Immediate care needs annuity

GDB2222

I don't think you can get much further until you have a quote. I personally would be interested in what that works out as, if you don't mind sharing please.

lisyloo

No worries, I will come back and share as I appreciate I’ve had some valuable help.
We are going to write a strongly worded letter to the home in the first instance.
They have never communicated about fees before (only the LA) and we’ve already had one big increase.
There are also some care issues particularly around food.
She has no teeth and is a picky eater and there is not enough effort going in. We can see they are busy but we pay a lot of money.
This is important as she’s about 8 stone (was 13 a one point) and clearly nutrition is important and that needs encouragement and time i.e. care.

fred246

You just have to be thankful that physically she is so well.

lisyloo

fred246 wrote: »

You just have to be thankful that physically she is so well.

This is only from a longevity point of view e.g. no heart problems, cancer etc. In the family.

She has arthritis in her knees, hands, arms and has suffered with it for 50 years. This limits her walking (nowhere without assistance) and dressing.
She struggles to pick things up with her hands e.g. can’t hold a pen because they are clawed with the arthritis. She also has back pain for which she has a morphine patch. This may not be from artrhritis but more likely from bearing weight in a lopsided fashion for many years as one knee is worse than the other.

She cannot hear very well, but cannot manage hearing aids (has lost at least one set which cost four figures) due to her dimensia.
Her eye sight is very poor and she has refused a second cataract operation.
Her ability to partake in any activities is very limited.

So she is far from being physically fine in the normal sense.
but besides dimensia (which people can live with for a long time) there is nothing in her personal or family history to suggest her life can’t carry on for several more years.
She is not deteriorating physically.

lisyloo

UPDATE

Had a long discussion with family about this yesterday.

All of us felt that she is unlikely to live long enough to run out of money. Those of us who see her LESS frequently were able to see a decline more clearly. Of course this is no guarantee but there was a concensus.

There were strong concerns that fee rises could mean she isn’t protected by an annuity and could still run out of money for the top-up. Yes we know you can build in annual increase but some were disappointed that we aren’t getting a guarantee that fees are covered and we could buy the annuity and she could STILL run out of money then what’s the point.

We looked back over old notes when we were choosing home.
In terms of her requirement (a lot of residential home wouldn’t take her) she is in one of cheapest homes.
There is something funny has gone on with the numbers.
On the phone in 2017 we were told £720 initially and I have paperwork that says £668.75 but LA rate is now £825 and private £925.
What we think has happened is that the care home played the system and quoted a lower fee initially to get her in with LA funding and have later raised the rates (cross subsidy in action).
We think the home would be inclined to keep her in 4 years times as she’s generally pleasant and low maintenance and clearly continuous occupation is in their interests rather than having voids.
Having gone over our notes (of about 20 homes) and Being in one of the cheapest homes for her needs we don’t think she’ll likely be moved as there simply aren’t cheaper places for her needs and that’s not us being fussy - many homes wouldn’t take her and (for example) some don’t even have hoists to move immobile people.
She did move across a county border to a cheaper area (Bristol from Bath) and funnily enough we still had to go to “panel” even though it was cheaper as it was a different county.

Taking all this into account we have decided not to get quotes at the present time. I can’t see why we would change our mind but it’s not an irreversible decision.

Thanks all for your input.

AnotherJoe

lisyloo wrote: »

No worries, I will come back and share as I appreciate I’ve had some valuable help.
We are going to write a strongly worded letter to the home in the first instance.
They have never communicated about fees before (only the LA) and we’ve already had one big increase.
There are also some care issues particularly around food.
She has no teeth and is a picky eater and there is not enough effort going in. We can see they are busy but we pay a lot of money.
This is important as she’s about 8 stone (was 13 a one point) and clearly nutrition is important and that needs encouragement and time i.e. care.

That is difficult. My mum just pretty much stopped eating towards the end. She wasn't persuadable. Believe me I tried. And she didn't have dementia. Maybe it's just the brains way of giving up.
Good luck.

lisyloo

The letter prompted a good response on care issues with food/nail hygiene.
Problem is my SIL talks to individual carers but that doesn’t produce a long lasting result, sometimes you have to put things in writing with the manager.

Something odd has definitely happened with the numbers.
We have records (even LA paperwork) of lower numbers initially and our only explanation is that they dropped their price initially to seal the deal with the LA. They are not being transparent and have claimed my paperwork for the LA is a “system error” but we have other records of lower prices as well.

There is no movement on the £925 at all and I expect an increase in April.

On the plus side she is mostly pleasant and happy at the moment.

Spreadsheetman

Thanks for the update lisyloo. Interesting how people with a bit of distance can see the decline when the closest can't.

I spent quite a bit of time planning how to make my Father's money last as long as possible, but he was gone in under 6 months of moving into a care home due to his condition progressing quickly. I was too close to see it so the end was still a shock.