Self-funding for care home places doubles in 12yrs
More families forced to pay as council cuts bite
FAMILIES are spending twice as much on care home fees for their relatives than they were 12 years ago, a study has revealed.
The Tories’ austerity cuts mean cash-strapped councils have less money to spend, so many people on average incomes are now under pressure to fund care that used to be provided by the state.
“Self-funding” for care home places hit £7.74billion last year, a 95% rise on £3.97billion in 2007, research by market analysts LaingBuisson shows.
On average, self-funders pay fees of £846 a week, or £44,000 a year. State funding rose just 14%, to £9.1billion from £8.1billion, in the same period.
The number of people forced to pay for care because they have more than £23,500 in savings or assets rose 21%. Last year, 176,000 families paid the full costs of care home fees – a rise on 145,000 cases in 2007. And the number of local authority care home places has more than halved – 17,100 places were available last year, compared to 37,300 a decade before.
Plus, more than 330,000 pensioners have been forced to sell their homes to fund their care since 1999, when a parliamentary committee called for the charges to be scrapped.
Over two years ago, the Government promised a green paper on social care, but it has been delayed.
Sally Copley, of Alzheimer’s Society, said: “Social care is on its knees. It is unacceptable that people... still need to spend thousands of pounds out of their own pockets. With the cost of dementia care being on average 15% more than standard social care, too many people are facing catastrophic costs of typically £100,000 on care.
“If the NHS doesn’t have the money, then the Government must make the funds available.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesman said: “People who need social care should not have to pay more than they can reasonably afford. We introduced reforms aimed at preventing people being forced to sell their homes to pay for their care.”