can we give are kids are home

margaretclare

Battybird wrote: »

Maybe I shouldn't have said that care homes should be free. I should have said that care home residents should pay most of their pension and any carers allowance they may be receiving, but no more. I think that a lot of pensioners living in their own homes manage to pay their bills out of their pension.

Yes, we do pay bills - 2 of us living on pensions income, not only state pension but other from our previous careers. Of course we pay our bills - who would pay them if we don't?

seven-day-weekend

Battybird wrote: »

Maybe I shouldn't have said that care homes should be free. I should have said that care home residents should pay most of their pension and any carers allowance they may be receiving, but no more. I think that a lot of pensioners living in their own homes manage to pay their bills out of their pension.

But do they also pay for 24-hour care, full-time cooks and cleaners, a warden, and specialist equipment out of their pension?

Who do you think should pay for it if you don't?

(And bare in mind that many of the cleaners, cooks and carers won't ever earn enough to buy a house to leave to their children).

zygurat789

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

But do they also pay for 24-hour care, full-time cooks and cleaners, a warden, and specialist equipment out of their pension?

Who do you think should pay for it if you don't?

(And bare in mind that many of the cleaners, cooks and carers won't ever earn enough to buy a house to leave to their children).

It is unfortunate that we can now keep people alive long beyond their normal lifespan. Both my parents were 95 when they died and I really do not wish to end up like my mother who had been in a home for over 20 years and was just waiting to die; or my father who had so many physical problems.
Maybe in 20 years I'll feel differently but I feel that a fall down the stairs could be a relief for me and all my family.

jennifernil

Battybird wrote: »

I may be dreaming, but don't Scotland have free care? If so why there and not here?

Not so, what we are supposed to get is free "personal care", as in help with washing and dressing if required. I think this amounts to a reduction of about £160 per week in fees, but you then lose your attendance allowance.

We still have to pay the "hotel costs". And these come to much more than that.

Battybird

paddedjohn wrote: »

OP, its unlikely that you would need the services of a care home but if you did couldn't your 2 grown up sons look after you at home?

I feel that (most) mens feelings of coping with caring is different to a woman's feelings. I would think that if a son had had kids, they may be able to cope with helping parents toileting etc. I know I'd have no chance of my 27 year old son looking after me. He won't even take the dog for a walk because he can't stomach using a doggy bag.

Battybird

I joined in this thread, and typed about free care as the subject is close to my heart at the moment. I am going to a relatives funeral tomorrow. He lived in a care home for about 18 months, following a major stroke.

Sadly this left him very disabled. He never got his speech back, could only walk a few steps from bed to chair,(couldn't walk at all for months)then developed dementia. In fact following the stroke, he never seemed to know what was going on at all. One of his sons lived with him, but would not have been able to cope, or lift his dad. He needed 24 hour care. In my mind he should have been entitled to continuing health care, but it wasn't to be. ???? (not that many years ago, before private nursing homes appeared, he would have still been in a hospital.)

His property will be sold to pay for his deferred care home fees and his out of work son will have to leave the family home. (As i typed before, if it had been a council house, I think his son could have taken over the tenancy?)

My relative worked all his life, and never claimed a penny in benefits. His (just) out of work son is not claiming benefits, and looking for another job so he doesn't have to claim. It so maddens us when we read in the news about the huge rents people can claim when living in London, huge benefits that larger families claim. and now a young person being able to claim for flying lessons. Why can't the government look after older folk?!

Savvy_Sue

Battybird wrote: »

His property will be sold to pay for his deferred care home fees and his out of work son will have to leave the family home.

How old is the son? Are there other assets which could be used to settle the deferred care home fees - insurance policies etc?

Battybird wrote: »

(As i typed before, if it had been a council house, I think his son could have taken over the tenancy?)

The son would not automatically have been able to take over the tenancy: they can't be passed on more than once, maybe twice, I don't rightly remember, and I think the person has to have some 'need' for council housing. Obviously not having his own home would demonstrate that need.

But it does sometimes happen that people have to leave a council house because the tenant has died, and the tenancy has already been passed on. Those cases are equally difficult.

Battybird wrote: »

My relative worked all his life, and never claimed a penny in benefits.

So neither he nor his wife claimed child benefit? Died before claiming his pension? Didn't benefit from the Winter Fuel Allowance, or the free bus pass?

Battybird wrote: »

His (just) out of work son is not claiming benefits, and looking for another job so he doesn't have to claim.

It's great that he's looking for another job, however that's no reason not to claim JSA, especially as that will mean his NI continues to be paid.

Also, your relative had a choice about his care home, and once the home is sold there will presumably be something left over to help the son. Possibly by the time the house is sold the son will be back in work, so there may be choices. I'd rather make my own choices than just leave it all up to the government.

John_Pierpoint

zygurat789 wrote: »

This is because the purpose of prisons are misunderstood. They are not for punishment or rehabilitation but to protect the general population from those inside. What is needed is a lot more secure prisons and less clip-on devices and open prisons (now there's an oxymoron). Where do we put them to avoid nimbyism, well off the top of my head how about Wylva, Dounreay, Sizewell etc?

I don;t want to get right off thread, but we used to export our criminals to Tasmania, very secure but even more expensive than reopening Dartmoor.

I don't want to sound like a lilly livered liberal, but prison does not work, it is a university for crime. These people have to learn that "if you don't work you don't eat".

pollypenny

Batty bird, it really does sound as if your relative should have had continuing health care funding.

The son can continue the fight. Enlist Age Concern.

p00hsticks

Battybird wrote: »

Sadly this left him very disabled. He never got his speech back, could only walk a few steps from bed to chair,(couldn't walk at all for months)then developed dementia. In fact following the stroke, he never seemed to know what was going on at all. One of his sons lived with him, but would not have been able to cope, or lift his dad. He needed 24 hour care. In my mind he should have been entitled to continuing health care, but it wasn't to be. ???? (not that many years ago, before private nursing homes appeared, he would have still been in a hospital.)

I'm not too sure about your last statement - I could be wrong, but before the advent of the NHS in 1946, I suspect that if the family was rich, they would have paid for him to be looked after in a private sanatorium somewhere, and if they couldn't afford that then one of his family woudl have had to take him in and look after him at home -I'm not sure what would happen if you had no family, but I susect you wouldn't have lasted long.