Couple face split after 67 years in row over care bills
A DEVOTED couple who have been married for 67 years face being torn apart by social services in a row over the cost of their care.
Frank Springett, 91, could be split from his wife Mary, 86, in a move which would “devastate” them, their family said.
The couple sold their £156,000 home in Henley-in-Arden, Warwickshire earlier this year to pay their £8,000-a-month care bills.
But now their money is running low and they face the prospect of being separated.
Mrs Springett suffers from Alzheimer’s while her husband has mobility problems and arthritis, the muscle stiffness condition polymyalgia rheumatica and is almost totally deaf.
The family is keeping the row secret from Mr Springett as they fear the stress of being separated from his wife could kill him.
Daughter Joanne Downes, 57, claim social services managers at Solihull Council have warned her that after her parents have spent their money, they will be split up and moved to different homes.
She said: “It would devastate my mother if my father was not with her, and vice versa.
“They are a couple who have been together 70 years, married for 67 years and never, ever spent time apart. I cannot and will not accept that they cannot be together.”
Echoing the Daily Express crusade for Respect for the Elderly, Jayne Connery, founder of the Care Campaign for the Vulnerable, said: “This is another blatant disregard of our pensioners human rights. They deserve so much more from a society they helped to build over the years.”
Mr and Mrs Springett lived in their own home until March this year when their family took the decision Mary, 86, with her daughter Joanne, left, and granddaughter Jenna, right to move them into nearby Cedar Lodge care home due to their failing health.
They sold the house for £156,000 and the proceeds are currently paying £975 per week for Mrs Springett’s care and £925 per week for her husband’s. But when the money runs out, the council will only pay £500 per week towards Mrs Springrett’s care. And they will not pay anything towards Mr Springett’s care because they say he can live alone in a flat with the help of carers.
Mrs Downes and her brother Roderick have made three appeals to Solihull social services which have all concluded they should be separated.
A spokesman for Solihull Council said it was working with the family to try and resolve the situation.
SOCIAL services have a lot on their plate with people now living to be so much older and requiring so much more care. There is no comprehensive strategy on how to deal with this and it is causing untold problems. Mistakes are bound to be made.
But even so, to split up a couple who have been married for 67 years in their late and ailing old age when they will need each other more than ever is cruel.
Surely a priority when dealing with the elderly is to keep very longstanding couples together – whatever it costs.