The increase In the Elderly Being Forced To Sell Their Home To Pay For Care

The increase In the Elderly Being Forced To Sell Their Home To Pay For Care

Thetotal number of people in residential care homes in the United Kingdom is projected to rise from 345,000 in 2005 to 825,000 in 2041. Public expenditure on long-term care is forecast to rise by more than 300% in real terms during that period. Also,morethan 20,000 pensioners were forced to sell their houses in the last year in order to fund residential care. This figure is projected to increase year on year. According tostatistics obtained by the Conservative MP Philip Davies and shared withThe Daily Mail newspaper, at April 2010 47,000 pensioners had sold their home specifically to pay for care costs. Based on an averagecare home stay of 26 months, it has beenestimated that between April 2009 and March 2010, around 21,700 sold their home. This compares to 17,100 in 2001/2 and 18,500 in 2004/5. The reasons for this increase include: a) The aging population resulting in a rise in the people requiring care within a care home. b) Changes in how NHS continuing care funding is assessed by PCT's in order to label care needs as 'Social' so that care is means tested. During the general election campaign in April 2010 the Conservative party promisedto bring an end to the "national scandal" of people being forced to sell their homes in order to pay for care. The party's "Home Protection Scheme" policy entailed offering people the opportunity to pay a one-off premium of 8,000 to fund the cost of residential care. However, the calculations on which this sum was based were widely discredited and the coalition government has since convened a commission to develop proposals for sustainable funding, due to report in July 2011. Long-term care provider Partnership has consistently challenged the idea that selling a home to pay for care constitutes a "scandal", pointing to the fact that for many pensioners their home is their main asset. Chris Horlick, managing director of care for Partnership, told Health Insurance: "I take the view that the scandal is not so much that people are forced to sell their homes but that, having sold their home and got together all their assets, they should however run out of money," he said. Care costs can escalate into hundreds of thousands with the average length of stay concealing the fact that many pensioners can require care for several years. Partnership argues that while the average cost of an immediate needs annuity (which will fund residential care for as long as it is necessary for a one-off fee) is 80,000 the average amount of home equity is 240,000. Help with residential care costs is currently means-tested. Individuals with assets of over 23,250, including the value of their property, have to fund their own care. It is estimated that 155,000 people, or 41% of care home residents, are self-funders, up from 35% in 2006. Care home fees average 25,000 a year. This article forms the basis for further academic research on attitudes of the UK government towards paying for care. It is evident that, as the numbers of older people requiring care increase each year, there has not been a corresponding increase in the numbers of older people receiving free care that is paid for by the state. Instead, quite the opposite is happening, and it is evident that, as the numbers of older people requiring care increase; more and more are being labeled as 'self-funders' and are being forced to sell their home to pay for their care.

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