£2000 a week for my mum's dementia care home!

KTrazor

I can't find a category for this. I hope this may reach the right audience.
Please can someone update on what is going on with this scandal of dementia care-home costs? Mum is self funding as she has savings of over £23,500. Dad is still living in their home so I know that's safe. How on earth did we let this happen these shocking costs happen? When I tell folks it's £2000 A WEEK, they simply can't get over it? What's going on in parliament? Is Martin Lewis still fighting for answers / solutions? 
Thanks.

Keep_pedalling

Around the clock care is labour intensive and costs a lot of money and there is no getting round that. If we as a society want to fund care for everyone then we are going to have to pay more tax and it seems few people are willing to vote for that so it is not going to happen. 

Personally I would not want to be in a position that I have to rely on LA funding and am fortunate that we can self fund for a good number of years if nessesary. The number one priority of building up wealth during your lifetime is to maintain the best quality of life in your final years, inheritance for children is secondary.

TheMilkmansDad

As above. No scandal, just the way things are at the moment.

sheramber

How much do you think it should cost for care workers / nurses for 24/7 , cleaners, running costs for the property - heating, lighting, rates etc, maintenance of property and furnishings,  cost of food and paying someone to cook it,  implying with and paying for licences. Upkeep of grounds. 

All that has to be paid for by who? 

jaybeetoo

My big gripe with self-funders is they are subsidising the people paid for by local authorities.  That is the scandal.  It is wrong that self-funders are being overcharged.

Grumpy_chap

KTrazor said:

I can't find a category for this. I hope this may reach the right audience.
Please can someone update on what is going on with this scandal of dementia care-home costs? Mum is self funding as she has savings of over £23,500. Dad is still living in their home so I know that's safe. How on earth did we let this happen these shocking costs happen? When I tell folks it's £2000 A WEEK, they simply can't get over it? What's going on in parliament? Is Martin Lewis still fighting for answers / solutions? 
Thanks.

I understand that this is a stressful time for you all.
If Mum stayed in a hotel on an all-inclusive basis, what would the cost be?
If Mum employed a carer on live-in basis, what would the cost be?
If Mum employed a full time on-call cleaner, what would the cost be?
As a minimum, the care home is offering the above three elements.

ian16527

I think it depends where you are in the country. My Dad has just passed away after being in a care home in the North East for 2 years. 
Cost was £1135/week and will be going up soon. He had just started LA pick up funding where he paid all his pension less £35/week plus £30/week from his savings. I now from when he first went in the LA paid for this and they only paid £899/week.

There are some more expensive homes around, say £1300/week but that seems very expensive

Savvy_Sue

Has an assessment been carried out for Continuing Health Care? If her needs are sufficiently high, that should help. Did you agree with the assessment? 

But that's about what our relative is paying in London, not for dementia care. And I wish the staff were better paid! 

Pollycat

Savvy_Sue said:

Has an assessment been carried out for Continuing Health Care? If her needs are sufficiently high, that should help. Did you agree with the assessment? 

But that's about what our relative is paying in London, not for dementia care. And I wish the staff were better paid! 

Just to say that I read in older posts that CHC was incredibly hard to get so the OP doesn't get their hopes up.

El_Torro

ian16527 said:

I think it depends where you are in the country. My Dad has just passed away after being in a care home in the North East for 2 years. 
Cost was £1135/week and will be going up soon. He had just started LA pick up funding where he paid all his pension less £35/week plus £30/week from his savings. I now from when he first went in the LA paid for this and they only paid £899/week.

There are some more expensive homes around, say £1300/week but that seems very expensive

Thankfully neither of my parents are in a position to go into care at the moment, though I've been hearing for years that it could cost up to £2k a week per person. Doesn't sound overly expensive to me. It's worth bearing in mind that the North East of England is one of the most affordable places in the UK. Looking for pretty much any service in the North East is going to be a lot cheaper than somewhere expensive, e.g. London.

Keep_pedalling

jaybeetoo said:

My big gripe with self-funders is they are subsidising the people paid for by local authorities.  That is the scandal.  It is wrong that self-funders are being overcharged.

That is rather a simplistic take on why costs are lower for LAs. Some homes only take privivate residents but most don’t do that because there are not enough self funders to go round. Homes that don’t take LA funded residence go bust if they have empty rooms so they fill those with LA funded people even though in many cases they can’t cover their costs on the amount the LA are willing to pay but empty rooms have higher costs.