I’m trapped by nursing home fees until one of us dies
WE will continue to blow fortunes on nursing homes in later life and the new health and social care levy raid will be wasted money – unless the Government radically overhauls our broken system.
Without reforms on adult social care, campaigners say Boris Johnson’s 1.25% National Insurance hike will be throwing good money after bad.
Those at the sharp end of the care system face confusion and uncertainty on top of the heartbreak that inevitably comes when a loved one can no longer cope at home.
They also face the shock of seeing a lifetime of savings being depleted by care fees, often in a matter of weeks.
That is what happened to Ian Blagden, whose beloved wife Sheila is being charged nursing home fees of £1,176 a week after going into care six weeks ago.
That works out at more than £60,000 a year – although Sheila’s money will have run out long before then.
Stripping assets
Ian, 72, from Stevenage, Hertfordshire, exhausted himself caring for Sheila after she had a breakdown almost five years ago.
Retired dinner lady, Sheila, 78, requires constant professional support and Ian has now witnessed our social care system’s failings at first hand.
His verdict: “It’s a farce.” His wife has only been in a nursing home for a few weeks but already her lifetime savings are being eaten up by the cost. Her state pension and workplace savings give her an income of just £350 a month, yet her nursing home fees are more than three times that sum.
Sheila had some savings and received an inheritance of £36,000 a few years ago but that has already nearly disappeared.
Under current rules, local authorities will only contribute to care costs once your total assets fall below £23,250 in England, known as the upper capital limit.
They will only cover the full cost of care once your assets fall below £14,250.
The means test takes into account the value of your home, forcing around 20,000 families to sell their properties each year to meet fees.
Caught out by the test
If a couple jointly own their home, or have dependents who live there, its value is not included in the local authority means test for residential care.
That is the case with Ian and Sheila, which means the local council will not take it into account as long as Ian lives there.
However this still leaves him stuck in the home for life.
He could not downsize from the three-bedroom house or take out an equity release scheme to raise extra funds.
“As soon as any money is released, the council will want my wife’s share so I am basically trapped until the day that she or I die,” Ian says.
They both have children from previous marriages but Ian doesn’t think they’ll be any money left once he’s gone.
“If I also end up in a care home and have to sell the house everything will get wiped out,” he says.
No clarity
Since Sheila went into the home, Ian has been waiting to receive clarity from his local authority about what happens next, and ideally something in writing.
“I’ve heard nothing, which just adds to the feeling of uncertainty about what support we are going to get,” he says.
Sheila will reach the upper capital limit in only four weeks and Ian has just contacted social services for a financial assessment.
“Right now, I feel like I’ve been left in a loop,” he adds.
Ian, a retired aircraft supplier quality engineer, wants to speak out because many people do not realise the problems that lie in wait.
“At some point in our lives we are all going to confront this system. We don’t realise how bad it is until we come up against it.”
He says Boris Johnson’s overhaul will do little to help.
“It’s just a sticking plaster.”
Ripped apart
The new health and social care levy is designed to raise £36billion for the NHS and care system over the next three years.
More than 25 million mostly lowerpaid workers will foot the bill, as will retirees who work to generate extra earnings after state pension age.
Rachael Crook, chief executive of home care specialist liftedcare.com, says the reforms do nothing to address the carer shortage caused by poor pay and conditions.
“We need a coherent long-term plan for social care to ensure those we love most can live the lives they deserve in the homes they love,” she says.
Otherwise hundreds of thousands of families will continue to see their lives “ripped apart” by the care crisis, she adds.
You don’t realise how bad the system is until you come up against it
Legacy of loss
The Government will set a cap of £86,000 on personal care costs but this will not come into force until October 2023.
Any money spent on care fees before that date will not count towards the cap. Even after that date, it will be of limited use.
The cap will not apply to daily living costs such as accommodation and food, so families could still spend hundreds of thousands of pounds.
Matthew Connell, the Personal Finance Society’s director of policy and public affairs, says this destroys the motivation to save for later life.
“Too many families whose loved ones had spent a lifetime carefully saving to pass on a legacy see the cash quickly disappear to pay for care,” he says.
Today, Ian and Sheila Blagden are facing that dismal prospect. Tomorrow, it could be any of us.
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