Care fee divide gets even worse
Those who pay own bills charged £250 a week more
CARE home residents who pay their own bills are now being charged £250 a week more than those whose fees are funded by the state, a report has found.
In 30 areas of England, councils pay care home operators less than £500 a week to house those who need their bills covered because they have few savings or assets of their own.
The figure means that those paying their own bills – in many cases homeowners forced to sell their house to do so – are typically paying £125 a week to subsidise those unable to cover their costs.
The analysis, by independent care home owners group Care England, comes as Boris Johnson’s government has promised to end the scandal which sees people who have paid mortgages having to sell their homes to pay for care – rather than pass them on to their families.
The Daily Mail is campaigning for an urgent solution to the social care crisis, particularly for thousands with dementia who are bearing the brunt of it.
Care England found that there are 30 councils paying less than £500 a week for each resident they support – which works out at £2.97 an hour for 24-hour care. This compares with the weekly cost of operating an economically run home of between £623 and £726 a week, depending on the standard of accommodation and the number of residents with dementia who will need extra care, it said.
The figures mean that a typical self-funder in one of the 30 areas – who will, according to industry analysts, face bills of £750 a week or above – will be paying £250 a week or a third more than councils pay for state-funded residents. Of this, at least £125 will be used as a subsidy to compensate the home for low council fees.
Local authorities’ social services departments, which pay for about 137,000 people without savings or assets, were typically paying just over £550 a week for a place in 2018, says healthcare observer Laing Buisson.
It is widely believed that councils may often use bulk-buying powers to force care home operators to accept low fees.
Care England’s chief Professor Martin Green said: ‘It is unacceptable that independent care homes must restrict the pay and conditions of their staff and subsidise care which councils underfund. Ultimately, independent care homes may close with the terrible consequences for residents forced to find new homes and staff losing their jobs.’
Its report added that some of the low-paying councils were making an exception for care homes they themselves run by paying higher fees to them.
For the past 25 years, care home charges have been meanstested. Anyone who has property and savings worth more than £23,250 must pay their own way. Those with assets of between £23,250 and £14,250 must pay a share of care home bills, while those with less than £14,250 are entirely funded by their council’s social services.
Owners of a home are required to sell it to pay the bills when they run out of cash savings.
Mr Johnson’s government has pledged to put together a crossparty consensus on social care reform within its first 100 days.
‘This is unacceptable’