Provision for the cost of a care home or support when continuing to live in your own home

Brie

fyi - the Oct 2023 limit will apply only to those starting care after that time.  It would be used for those already in care.

if you or your spouse both own the home in  any way and one of you needs care either in the home or in a care home the other isn't forced to sell to pay for it.  the home is discounted for the purpose of seeing if you exceed the £23,250 maximum savings limit.

if you also have another person living in the home who owns it with you and they are under 60 the council may tell them to sell the home to finance your care.  if they are 60 or over they will not be made to sell it but the council will put a lien on it to recover costs when the home is eventually sold.  

lisyloo

Brie said:

fyi - the Oct 2023 limit will apply only to those starting care after that time.  It would be used for those already in care.

if you or your spouse both own the home in  any way and one of you needs care either in the home or in a care home the other isn't forced to sell to pay for it.  the home is discounted for the purpose of seeing if you exceed the £23,250 maximum savings limit.

if you also have another person living in the home who owns it with you and they are under 60 the council may tell them to sell the home to finance your care.  if they are 60 or over they will not be made to sell it but the council will put a lien on it to recover costs when the home is eventually sold.  

The only major issue is that most care available at local authority rate falls into the “over my dead body” category.
and you won’t be necessarily be put close to your spouse or family.
we found one home out of about who that was acceptable and even them they wanted a “top up” so we had to fight hard.

the LA wanted to put my FIL in a home 15 miles from my MIL when he was bed bound and her wheelchair bound. They would not have seen each other very much.
we argued strongly to get them put in the same home, which we achieved, so she was able to spend some time with him during his final days.
they were lucky they had strong and capable advocacy to fight for them that not everyone has.

What I’m saying is getting it for free is real safety net stuff.
We have witnessed clients being cold for want of a blanket, dirty toilets, people sat in urine and faeces. I’d probably think that was exaggeration if I hadn’t done the research myself.
it is possible to keen incontinent people clean but it takes effort.

so if you have no desire to be close to any family, spouse or visitor and don’t mind being sat in urine and having your the dressings on your ulcers falling off and being cold becuase no one is available to get you a blanket then by all means go the free route.

Personally I think I’d like somewhere nicer and I can only imagine most people would want better than LA provision (if they have any choice).

Ibrahim5

That's the same argument as 'every state school is awful, every private one is great" or "private medicine is great, NHS is awful". It's never that simple. A lot of homes have private and state funding side by side. I can't believe the number of times that the same person can write dimensia instead of dementia.

Ibrahim5

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

SarahB16

Ibrahim5 said:

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

Personally I wish there were more senior cohousing schemes as I think they are perfect and a great place to live when you're in your sixties, seventies and eighties.  There aren't that many currently in England but I think the concept is wonderful and wish there could be more.  

Retain your own independence but lots of interaction with your neighbours (if that's what you want so you're not lonely) due to a communal house and communal gardens, no sky high service charges (usually they are resident run management companies), willingness to help and support your fellow neighbours and therefore less reliance on e.g. district nurses, carers, etc.   

elsien

Those places tend to chuck you out once your care and support needs reach a certain level, particularly if you have more than mild dementia or your personal care needs are more than prompts and a wash. 

Mojisola

cfw1994 said:

Care homes ranged from £900 to £1400pw, so enabling her  remain in her own home made sense financially as well as emotionally.

We were investigating live-in care, which looked to be around the upper end of care home costs, but few companies do it.

My FIL wanted to stay at home so the family arranged for live-in care - they looked at a couple of firms and the prices were much the same - as you say, the cost was upper end care home plus there were still all the bills to be paid to keep the house running but it worked very well and he was happy.

The actual experience didn't exactly match the promised regular 3-weeks with one carer and then 3-weeks with another in rotation but the logistics of managing the carers/clients must be a nightmare so the family were willing to be flexible.

There was only one carer who didn't suit and she stayed just for one week, by mutual consent.

He ended up with a pool of regular carers who were all lovely - expensive but worth it if the money is available.

I'd just add that FIL was very happy with his own company - my own Dad thrived in a care home environment because he loved having company all the time so that's another factor to take into account.

Albermarle

Ibrahim5 said:

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

If you have enough money, you can enjoy yourself in your 70's and still afford a good care home !

Linton

Ibrahim5 said:

Do you spend your 60s and 70s sat at home watching TV in the cold saving your money for your care home or do you enjoy yourself and accept that you might not end up in the world's smartest care home?

The danger at the other extreme is spending all your money when relatively young on things you will soon forget and then living your final years in what you regard as poverty and squalor regretting your earlier extravagence.

lisyloo

Ibrahim5 said:

That's the same argument as 'every state school is awful, every private one is great" or "private medicine is great, NHS is awful". It's never that simple. A lot of homes have private and state funding side by side. I can't believe the number of times that the same person can write dimensia instead of dementia.

Most of those that have private and state funding side by side have a top up required.
believe it - some of us don’t make pedantry a priority and think other things are more important