MSE News: Funding concerns over elderly care

Former_MSE_Helen

"The Government is failing to adequately plan for the care needed by our rapidly ageing population, says a new survey ..."

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Funding concerns over elderly care

rickbonar.

For a start all private care homes to be assessed for their true profit and loss ratios.

Sequestration of owners assets until proper assessments made even if under limited company status.

All private homes to brought under state management. Prison for owners failing to comply.

Even retrospective of assets for millionaire owners under the proceeds of crime act.

Arthurian

According to Lord Bichard, the answer seems to be to make retired people look after the very elderly or else be given some sort of penalty via their pension.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862

rickbonar.

There is no need for such an absurd plan as the one proposed by "Lord" Bichard as nursing homes could be run to a better standard and at a fraction of the charges they now charge under private organisation.

I've got one other scheme that "Lord" Bichard and the rest of Lords, Dukes, Princes, Earls, Barons, Viscounts etc. won't like.
Toff tax..

Who the f**king hell is Lord Bichard and how can this pompous toff tell anyone what to do. Retired people shouldn't have to anything apart put a noose around necks of the likes of his lordship.

I would like a government which invoked Toff tax.... all their money properties and chattels seized and sold off. Then implement a real costs assessment of elderly care which wouldn't really amount to about a tenth of what they currently charge.

Broadwood

I have absolutely no desire to end my days in a care home. When the time comes that I can't manage in my own place I will be off to that clinic in Switzerland. It is wrong to financially burden the younger generations with the consequences of medical science being able to keep us ticking til 100-plus.

Quality of life (as opposed to length of life) is the important thing.

Pincher

Paying somebody to "care" for the elderly is what rich peple do.

If you can afford £50,000 a year, there are plenty of people who will care A LOT.

If you depend on a bunch of desperados whose main qualification is they will accept minimum wage or less, what do you expect?

If you think people care, just advertise for volunteers.
Half of them will be Jimmy Savilles with granny rape on their mind.

antrobus

rickbonar. wrote: »

...I've got one other scheme that "Lord" Bichard and the rest of Lords, Dukes, Princes, Earls, Barons, Viscounts etc. won't like.
Toff tax.....

Mr Bichard is merely a life peer. He is no more of a toff than Mr Kinnock, Mr Hattersley or that nice Mr Sugar.

rickbonar. wrote: »

..Who the f**king hell is Lord Bichard ....

He's a former civil servant. Ran the Benefits Agency. Worked for Blunkett. That sort of thing.

iaps

Interesting reading:

Peer who wants the retired to work for their pensions is a Sir Humphrey retired on £120k+ a year

http://hat4uk.wordpress.com/2012/10/24/peer-who-wants-the-retired-to-work-for-their-pensions-is-a-sir-humphrey-retired-on-120k-a-year/

And some other news:

Council bosses have completed the £3.2 million sale of nine care homes to a private firm, but told the company it can wait a year before it pays the majority of the cash.

Yesterday, Leicestershire County Council agreed to transfer the homes for the elderly to Essex-based Southend Care and took a £100,000 downpayment to seal the deal.

The Tory-run council has agreed to give the company until September 2013 to pay the remaining £3.1 million.

http://www.thisisleicestershire.co.uk/Care-homes-sold-pound-3-2m-council-wait-cash/story-17009782-detail/story.html

ukmaggie45

Only reason I thank you @iaps is it's such dreadful news. Why should they be different to any other property transaction when you have to pay before you can move in? I bet the lovely lady we bought our house from would have been really happy to wait for her money until we'd completed the renovation about 18 months later! :think:

margaretclare

Arthurian wrote: »

According to Lord Bichard, the answer seems to be to make retired people look after the very elderly or else be given some sort of penalty via their pension.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-20044862

IMHO this is an absolutely terrible idea. It's like shoving in your face 'this is what awaits you, this is what you'll be like just a few short years down the line'. And what if retired people are already suffering the effects of their own working lives, maybe back problems, then being required to push wheelchairs, help people in and out of the bath, you name it? I know what this feels like. I was in my late 50s/early 60s when I was doing this type of work (following redundancy and widowhood) and, physically, it was extremely difficult.

Having said all that, there are probably some things that one could do which wouldn't be so physically taxing, but there is also the argument that I paid for my own pension through half a century of work, and see no need to pay for it all over again. I am still paying tax, in any case.

rickbonar.

Most of these homes are charging between £500 and £1500 per week, for a modest ensuite bedsitter type room.

The "homes" are often staffed by third world or other foreigners from the balkan states, Ukraine, Poland. As other observers rightly note, on or near the minimum wage.

It doesn't take a mathematical genius to work out that total staff costs could quite easily be paid by 2 or 3 residents, and where there are 30 or 40 residents, you've got to ask the question: Just where is all the money going?
:mad: