Staggering truth about soaring bills

WHO PAYS FOR DEMENTIA CARE?

SInCE the condition isn’t viewed as a healthcare need, it is not covered by the nHS. If your savings and assets (including your home) are worth:

LESS THAN £14,250 — your local authority will pay the full cost;

£14,250-£23,250 — you’ll be asked to make a contribution, with your council paying the rest;

MORE THAN £23,250 — you will pay the full cost of your care. If you have a partner who is still living in your home, you won’t be forced to sell. ACCORDInG to healthcare consultants LaingBuisson:

36 per cent of dementia sufferers are fully council-funded;

13 per cent are partlyfunded by their local authority;

44 per cent are entirely self-funded;

7 per cent are funded by the nHS, which pays when a patient has particularly complex health needs.

HOW MUCH DOES CARE COST?

THERE is enormous geographical variation in the weekly costs of care and nursing home places. Homes are staffed by carers and call in qualified nursing staff when needed. nursing homes have nurses on site.

In the SOUTH-EAST the average care home costs

£747 a week, while nursing homes charge £1,052.

BUT in the NORTH-WEST, the weekly cost of a care home is £530, while the average nursing home is £820 a week.

SELF-FUnDERS don’t just pay for their own care — they also effectively subsidise those whose fees are paid by the council. This is because local authorities tend to use their buying power to negotiate lower fees, meaning they pay an average of £486 a week.

YET, according to Laing Buisson, the average self-funder pays £630 a week for a care home.

OnE report by the Competition and Markets Authority even claims the additional weekly price of self-funding is £225.

AS a result, while the state, local authorities and nHS pay £9.3 BILLION a year on dementia care, self-funders pick up an annual bill of £14.5 BILLION. In SCOTLAnD, dementia patients aged over 65 get FREE residential care.

ARE COSTS SET TO INCREASE?

ExPERTS have today told the Mail that care costs are set to soar by nearly 80 per cent in the next decade unless urgent action is taken.

ACCORDInG to the Alzheimer’s Society, by 2040, the number of Britons with dementia requiring palliative care is likely to quadruple to 3.4 million.

THAT would increase the total care cost from £26 billion now to £104 billion in today’s money.

WHAT IS THE CASH SPENT ON?

THE average care resident spends, per week, £165 on care assistants, £47 on management and administration, £90 on food and utilities and

£200 on building maintenance.

IS BEING CARED FOR AT HOME CHEAPER?

IF a person has mild dementia, yes. As long as their condition hasn’t deteriorated, the average annual cost of home care is £26,000. For residential care, they can expect to pay £31,000.

BUT once they develop severe dementia and need 24-hour care, it costs

£55,000 to stay at home, as opposed to £37,000 in residential care. nevertheless, 61 per cent of Britain’s 850,000 dementia sufferers live at home.

ARE THERE ENOUGH CARE HOMES?

THE number of care and nursing homes has fallen in the last nine years from 18,000 to

16,600, adding to the dementia crisis. This was partially caused by the collapse of care home provider Southern Cross, which had 140 homes and went bust in 2012. But the rise in the national minimum wage has also greatly increased the cost of staff. Since 2001, the average price of a care home place has risen by 80 per cent, from £353 a week to £630 a week. The cost of a nursing home place has also risen by 80 per cent, from £459 a week to £823 a week.

HOW DOES THIS AFFECT THE NHS?

A LACK of adequate care and nursing home facilities places a huge burden on the NHS. At any one time, a quarter of NHS beds are occupied by dementia sufferers over the age of 65.

In the past two years, dementia patients have spent a million days in hospital beds when they could have been in care or nursing homes — costing the NHS £340million.