Residential care costs "can soak up over 50% of property values"

The cost of an average stay in a residential care home can swallow up more than half the value of an individual’s house in some parts of the country, according to new research.
The findings, which show that the typical person entering residential care will face a total bill of £50,000-£93,000 depending on where they live, will fuel the debate about social care funding.
The chancellor, Philip Hammond, announced in this month’s budget that an extra £2bn would be granted to social care in England over the next three years. He also said the government would produce a discussion paper later this year that looks into how to fund social care in the future.
The new research from the mutual insurer Royal London, whose director of policy is the former pensions minister Steve Webb, found that variations in house prices around the UK mean the cost of a typical residential care home stay could range from 18% to 56% of the value of the average house.

It described the situation as a lottery and said many people were at risk of losing “a large part of the value of their home” if they were hit with such costs.
It said that for most pensioners, their house was likely to be by far the biggest asset on which they would need to draw to meet care home bills. For many, that will mean selling the family home to pay the fees.
For people in north-east England, where the average house price at the end of 2016 was just under £129,000, an average stay of 30 months in a local home costing £554 a week would eat up 56% of the value of their home. The total bill would be £71,000.
For those living in London, where the average house price is around £484,000, 30 months of residential care at a typical cost of £666 a week would only account for around 18% of the value of their home. The total bill would be £86,000.
The equivalent percentages for south-east England, East Anglia and the Midlands were 29%, 32% and 40-41% respectively.
The research relates to residential rather than nursing care. For those who need nursing care, the total bill is likely to be smaller because average stays in nursing homes are significantly shorter than those for residential homes,which more than offsets the higher weekly costs of nursing care.
Webb, a former Liberal Democrat MP, said successive governments had “failed to grasp the nettle” when it came to care costs, and that urgent action was needed.

Residential care costs "can soak up over 50% of property values"

My son died in an NHS residential unit. Every day I wake to the discomfort | Sara Ryan

Connor Sparrowhawk drowned in the bath at Slade Home assessment unit in July 2013. Photograph: Sara Ryan

If LB (Connor’s nickname was Laughing Boy) hadn’t been understanding disabled, his death would have provoked instantaneous outrage and engagement. We’ve lost count of how many “atrocity stories” considering that LB died have been headline news. We’ve fought like fucking billy-o to get accountability. We managed to get an independent investigation into his death commissioned and, with a battle, published. A report that categorically states that LB need to not have died.

LB must not have drowned in a bath in a hospital. In a unit with four “professional” employees and 5 sufferers. He was diagnosed with epilepsy. He had documented escalating seizure activity as a consequence of the medication adjust imposed by the clinician accountable for him. It was recorded that he was sensitive to medication modify. We told them he was getting seizures when he was in there. Information they chose to dispute.

Why would you dispute seizure exercise in somebody diagnosed with epilepsy, delicate to medicine change, when their family flag up seizure exercise? In which in the fucking curriculum/on the work knowledge does stamping out any sniff of a acknowledged danger feature?

At the very least the appropriate bodies have to have collectively swooped in and sorted issues out. A young man drowning in the bath in a specialist unit? Blimey. At least they must have supported the loved ones in every single way feasible. The a variety of bodies should have chucked in almost everything possible to ease the intense ache this family members have skilled. Yeah.

If LB hadn’t died, the same past-shite provision would be in place. No a single (other than the constantly and successfully sidelined, excluded and silenced households) would be any the wiser. Our son died. Each and every single day I go to bed considering about this. Every single day I wake to the soreness of remembering it. A continuous ache that varies from sheer agony to a boring ache of extreme sadness (on a “very good” day).

In amid the good assistance for #justiceforLB on Twitter, a clinician got embroiled in a protracted debate close to mortality and studying disabled individuals. Doc Anon’s level seemed to be that studying disabled individuals die earlier anyway. If you anticipate particular “types” of men and women not to reside as long as other, a lot more valued, “mainstream” individuals, it gets simpler to sweep the former beneath the “let us not bother with” carpet.

And our dude (along with probably countless other folks) was swept into this room final July.

These are edited extracts from Sara Ryan’s mydaftlife weblog

My son died in an NHS residential unit. Every day I wake to the discomfort | Sara Ryan