Penelope Gibbs’s article “Mum’s care home bills kept getting bigger – and nobody would tell us why” (News, last week) mirrors the concerns of legal professionals across the UK. Our members act for many older people who have lost mental capacity and the ability to make their own decisions. More than 90 per cent of them say their fees have increased markedly; one in northeast England says theirs have risen by 80 per cent over the past two years.
It is these vulnerable clients who are being hit hardest — because they have absolutely no other option. We make decisions in their best interests, and moving an extremely vulnerable person to another care home just wouldn’t be fair on them. This means the older people we represent are trapped and simply have to keep paying whatever fees are thrown at them. We argue for them, of course, but are rarely successful.
The care home system is evading the normal checks and balances of a competitive marketplace, taking advantage of the vulnerability of older people.
Care homes themselves are struggling, but this can’t be allowed to continue unchecked — especially when the reasons for the rises are vague and certainly don’t seem to be benefiting frontline staff.
Michael Culver, chairman, Solicitors for the Elderly, and managing director, Culver Law
Pandemic pricing
My poor mum also faced spiralling fees. She had dementia, and when it got too bad for me to look after her, aged 90 she went into a care home. The fees started at £5,000 a month in March 2020. By the time she died of Covid, caught in the care home, it was charging £8,000 a month.
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The home justified this by saying it was expensive to care for people in the pandemic. Maybe it was — but we were in no position to do anything about it during the lockdowns.
Ceridwen Jones, Church Stretton, Shropshire
At the sharp end
Please don’t generalise about fees. I own a care home, and our private fees are no higher than social service fees.
In Devon care is charged at a “hotel rate” plus the hours of care delivered. However, some local authorities are appalling and pay below what is feasible to look after a resident. The government has underfunded or not made clear that the rate should be sufficient to give the end user the care they need. And, regarding increases, bear in mind that the resident will deteriorate over time and may need far more care.
The constant bashing of care homes seems to be a national sport. Consider the amazing effort many have made to protect residents from Covid — the costs of which were huge. People have very short memories.
Jonathan Lobb, Somerforde residential home, Newton Abbot
Silver service
Like Gibbs’s mother, both my parents were residents at homes run by Barchester Healthcare. The cost was indeed eye-watering and used up almost all the value of their home and their savings. However, the care was wonderful — and they did need a lot of care by the end.
Clare Taylor, London NW9
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Long-stay discount
My relative is in a nursing home that reduces fees to the level paid by the state after four years of residency. As the average stay is shorter than this, it doesn’t lose much — but it is comforting to know when the money begins to run out.
Ian McKee, Edinburgh
Prudence doesn’t pay
As well as the unreasonably steep fee rises, Gibbs highlights another injustice that doesn’t receive much attention. Those who have saved carefully for their retirement and support costs in later life, as my mother has done, end up subsidising the care of those that are council-funded.
Local authorities have driven down the price they will pay for residents of care homes, because in turn they have suffered years of cuts in central government funding. As a consequence care home providers can continue to operate only by charging self-funders a higher rate. Perhaps it is for the best that my mother is too confused to be aware of being so exploited.
Andrew Christie, Crowthorne, Wokingham
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