so we've entered this new round of fees.

I think we're very lucky that her fees are in this region close to £1,000 per week .
How are others faring?

Honestly if I have to spend all my money on care because I’m demented, I’d want to be put to sleep. It’s a disgrace that I can’t choose.

£1,300 a week, East of England - care and food good, building a bit tatty.

My mum never had to go into care but a friend did and his was £1800/week (just outside Edinburgh) and it was dreadful. A friend’s aunt is in a deluxe one in the SE and it’s nearly £3k per week.

From the report I linked:

"Care is costly in the UK, with 70 per cent of local authority budgets spent on funding care services. Yet our analysis shows that in just three UK regions, private care providers extracted more than £250 million in profit over three years. Over a third of these companies are owned by private equity firms, organisations registered in tax havens, or entities that fall into both those brackets."

Jeez theses costs are terrifying. Like someone said up thread why is this not being discussed more as a huge problem for society.

Wow, these fees are eye watering! I'm not in the UK and the fees here aren't as high as they seem to be there. Residents are also allowed to keep a decent sum of money when the government starts paying most of the fees.

My dad was paying £6300 in May 2023 just before he died. He was residential, no nursing or dementia care and was in a really nice care home, they looked after him brilliantly. He was very happy there.

Think it's probably nearer to £7000 now if he was still there.

South coast.

£6300 per month

If she is officially on ‘end of life’ care she may be eligible for continuing healthcare funding. My stepfather contributed towards his fees but as soon as it was deemed that he was placed on EOL care by a doctor, he no longer paid any fees.

https://www.nhs.uk/social-care-and-support/money-work-and-benefits/nhs-continuing-healthcare/

I work with a lot of care home owners. Smaller businesses that own anywhere from 2 right up to 20+. They have all done exceptionally well and have made millions over the years.

I know one owner who brought a care home. It failed. He somehow managed to buy another. It also failed. Is third one was a success and he now has 14. His kids and grandkids never have to work. He knew there is a chronic undersupply of available beds so was persistent in making it in the sector.

They all turn up to meetings in brand new unbelievably expensive cars. Once they have a good manager in place they spend all their time at the golf course or finding a way to buy another.

There should be public outrage at how the taxpayer is being shafted royally by private care operators.

This counts for adult and childrens social care. I met one childrens care operator who was charging his local authority £27,000 per week to look after one child with very high complex needs.

The local authorities need better negotiaters or start building their own homes. It would be far cheaper long term but there is no long term plans. Politics and policies are short term now. I get so wound up over this topic. And that's not even taking into account how many private care home owners could pay their staff so much more and that British care homes are such a cash cow (i.e. UK tak payer) that American private equity firms can't buy enough of them. Absolute disgrace.

My Mum's was £80,000 per year. Nice care home but she wasn't on the highest level of nursing care. No dementia. She only needed help with showering.

Quite a lot of councils are bringing homes back in house, at least for children, and the government is really pushing for it too.

And this is why we are all being crippled with high Council tax bills coz greedy care home owners are draining the system dry . They are making money off the back of vulnerable people and shouldn’t be allowed . Same with the care homes for kids and disabled adults.

My parents street is being bought up by people who are turning house after house into care homes for disabled and vulnerable adults. They are building extention after extention onto these houses which is probably paid for by the council. Where does it end?

Thanks to everyone who has posted tonight.
I'm honestly shocked by this NHS continuing health care availability. No one has mentioned it to us and we're in practically every day between the three of us. I'm certainly going to make it a priority to discuss it with the manager on duty when I'm next in.

It's certainly been a learning process over the last 19 months since she joined the care home, however I've learnt a lot on here tonight.
Off to bed now , but thanks to everyone who's taken the time to post your experiences and knowledge.
Very much appreciated.

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

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 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!

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.

£2160 per week.

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.

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

£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.

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.

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