Carehome taking all the money

[Pugsrus]

At the minute we are using her personal money to pay the care home fees ,yet other residents are getting it for free .
It seems very unfair we now have to sell the house,so we will be paying Well over £250,000 in care home fees ..how is this fair .she saved for years to pass the money on to her grandchildren.
Is there anything we can do

'Ask the grandparent to put the house in someone elses name ie one of the children or grandchildren'

Yes, do this then wait for it to be investigated

I believe that it’s something I’d be happy to pay higher taxes for - as well as for good education (I’ve no kids), early retire,eat and great healthcare for all.
I don’t feel impinged upon to help create an equal and fair society, if it keeps everyone well. Even if people abuse a system, the majority still don’t, and we all benefit.

I don’t think anyone should pay or lose home for old age care.
I think the taxes we already pay throughout our lifetime should fund it.

Maybe I’m weird!

No one gets it for free. Even if you dont have a penny the LA takes your state pension to put towards it.

Also I really think we need to stop the shit about "working hard your whole life for it" the vast majority of people needing care now did not work their whole life for a 250k house. They worked for some of it... most of it is just good fortune that the housing market absolutely exploded in their lifetime. My in laws paid 18k for their house in the 80s, they've never remortgage so it's been paid off for years so theyve just been sitting on an asset that has increased in value tenfold.

I don't think anyone would think your view is 'weird' just really unrealistic unfortunately

Most care homes are subsidised by those who pay privately.
www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2017/03/30/private-care-home-residents-pay-nearly-10000-a-year-extra-subsidise/
There was a news report about this the other day.
Many care homes though, depend on council funded places, so those who are funded by the local authority get preferential treatment.
the system is very unfair and not transparent at all.
Two of the wealthiest families I know have free expensive care homes for their elderly parents because they can afford to the legal battles to fight Local Authorities. One developed Dementia whilst in care and when her money ran out the Local Authority picked up the tab.Normally someone would be moved to a cheaper home but the family were prepared to go to court and the LA backed down.
The whole system is hugely unfair.

My mum put herself in care.
She did not want to support herself after my dad died 10 yrs ago and took every opportunity to get into hospital until she eventually went into care.
She wasn’t unwell, just extremely depressed but she refused to stay home or live with children.

She had to sell her home for this, for some reason my late father had thought in advance and made it so that if remaining parent went into care, both myself and my siblings would inherit after the sale too.

So house was sold, and profit was quartered. I/4 went to mums care home.

@covidco

autopilotpeach too late for that. It would be deliberate deprivation of assets, which is illegal and the LA will take the family to court for (and very likely win). Families try it all the time. It virtually never successful.

well i know people who do it so it must be possible, how early has it got to be done? it is unfair.. makes me so angry, the system is so wrong

how long has she been in the home?

Can any of the family care for her instead in her home?

You cannot do anything about the house sale and deliberate deprivation of assets, which is illegal can't be done.

You could see if care home can be avoided and someone care for her in her home instead - saves lots of money that way?

Same situation for DGM. Shopped in charity shops, lived frugally, never spent anything on herself wanting to leave something to her children and grandchildren.
It’s all gone on care home fees and, now it’s run out, the council are funding her place.
I’m glad she is being well looked after, no one in the family has a property suitable for her disabilities, everyone works and she now has dementia so doesn’t even know who we are. An inheritance would have been nice (or even help when we were really struggling) but at the end of the day it was her money/house and it’s been used to look after her.

I'd rather get euthanised than go to a care home and see all that we built during our lives being swallowed up. Too bad they don't make that possible.

That's a bit in poor taste

My grandad has had Alzheimer's for 11 years and the past 7 years had to live in a care home on a floor that specialises in dementia. Therefore more expensive than residential care.

Its awful that he pays all this money he has worked hard for and saved (he was very intelligent in investing money through stocks and shares etc). Then the person who is also receiving the same care for free.

Unfortunately that is the way it works. The way our family look at it. That it is only money and it is getting spent on him and his care.

Maybe the canny ones always rent, earn a fortune, spend all their money on luxuries, holidays, give money away then end up with nothing in savings so get the LA to pay.

'Its awful that he pays all this money he has worked hard for and saved (he was very intelligent in investing money through stocks and shares etc). Then the person who is also receiving the same care for free.'

Do you hear what you're saying? That really sounds like you begrudge poorer people decent care

... Or maybe a lot of people started with nothing and end up with nothing and have to live the rest of their days in a care home. Yes, they're so lucky

@Pollypocket89
Do you know what my grandads job was?? It was making drums for paint to go in for a paint factory. It wasn't a high flying job! I said that he was very intelligent and good with finances!
I don't begrudge people care!! You've just twisted it.
Did you read my last part about that we look at it as his money is all going on him to provide his care!
Obviously you have never had anyone who suffers from this horrible disease and having to move out of his home and sell his home to pay for his care.

It's as though your grieving them before they have died. It's horrendous!

No, no ones twisting anything. He started with nothing then and ended up with something so well done him. A lot of people aren't as fortunate for a variety of reasons. They shouldn't get less because they have less. That's how your post reads to me

You too obviously don't have a lot of emotional intelligence to make such a presumption about me. I do have personal experience that was horrendous actually but I'm able to think beyond my own experiences

"Normally someone would be moved to a cheaper home but the family were prepared to go to court and the LA backed down."

It's actually very rare that this would happen. I worked in care management and the threat from the LA may be there but no care manager worth their salt would turf out an elderly person on those grounds.

LA in my area would pay up to £600 a month and the rest had to be made up from pensions, savings or family . So £350 a month was paid by every last resident, nobody got it for free.

Costs of £950 (we were cheap in comparison to the local big franchise care homes but offered a better standard of living) were divided up between:

3x meals a day plus snacks and drinks as requested (and set snack times)
All laundry
Cleaning
Birthday cake and card with special afternoon tea
Full activities provision (day trips extra but kept to the minimum needed to cover fuel or entry costs)
Admin of social services, doctors, hospital, OT, optician, hearing aid (the list goes on) to ensure either a relative could take them or a member of staff was available to go.
Qualified, knowledgeable care staff on call 24/7 with buzzer alarm call.
Full support given to families during palliative care , bereavement meeting to signpost support and close liaison with funeral directors should the family need help.

I'm barely skimming the surface of what goes on with YOUR inheritance tbh.

Just be grateful your relative is safe and cared for and you're not half killing yourself trying to care for them as adequately at home.

Majority of care facilities are bloody good and full of decent staff who work hard for their residents.

£1000 a week per resident. Where is all the money going and it’s been like this for years

Care homes are not cheap to run. A typical home will have 4 nurses, 14 carers, 2 kitchen staff, 3 domestic/laundry staff, a manager and receptionist, caretaker and activities coordinator on duty over a 24 hour period. That's a lot of wages to pay. Then there is the utilities, the maintenance upkeep etc

@Wizadorawobble it’s true what your saying I agree with that part about many wages need to be paid. Who ever owns a care home will be taking home a huge profit.

A lot of care homes are extremely short staffed. I still don’t think it warrants that amount of money per week. It’s the same with nurseries and wages are so low.

You could let the house and use the income from that, depending on its size and how much income you would get from it.

Sensible long term planning can prevent this situation but too late for that now

It's the same as uni feee: those who have money pay for it those that don't get significant amount of help.

Not quite. At 18 I had no money. My ‘D’P had money but refused to pay my fees.

So I worked every weekend and evening to pay my uni fees whilst those with less affluent or fucking mean DP were studying / partying.